BELMONT –Village council recently voted to raise water rates for village water customers to offset impending increases from Belmont County Water and to enable the village to pay on a loan that was taken as part of a road paving grant.

Fiscal Officer Ricky Burkhead presented council with a water rate study, explaining that it included all water related expenses and revenues from the past four years.

Burkhead said the Belmont County Water Department would impose 2.5% yearly increases to the amount charged for water supplied to municipalities going forward and that had to be accounted for.

He also said that the village had to come up with funds to make payments on the 15-year, $160,000, no-interest loan that was taken as part of an Ohio Public Works Commission road paving grant that was used to pave a number of badly deteriorated streets in the village earlier this year.

He said that increasing the “debt service” charge on village water customers’ bills from $22 to $24 would cover the loan payments and that he had calculated “break even” increases of $0.56 per 1,000 for water and $0.09 per 1,000 gallons for sewer, later saying those figures were based on village wells producing 40% of water used.

Burkhead proposed that they increase water by $0.75 per 1,000 gallons and sewer by $0.25 per 1000 gallons and summarized saying that the new rates, along with the $2 debt service increase would result in a total monthly rate increase of $3 for a customer using 1,000 gallons of water and $7 for a customer using 5,000 gallons.

He pointed out that water customers in the village are charged in 10-gallon increments and that he had spoken in terms of “1,000 gallons” to make the numbers more digestible and added that water customers living outside the village corporation limits would not be charged the $2 debt service increase.

Burkhead concluded by saying that the higher rates were necessary to keep the village operating and that it was “not a money making scheme.”

Village Solicitor T.J. Schultz said that while he hated suspending the rules requiring that ordinance be read three times before passing, in this case that would be needed in order to get the new rates in place for the January billing cycle and Council President Mike Murphy made the motion to do so, with the rest of council voting unanimously to impose the rate increases.

Police Chief Andrew Miller proposed holding a raffle for a prize package that would include a Yeti cooler along with other items as a means to raise funds for the Belmont Police Department and council approved a maximum $700 budget with 300, $10 tickets to be sold and the drawing to be held on Dec. 23.

Miller and council also discussed other fundraising ideas including possibly holding a spaghetti dinner in cooperation with neighboring Bethesda’s police department.

Village officials also discussed seeking to replace the current police levy as a way to get more funding for the police department and a Finance Committee meeting was eventually scheduled for Monday, December 13 at 6 p.m. to discuss that and other solutions.

Fire Lieutenant Kaye Hall said that they had again submitted an application for a grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the purchase of the new fire engine that had been ordered after a special meeting in October.

Council approved the purchase of the new engine during that meeting, and approved issuing bonds to make the purchase pending the possibility that a grant could still be awarded to help with the purchase.

Burkhead on Thursday said that while he had everything in order to issue the bonds through Wesbanco in order to complete the purchase, he had delayed the closing until early January while they waited for results of the grant process.

Hall also informed council that the furnace at the firehouse was not working and that they were currently using space heaters to stay warm. She went on to say that they were waiting on estimates on a couple of different options to remedy the problem.

Belmont Village Council meets at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month in the Belmont Gymnasium on Brown Street.