30-77 Purpose Of Article

The mayor and council of the city hereby find and determine: This City has constructed and owns and operates a sewerage system and plant for the treatment, purification, and disposal in a sanitary manner of the liquid and solid wastes, sewage, and night soil of such community and it is necessary, in order to protect the health of the inhabitants of the city and to comply with the law of the state and the requirements of the department of health of the state that the sewerage system be operated and maintained; that in order to provide the revenues to operate and maintain the sewer system and disposal plant and to create a reserve fund for the purpose of future maintenance, it is necessary that the City establish just and equitable rates and charges to be paid to the City for the use of such disposal plant and sewerage system by each person whose premises are served thereby.

30-78 Consumer; Defined

The word "consumer" as used in this article shall include all users of the municipal sewerage system of the City, including all persons whose premises are served thereby and all owners and tenants of real estate and buildings connected with such sewerage system or served thereby and all users of such system who in any way use the same or discharge sanitary sewage, industrial waste, water or other liquid either directly or indirectly into the sewerage system of the City.

30-79 Consumer; Classification

Consumers shall be classified as residential or commercial. For the purposes of this article a residential consumer is one whose property is used exclusively for residential purposes and commercial consumers are all consumers other than residential consumers.

30-80 Rental Charge; Computation

For the use of the city sewer system, each consumer shall pay a rental charge which shall be computed and based on his contribution of sewage to such system; provided, that a minimum charge for sewer rental as set forth in §30-84 and §30-85 shall be made for each dwelling unit which is directly or indirectly connected to the City sanitary sewer system, unless for a complete billing period the City water supply to such unit has been disconnected by the City, or the private water supply disconnected to the satisfaction of the City. For the purposes of this Article, a dwelling unit shall mean one or more rooms and a single kitchen designed as a unit for occupancy by one family for living and sleeping purposes, and shall include a manufactured home. If more than one dwelling unit is served from a single water meter or single private water source as in the case of apartments and mobile home courts, a percentage of the minimum rate shall be charged against each unit, depending on the number of dwelling units per water meter or private water source as follows:

 

2 to 5 dwelling units	65%
6 to 10 dwelling units	60%
11 to 20 dwelling units	55%
21 and over dwelling units	50%

 

The above charges shall be computed upon the yearly average of the number of dwelling units occupied.

30-81 Rental; Residential And Commercial

The charges to be paid by residential consumers for use of the sewerage system and disposal plant shall be based upon water consumption. The monthly residential sewer charges for the twelve months following April 1st of each year will be based on the average water consumption for that property during the months of January, February and March. Commercial customers shall pay according to the meter reading which precedes billing.

(Amended by Ordinance No. 9524, effective 03/17/2015)

30-82 Rental Charge; Use Of Water Meters

The sewer rental charge shall be applied separately to each individual water meter which measures water contributing to or discharging into the city sewerage system and shall be determined by the water meter reading for water furnished by the water works system of the city or by privately-owned water supply which may contribute to or discharge into the sewerage system. In the case of unmetered water supply, the quantity of water used and discharged into the sewerage system of the City shall be determined to the satisfaction of the council and at the expense of the owner of the unmetered water supply. If the quantity of unmetered water discharged into the sewerage system is estimated by the council to be in excess of one thousand cubic feet per month for any one month, the council may require that such water supply be metered at the expense of the owner or consumer.

Should any meter get out of order or repair and fail to register properly, such consumer will be charged at the average monthly consumption as shown by the meter when in order for six months previous, or fraction thereof, if the same has not been used that long.

30-83 Volume Charges

The charges for sewer service shall be paid either quarterly or monthly in conformance with the billing for water, and each consumer shall be billed per 100 cubic feet in accordance with the City of Grand Island Fee Schedule.