Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
Sewer rate increases are forcing the owner of the only hotel/bar/restaurant in Newdale to close up shop.
Dale Smith, owner of the Leisure Inn, will effectively close his doors Nov. 10 due to a hike in his sewer bill.
“We’re closing because we can’t afford it,” Smith said, adding that with the new recommendations from the Public Utilities Board his sewer rate will go from less than $300 to nearly $4,000 per year.
At a meeting hosted by PUB on Wednesday, Smith and fellow community members got an opportunity to voice their concerns about the dramatic increase.
“It went in one ear and out the other,” Smith said. “At the end of the meeting, I apologized to the people. I said ‘I’m sorry, but I cannot afford these rates and I have to close.’ In turn, what they are going to lose from the hotel for the rates is going to go onto the homeowners. The Public Utilities Board sets the price and no matter how you shift the price around the town, that is what the price is going to be.”
Smith said currently he and his wife work 18-hour days in order to turn a modest profit at the hotel, which features four rooms, one suite, a bar and a restaurant.
“We’ve tried to keep the community going with some events and after them adding $4,000, it’s just not worth it anymore,” Smith said. “You won’t pay that much anywhere in Manitoba in a small community and it’s all because of past councillors’ mistakes.
“We are being forced to pay for their past mistakes.”
Those mistakes span back to 1986, the last time the RM of Harrison applied for a rate increase. In the time since then, council opted to begin using a reserve fund to cover shortcomings in operating costs of the sewer system.
Bruce Dalgarno, who has been a councillor with the RM of Harrison for two years, said the rate increase is a recommendation from PUB in order to cover the operating costs of the system. He understands why people are upset over such a large increase, but he doesn’t know how it can be avoided.
“I don’t know why previous councils wouldn’t have gradually raised the rate instead of taking money out of the reserve,” Dalgarno said, adding there was a $35,000 deficit last year alone. “People that are using the utility are the people that have to cover the costs of it.”
The new rate scheme, which has yet to be implemented as the RM waits for the final recommendations from PUB, will cover the costs of operating the sewer system, add $5,000 into a contingency fund and $2,000 into a reserve fund.
Dalgarno said council is willing to work with Smith to try to ensure the Leisure Inn is viable in Newdale.
“He should come to council and ask for a revision of his residential units,” Dalgarno said about Smith. “He’s not doing that. He made a bit of grandstand exit at the meeting saying he’s closing his business and stormed out.”
» ctweed@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition September 22, 2012
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Sewer rate increases are forcing the owner of the only hotel/bar/restaurant in Newdale to close up shop.
Dale Smith, owner of the Leisure Inn, will effectively close his doors Nov. 10 due to a hike in his sewer bill.
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Sewer rate increases are forcing the owner of the only hotel/bar/restaurant in Newdale to close up shop.
Dale Smith, owner of the Leisure Inn, will effectively close his doors Nov. 10 due to a hike in his sewer bill.
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