Stinky situation; Howe's sewer history with Sherman

City sewer quickly became a topic at the City of Howe's budget workshop last Tuesday night Mayor Jeff Stanley told the council that heavy rainwater (that infiltrates the sewer lines) has created unusually large invoices from the City of Sherman for the sewer treatment "Our normal bill from Sherman is a little over $22,000 and recently they have been $60,000 " said Mayor Stanley "This month should be closer to normal but we haven't had many of those in the last couple of years (due to the amount of rain) Although the city is planning to adjust their waste water contract services budget expense from $310,400 to $450,000, they are not passing the bill on to the citizens The adjustment would result in roughly $10-$15 per house.

"We're not asking for an increase from the citizens " City Administrator Joe Shephard told the council "We're just using funds from other places to cover that We're not increasing the rates "

The city uses a FLO-DAR® system to measure the amount of waste water that leaves Howe and goes to Sherman for treatment. Councilman Sam Haigis suggested to use an algorithm to measure the rainfall and make adjustments with the City of Sherman to not pay for the excess amount of water that enters the sewer system Mayor Stanley explained to Haigis that Howe's algorithms are always going to be different than Sherman's algorithms due to variance calculations

"The FLO-DAR® has about a plus or minus of 15 percent " said Shephard "Obviously, they're going to plus it 15 and we're going to minus it 15 As inaccurate as it is, it is the most accurate way of measuring what flows." said Shephard "Speaking with other city managers and people that deal with this sort of thing, it's not unusual for all cities or any city to have 60 percent of their rainfall to end up in their sewer system We're not unique in this We're doing everything we can to minimize the infiltration, but we'll never be able to stop it You just can't do it I was concerned that we were way above the scale on this sort of thing, but we're not The more it rains, the higher our sewer bills are going to be "

Shephard says that Howe pays about $3 20 per unit which is what a commercial business in Sherman would pay

Councilwoman Debbie Lowery asked if there were any way to hire a third party to leverage the contract with Sherman to help manage the issue Shephard told the council that he has sat down many times with Sherman officials and the contract always gets in the way of common sense

"The last time we hired a mediator, it cost us $70,000 and we're in the contract that we're in now" said Mayor Stanley

According to a 1968 Howe Enterprise edition, the City of Howe was initially approached by the City of Sherman during the time Sherman was trying to obtain a grant to enhance the sewer treatment plant on FM 1417 In order for Sherman to qualify for the grant, they needed Howe's population to qualify In the original 1968 agreement, Sherman provided Howe citizens waste water treatment at a maximum of $0 14 per 1000 gallons In March of 1986, Howe was paying a flat rate of $487 50 per month, or $0 60 cents per customer. According to the original 1968 contract, Howe was limited to 250,000 gallons per day Due to rain infiltration, Sherman maintained that the levels of infiltration were as high as 600,000 gallons and in March of 1986 filed suit against Howe for breach of contract

Sherman cited expansion in both cities from 1968 to 1986 along with the Clean Water Act of 1972 for the need to improve their sewer system At the time of the lawsuit, Sherman was in the middle of an $18 5 million expense updating their facility

Former Howe City Administrator Dick Britton told the Howe Enterprise in March of 1986, "Sherman's suit is based on distorted fact and is no more than a devious attempt to weasel out of our longstanding agreement "

Britton noted then that Howe offered Sherman to increase its monthly fee by $500 per year for four years, making their annual payments jump from $6,000 to $25,000 per year Sherman, he said, refused to consider the offer, instead wanting $60,000 to $70,000 annually from Howe

Howe hired John Hill, a Sherman attorney, to represent the City of Howe in the case and soon afterwards, Jerry Kirby resigned his seat as Mayor of Howe leaving Mayor-Pro Tem Marion Allison in the seat until an election Ray Bledsoe was eventually elected mayor in April of 1987 City Administrator Dick Britton soon left

Howe had filed a counter-suit on October 10, 1986 stating, among other things, that the contract was part of a series of agreements which give Howe part ownership of the sewer treatment plant Howe also sought damages if the contract was declared void

"I sat in that court room for five days when Sherman sued us " said Bledsoe "The judge got up and said, 'I'm going to dismiss the jury He said that contract is not worth the paper it's printed on' (referring to the 1968 contract)

The judge instructed Howe to pay Sherman for sewer and for continued on page 13

City

continued from page 3 complain will be the same ones asking for a raise at their jobs too.

"No matter what issues their company has, they're going to want a raise." said Shephard. "It's the same with the city You could go to any business and find a problem and then tell them that they don't deserve a raise because of that problem "

Bill French stated that 2 percent is the max that the city could afford. "It's not what I wished we could do, I can't think of a staff anywhere that would have rode this dry road for four year getting zero The cost of living went up, gas went up, bread went up, blankets went up and they got no raise "

"For several years they didn't get anything " said Mayor Stanley "It's important to give raises "

Haigis stated that he felt good about Shephard's ability to keep morale up with city employees during the period of several years without raises

"I'm not saying they don't deserve it " said Lowery "I'm saying - I know what phone calls I'm going to get "

The city has also planned for the purchase of a new dump truck to replace the one that has been in the city fleet for nearly 30 years

The City Council will conduct a Public Hearing to receive public input on the proposed 2016 Ad Valorem Tax rate of $0 469141 per $100 valuation for the purpose of maintenance and operations, and a rate of $0 159327 on each $100 valuation of property for the purpose of principal and interest on bonds and certificates of obligation The Council will vote on the tax rate, at a special Council Meeting, on August 23, 2016 at 6:00 p m at 700 W Haning Street, Howe, Texas

Howe ISD Substitute Training

Howe ISD is currently accepting applications for substitute positions for the 2016-17 school year To be eligible for substitute placement, applicants must:

�Be at least 18 years old

�Have a high school diploma or equivalent

All applicants who meet the above criteria are required to attend a mandatory training on Wednesday, August 10th at 9:00 am in the Howe Elementary

School before being placed on the district’s substitute list All applicants must provide the following:

�Two forms of identification (i e Driver’s license, social security card)

�Completed substitute packet (packets given at training)

You may contact Pauli Stephens at 903-532- 3204 for additional information Application forms will be provided at training

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Sherman to not discontinue service and for each city to come to an agreement Bledsoe stated that he worked with Sherman's David Gattis and Howe would pay Sherman $3,000 per month on a temporary basis

"I thought it was good " said Bledsoe "I came and got the council's approval and everybody was happy All of the time I was working with David Gattis of Sherman, we were fine "

Part of the agreement was that it was to be reviewed annually and eventually the flat rate became a metered rate which made the contract smell much worse for Howe Bledsoe claims he climbed on top of the Howe ISD buildings and found that their gutter systems all ran directly into the sewer system

Back to 2016, Mayor Stanley last week told the council that a calculation error was found by Sherman and they recently credited a portion of a particular bill

The best news for Howe citizens is that the city is currently in the stages of working with developers to create a city-owned waste water treatment plant Howe's future home development and commercial development growth depends a lot on how much capacity the current infrastructure can handle before the necessary plant is in place

The Howe Enterprise has covered this story many times for many years and the story is the same each time One day soon, it appears, good news will come from the smelly subject