Burton Village Public Affairs Board Talks Utilities, Billing Issues
All or part of a new water treatment facility may be in the works for Burton Village.
All or part of a new water treatment facility may be in the works for Burton Village.
The Burton Village Board of Public Affairs discussed the need for a new building to house the facility and outbuildings and to possibly replace the outdated equipment inside it during an Aug. 14 meeting.
“All the poles in the ground have rotted,” said long-time board member Curt Johnson. “The whole water thing needs to be redone.”
The pole building with wooden siding was erected in 1988, said village Utilities Supervisor Jake Neill.
BVBPA member Nick Rundo brought up the equipment inside the building, asking if replacing it should be considered.
Johnson asked if the project could be done in pieces.
Replacing the filters, the sand and gravel in the system should be done one cell at a time, Neill said.
The sand and gravel has to be removed in order to evaluate the condition of the shell, he said, adding replacing the material would cost about $30,000.
As for the structures, Neill said there is only so much that can be done to keep them functional.
“We do what maintenance we can,” Neill said. “The well houses are just little wooden sheds that need new roofs.”
He recommended the structures be assessed.
“There needs to be new equipment, inside and outside. We are behind the eight-ball,” Johnson said.
BVBPA member Bill Pinkava said the Rural Community Assistance Partnership is doing a utility rate study for the village.
In November 2023, board members discussed a RCAP study. In that meeting, Pinkava said RCAP suggested a 7% increase of water and sewer rates.
The village has a standing 3%-a-year increase, but in 2023, rates were raised 9% due to inflation’s effect on materials and maintenance costs, he said.
A new RCAP study is underway, Neill said in a followup interview last Tuesday.
In other business, water and sewer clerk secretary Lynn Biegacki reported billing software is not allowing residents to pay their bills online.
“I don’t know what the answer is, but this is bad,” she said, adding when trying to print a bill, a lot of information, such as the date, is missing.
“Residents want to pay online,” Biegacki said.
“If we’re driving our customers crazy, I think that’s stupid,” Johnson added. “We need to do something.”
Rundo said the software problems are not new.
“We tried a new system — it failed. And the change failed. What can we do? There’s been a need for a system update for several years,” he said.
Neill and Biegacki said trying to get help for the current program online has been very difficult and keeping records is time consuming.
“Today, I had more than 100 payments and I had to write each and every check and the amount,” she said.
Rundo called writing checks “old school.”
“This system is confusing and not user-friendly,” he said. “I think there’s a lot more people who want to pay online or auto-pay. This system doesn’t make it easy.”
Pinkava recommended checking with Middlefield Village or Garrettsville, which reportedly have billing programs that work well.
