Running out of time and into some money, residents receive updates to sewer connection procedures and bills.

Residents in the North Barfield and West Winterberry districts have until May 14 to contact the city if they wish to use the city’s contractor for connecting to the sewer system.

These residents received a letter from the city with a form to return within 30 days or by May 14 or they will no longer be able to hire the city’s contractor at a bulk rate.

Residents in all districts who use the city’s contractor will no long be charged a $38 permit fee for connecting to the system. Those who already paid the $38, including residents of the Tigertail and South Barfield district, which were the first districts to be completed, will receive a refund.

City finance director Bill Harrison said residents were charged the fees on their water bills and these residents will see the return on their water bills in the next couple months.

“As soon as we can fit it into our work loads ... ,” he said.

The decision to return the money was made during Monday night’s City Council meeting.

Ken Honecker brought the issue to the city’s attention saying that he believed the council decided to waive the permit fee for residents using the city contractor. City staff reviewed tapes of previous meetings and said they could not find a legal vote on the issue.

The contract signed by Tigertail and South Barfield district residents who were using the city’s contractor clearly stated the city would be responsible for the permitting, said councilor and attorney Frank Recker.

Recker also said he believed the contractor could ultimately be responsible for the permitting.

“It clearly seems to me the contractor is responsible ... It’s right there in black and white,” Recker said.

Harrison disagreed, saying in an interview after the meeting that the city “never mentioned to the contractors that they would have to eat a $38 fee.”

With this decision, the city will need to refund about $12,000 in permit fees.

“The city screwed up,” acknowledged councilor Jerry Gibson.

At the completion of the septic system, the City will have lost a total of $174,000 that could have been generated by the permit fees.

Harrison said the building services fund has about $2 million in reserve that will be used to return the money and absorb the continued cost of inspecting and permitting sewer connections.

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