MOUNT VERNON — Residents will see an increase in wastewater fees for each of the next three years.
City council adopted an ordinance on Monday establishing annual 11% increases for the years 2026-28.
Water fees will increase by 7% each of the next three years. The safety-service director sets the water fees.
Mount Vernon’s minimum billing includes 400 cubic feet, or 2,992 gallons, a month. Residents are billed for usage above the 2,992 gallons.
After factoring in the 2026 increases, Mount Vernon residents will pay a minimum rate of $65.82 for water, wastewater, and stormwater.
In light of the discussion about the increases, Safety-Service Director Tanner Salyers asked eight area municipalities to provide their 2026 rates.
Of the eight, two had base rates higher than Mount Vernon (Mount Gilead and Coshocton). While the other six had rates below Mount Vernon’s, all but one had a lower minimum monthly usage capacity.
Delaware’s monthly minimum gallons is 1,496, half of Mount Vernon’s. Residents are charged for the other 1,496.
Ashland, which has a population similar to Mount Vernon, has a base rate of $42.75. However, it bills for a minimum of 1,033 gallons compared to Mount Vernon’s 2,999.
According to Salyers, Ashland has not set its 2026 wastewater rate and has not adjusted the rate since 2013.
“Keep in mind that minimum. If you’re using nearly 3,000 gallons in Mount Vernon and you move to this other city, you’re not getting a $42.75 per month bill,” Salyers said.
The safety-service director said Mansfield is an example of “utilities at scale.”
Mansfield’s population of 47,593 is more than 2.5 times that of Mount Vernon. The residents’ base rate is $42 monthly.
“They told us that they do an escalating 3% every year, and it’s not keeping up,” Salyers said.
(Below is a PDF showing the rate comparisons.)
‘Charge me for what I’m using’
Resident Mike Hillier questioned the water and wastewater bills for his residence and next-door rental property on Sugar Street.
The rental is a duplex with one tenant upstairs, no washer, and two or fewer tenants downstairs. Both apartments are on one meter.
Hillier said that when he reported the rental was a duplex, the city started charging him double for water and wastewater.
“My bill has never been over the minimum usage,” he told council members. “As a matter of fact, if you looked at the bills that I sent you … the rental uses less water than I did. And I paid $115 for the rental and $60 for my house.”
Hillier believes he has paid $600 to $700 more than he should have in 2025.
He said with the proposed water and wastewater increases, “You can’t raise your rent that high, especially when you have leases right now.”
City regulations state that each housing unit is billed the base rate for water and wastewater.
Hillier contends the city should bill him for one meter rather than two housing units. He said the regulations are regulations, not an ordinance or Ohio Revised Code, and thus the city can change them.
“I’m asking simply just charge me for the amount of water that goes through that meter,” he said.
Salyers said a duplex has two users. Charging a capacity rate (minimum rate) and a usage fee for each unit is standard practice in the vast majority of municipalities across America.
Charging usage vs. minimum
Lancaster’s monthly minimum is 748 gallons. It has a base rate of $56.75 per month and bills based on usage.
“We have set a pretty high minimum compared to our neighbors,” Salyers said. “We’re assuming that everyone’s using 3,000 gallons of water. And the fact is, not everybody hits that.”
Salyers said that using Hillier’s water usage numbers for the duplex would lower the minimum gallon threshold, and thus the minimum charge, citywide.
“However, then we would start billing based on a usage charge,” he said.
“The issue we would have then is we would have to truly study what kind of an impact that would have financially on the integrity of the water and wastewater plants. We would have to really study what our annual revenues would be.”
Salyers said the city has examined how it will handle the debt service on plant improvements and cover growth.
“Consumer growth happens, just as general growth in our city happens. We want to put ourselves on a sustainable path to be able to handle that, but also never be too much of a financial burden on the ratepayer in the community,” he said.
Salyers said the city must consider the in-city ratepayer, township residents, and the residents in the villages that buy water from the city.
