IN Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall Spring 2016 | Page 58

3344 Churchview Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15227
412.882.9600
www.baldwinborough.org

OFFICIALS OF
THE BOROUGH
OF BALDWIN
Municipal Building
3344 Churchview Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15227
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
www.baldwinborough.org

2016

aldwin

BAL DWI N BO ROU G H N E WS

Mayor
David Depretis
Members of Council
Michael Stelmasczyk, President
John Conley, Vice President
James Behers
Michael Ducker
Kevin Fischer
Edward Moeller
Frank Scott
Solicitor
Stanley B. Lederman
Borough Manager
John M. Barrett

Sanitary Sewers – New Billing Provider
and an Explanation of 2016 Rate Increases
Beginning on February 1, 2016, Legal Tax Service is the sewage billing collector for
Baldwin Borough. Payments may be done either by mail, a drop box located at the
Baldwin Borough Municipal Building for your convenience, or by paying online at
www.legaltaxservice.com. If you have questions regarding your bill, please contact
Legal Tax Service at [phone].
Additionally, residents have likely noticed the rate increase imposed by the Borough
of Baldwin on 2016 sanitary sewer bills. The Borough offices have fielded many
telephone calls from residents asking for an explanation for the increase, and wanted
to share some information with Borough residents. The local papers have documented
the multi-year increases imposed by the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority in recent
years. In 2013, ALCOSAN announced their plan of increasing sewage rates by 50%
over a four-year period. Like many Allegheny County municipalities, the Borough of
Baldwin pays ALCOSAN directly for the treatment of wastewater from our collection
system and then issues bills to residents for their proportionate share, based on water
consumption. The Borough was able to thwart a rate increase for the past 3 years, but
cannot absorb the most recent ALCOSAN increase without adjusting our local sewage
rate.
In addition, the Borough is currently operating under a Consent Order and
Agreement (COA) with the Department of Environmental Protection and the Allegheny
County Health Department which requires a number of capital repairs to our
collection of sanitary sewer lines. As the Borough conveys flow to both the Pleasant
Hills Authority as well as ALCOSAN, each sewershed has a separate COA that must be
adhered to. In 2016, the Borough will be constructing a 1.2 million gallon Equalization
Basin to hold back the infiltration of storm water that penetrates our sanitary lines
during wet weather events. The construction of the Equalization Basin required the
issuance of a tax-exempt bond to cover the costs of design and construction. The 2016
rate increase will also be used to pay the debt service on this capital project, and other
improvements to our system.
Borough leaders were faced with a difficult decision this year, and opted to increase
rates to cover the increased costs from ALCOSAN, the Pleasant Hills Authority as well
as the capital needs of the Borough. The Borough believes that this increase will be
sufficient to cover the next several rounds of ALCOSAN increases, as well as our future
years capital needs and does not plan to adjust rates in the near future to account for
these increases.

Legal Tax Service, Inc. | 714 Lebanon Rd. | West Mifflin, PA 15122 | [phone]

COUNCIL MEETINGS:

Council Agenda Setting Meetings take place the 2nd Tuesday of each
month starting at 7:00 pm in Council Chambers at the Municipal Building.
Council Regular Meetings take place the 3rd Tuesday of each month
starting at 7:30 pm in the Municipal Auditorium.
*All meetings are open to the public.
56 Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall