Council Delays Sewer Vote

DAYTON - The Dayton City Council Monday decided to table a proposed ordinance amendment that would have made homeowners responsible for repairs to sewer lines that connect their houses to the main.

After holding a public hearing on the ordinance and receiving comments from two concerned Dayton residents, the council voted to explore a new idea that would add a small fee to residents' utility bill to create a reserve for such repairs in the future.

"It's a possibility I hadn't considered," Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Merle Jackson said about the proposal offered by Art Hall, a new Dayton resident who recently relocated here from the Everett area.

Hall said he was concerned about shifting the burden of "side sewer" re- pairs to homeowners who live on fixed incomes and would not be able to afford the expense of having the city or a contractor dig up and fix a line.

"I have neighbors whose income has gone down," Hall said. "A repair of $3,000 to $5,000 would be devastating to them."

Dayton Public Works Director Jim Costello reiterated his reasons for supporting the ordinance amendment, saying he has had at least half a dozen cases in the past year of a "side sewer" getting plugged up because of tree roots or homeowners' "abuse" of the lines.

The cases were split evenly between those two causes, but in either event the city spent time, resources and funds to dig up the right of way, sidewalk and asphalt and repair lines that Costello said should be maintained by homeowners.

Currently, municipal code leaves the portion of the line from the homeowner's property to the main line in the city's domain. The proposed ordinance amendment would have redefined "side sewer" as "a sanitary sewer pipe located on private property and/or public right of way and connecting the building sewer to the collection system (sewer main) and shall be maintained by the connecting building sewer owner."

Hall said he studied how other communities have handled this problem, saying some use city resources to address it, some have put the ball in the home owners' courts and some have created a reserve drawn from a small portion of homeowners' utility bills.

A number of council members were uncomfortable with the idea of shifting the burden to homeowners.

"What if the line is old and it's nobody's fault," Councilwoman Christine Broughton asked. " That doesn't seem fair to the homeowner."

Councilman Terry Herrin said he had "a real problem placing a higher burden on property owners."

Council members also discussed the need to provide information to residents about the location of their side sewers before homeowners make decisions, such as planting trees or shrubs in the right of way (a portion of a home owner's property to which the city or the public has access).

The majority of the council members recognized something needs to be done to relieve the city of its current burden of repairing individual "side sewers." They gave Costello and City Clerk Trina Cole one month to explore the possibility of setting up a communitywide sewer repair reserve.

"I would like to investigate it to see if that is a feasible alternative," Jackson said.