Marple Commissioners Confident in 0% Tax Increase for 2012

BROOMALL– Board of Commissioners ended their second budget meeting on Friday morning with confidence, stating their assurance in a 0 percent property tax increase for residents next year.

At their last budget meeting on Nov. 9, Marple Township's Finance Director Ed O'Lone presented the first draft of the , or $31 more in property taxes next year.

At Friday's meeting, the two major changes that Marple commissioners discussed in the 2012 preliminary budget were in the Refuse Fund and Sewers Fund.

The commissioners decided to increase the refuse fees for residents to help offset costs for increasing operational fees and a future trash truck after a request made by O'Lone at their previous budget meeting.

"I'm asking the board for a modest increase here in the refuse fund to the annual curb pickup fee of $5 per year and $10 per year for rear pickup," said O'Lone at the last budget meeting.

According to O'Lone, by increasing the refuse fees the township will be able to generate approximately $39,000 in additional revenue. O'Lone said there are approximately 200 homes in the township that request for rear pickup.

Marple commissioners are also looking into implementing more recycling in the township next year by "taking two-day a week trash to making it a one-day a week trash, guaranteed," said 7th Ward Commissioner Dan Leefson. "It woud always get picked up even if it was a holiday, and from twice a month recycle to once a week recycle."

According to the township's Director of Code Enforcement Joseph Romano, residential recycling is currently up 33 percent or about eight tons of recycling that the township has been picking up. The new recycling plan, if implemented, would also mean twice a month pickup for yard waste.

In the Sewers Fund, after the recommendation of O'Lone, the sewer rate will increase from $5.15 per thousand gallons to $5.35 per thousand gallons. The well rate was also proposed to increase from $270 a year to $280 a year, but after a discussion at Friday's budget meeting, commissioners have agreed to increase the well rate, which affects about 200 homeowners primarily in the seventh ward, from $270 to $300.

O'Lone said that the average well rate is $285 or about 55 gallons of residential usage.

"If the average in the township is $285, then I'll cut my own throat and say that I think we should raise it to the average–that's fair," said Leefson.

But 5th Ward Commissioner John Longacre said if the township is considering raising the well rate 5 percent, then the increase from $270 to $285 is still under the average's increase which would be from $285 to $300. Leefson complied to the well rate increase, in which the seventh ward would be hit the most.

According to Longacre, 85 percent of the township's sewers fees are at the mercy of Haverford and Radnor. As the sewers fees fluctuate, Longacre said the rates would also have to fluctuate in Marple. Township Manager Anthony Hamaday said the Central Delaware County Authority (CDCA) system will now measure through a metering system and not a projection flow system which it has been doing.

"Eighty-five percent of that fee is a pass-through fee," said Longacre. "We've always been metered and we've always maintained our system. Other communities have not been metered and not have maintained their system, and when they were doing proportional we were getting screwed. So now that they're going through a tighter system, our number should actually be helped."

In addition, the commissioners discussed taking out a five-year loan to help in the renovations project for the township's municipal building which currently houses the administrative offices of the township and . Included in the renovations will be replacing the HVAC system for the entire building.

Hamaday said the total cost of the renovations would be approximately $1 million to $1.2 million and a grant would be taken out for the project but only hard construction costs will be paid for by the grant, while architectural and engineering fees would not.

"If you're out in the real world, this building is a sick building," said Leefson referring to the municipal building. "Our bond rating is good. Why can't we take a five-year loan, stretch the payments out and take some of this out of here?"

John Lucas, 4th Ward Commissioner and vice president of the Board, also agreed and said, "I think you're going to have support with a scenario such as that because I think it allows us what we ultimately need to do."