Published: August 27, 2008 10:20 am         

Surveyor wants storm water fee axed

Elkhart County’s $15 storm water user fee was defended and will be retained despite opposition from Surveyor Blake Doriot.

Current uses for the fee include providing funds for correcting drainage issues, maintaining catch basins, educating the public on storm water issues and the purchase of equipment and materials related to storm water management.

Central to Doriot’s call for a reduction in the fee is his feeling that the difference in population densities among the cities, towns and municipalities within the partnership should be reflected when the fee is distributed.

“I do not want to have different standards, but I feel there are different levels of need throughout Elkhart, Goshen and Bristol,” Doriot said. “It’s just the nature of the beast.”

During the Storm Water Advisory Board’s last meeting, Doriot told board members he felt the current $15 fee was excessive and should be reduced, as the amount generated by the fee has already reached nearly $375,000.

Storm Water Advisory Board member Terry Rodino, who is also a county commissioner, disagreed.

“In my opinion, I don’t think $15 is an outlandish fee,” Rodino said, noting that he does not feel it is excessive to ask residents to pay what could be considered the equivalent of a pizza in order to protect the area’s waterways. “I don’t look at it as a pot of money. I see it as a program in its infancy.”

While members of the Elkhart County Storm Water Partnership agreed that an adjustment of the fee may be called for at a later date, the consensus Monday was that the partnership was too new to call for any adjustments at this time.

“I agree with Terry,” said fellow board member Frank Lucchese. “It’s too early to change anything.”

Eric Kurtz, who leads the agency, noted the county ordinance authorizing the storm water user fee is actually ending this year and will need to be renewed. He suggested this may be the best time for the partnership to consider whether a change in the storm water fee is warranted.

The fee is the result of a program created by the Elkhart County Soil and Water Conservation District in July 2006 to improve the quality of storm water discharged into county streams, lakes and watersheds. The effort meets the requirements of federal Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System regulations.

As a way to fund the operations of the new program, the storm water user fee was established and applied to each parcel of real estate within the unincorporated areas of the four partnership entities which either directly or indirectly contribute to the storm water system. These include the cities of Goshen and Elkhart, the town of Bristol and Elkhart County.