View - The Municipality of Lambton Shores

THE MUNICIPALITY OF LAMBTON SHORES
TR Report No. 44-2012 Wednesday, July 4, 2012
TO:
FROM:
RE:
Mayor Weber and Members of Council
Janet Ferguson, Treasurer
Pool Filling and Sewer Charges
RECOMMENDATION:
For Council review and direction.
REPORT
At the April 16 th , 2012 Council meeting Treasurers report TR-21-2012 was reviewed and
approved by Council. This report outlined the Utility Billing policy that we have for
Lambton Shores.
In this report the following paragraph was noted:
One area that we have changed and incorporated in this policy is the reduction
for filling swimming pools. After consultation with the Community Services
Department, we would recommend that this practice be discontinued. This
reduction was provided by some of the former municipalities as we entered into
amalgamation and was subsequently carried on. There hasn’t been a written
policy for this or similar items so staff would appreciate clarity on this issue. We
have seen this type of request increase in number as well as type – ex in 2010
we had 36 requests and in 2011 we had 47 and the requests have changed from
just pools to hot tubs and ice rinks. The average adjustment is $37.00 for pools.
There is a significant amount of administration required to amend our billing
system to accommodate this allowance and staff feel it would be appropriate to
discontinue the historical practice for pools and apply it to similar requests for hot
tubs and rinks.
Since this courtesy was discontinued it has raised concerns with some residents and
now Council has before them a formal request from Albert Shaw to have this issue
reconsidered.
When we were updating our information we did canvas some other municipalities to see
what their practices were. What we found was there was only 1 of 4 municipalities that
did a reduction; however, they required them to rent a temporary meter at $10.00 and
use it when filling the pool and return it when complete and the meter reading is used to
apply the adjustment. As noted in TR-21-2012 this was a courtesy done by a couple of
the 5 former municipalities prior to amalgamation. To explain the process further – our
billing process was: we charge the customers based on the water that flows through the
water meter for both water and sewer, the water and sewer rates are applied separately
for the charge as the per cubic meter is different for the two types of infrastructure or
departments.
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