Page 16-Saturday, May 5, 1979-The Michigan Daily
Sludge returns to plague eity, developers
By JOHN GOYER alternative to a 23 per cent utilities in- great excitement," Brunvand said. charge in increased taxes due to
Sludge is back again to haunt City crease would be to try to get the Currently developers are studying the flation if they kept a piece of prop(
Hall. building industry to pick up some of the city contract with the sludge hauling for two years without developing it.
Even though the city had the sludge tab. firm, and trying to decide at which of In addition, Brunvand said a buil
hauled to Ohio and dumped on far- Murray said he would sound out the three levels of planning they would prohibition in Washtenaw County w
mland, it's back in the form of a half a developers Wednesday on a proposal to be willing to pay a surcharge. cause unemployment, and "from
million dollars in fees that the city had place a surcharge on sewer connection point of view, unemployment is ur
to pay to have the sludge hauled away. permits, building permits or site plan AFTER MEETING with local ceptable."
AS THE PROPOSED 1979-80 city reviews, developers Wednesday Murray charac- Developers and city officials
budget stands now, homeowners, lan- THE DEVELOPERS "are willing to terized their reaction as "guarded, but have to come up wiffh some kin
dlords and anyone else who pays a face the obligation," according to positive." agreement in the next two we(
utilities bill will pay 23 per cent more Richard Brunvand, Executive "They did not come across as because City Council will cons)
for sewage service. According to Mayor Secretary of the Washtenaw County negative in the respect that they didn't making changes in the budget in
Louis Belcher, that increase translates Contractors Association, a group that say 'it's the city's problem'," Murray weeks, before they ratify a budget
into about an additional $15 a year on represents builders, developers and said. the coming year.
his own utilities bill. Belcher said he contractors. Murray predicted, "They're going to
pays about $60 in utilities bills annually. But the surcharges would be large if say 'let's do it (in the form of a sur- COUNCILMAN DAVID Fisher
Belcher added that the increase would the developers had to swallow the en- charge on sewage connection per- Fifth Ward) said he would like to
most likely be passed on to tenants tire cost of trucking the sludge. The mits),' but they're going to suggest a developers pay all the costs of slu
when rent raising time rolls around. permit to connect a single family home much lower figure." hauling. "If there were no developm
Thirteen per cent of the proposed 23 to the city's sewer system now costs ACCORDING TO Murray, the city between now and when the plan
per cent increase in utilities is due $225; if the developers had to pay the will need at least some of the money it finished, the people of Ann Arbor w
primarily to the cost of trucking sludge. entire half a million in sludge hauling now uses to pay for sludge hauling to not have to pay for hauling sludge,'
At Monday night's budget review fees, the permit price would go up to operate the sewage treatment plant said.
session, City Administrator Sylvester $1,350. when improvements are completed Fisher said that if there were no i
Murray told City Council that the only "It's not something we are doing with that will allow the city to treat all the development, the city would not hav
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Oops! APgoofed
WASHINGTON (AP)-The Asso- panies that were asked to develop plans
ciated Press reported erroneously to get dryers containing asbestos out of
Thursday that Clairol and Sperry Rand consumers' hands were: Montgomery
Corp. were among manufacturers and Ward & Co., J.C. Penney, Inc., Sears,
retailers urged by the Consumer Roebuck & Co., Korvettes Inc., Conair
Product Safety Commission staff to get Corp., General Electric Company, The
asbestos-containing hair dryers back Gillette Company, North American
from consumers. Phillips Corp., Norelco, Schick, Inc.,
Commission spokeswoman Heidi Sunbeam Corp., and Hamilton Beach
Bowers said yesterday the 11 com- Division of Scoville Manufacturing Co.
suuge a te Pain.
Developers however are not planning
to agree to permit surcharges to pay for
sewage service indefinitely. Brunvand
said he thought of the surcharge as a
"one time thing" that would simply add
to the cost of building.
Brunvand said he saw no way out for
developers because if the city did not
find some way to pay for the sludge
trucking, then there was the chance
that new development in the city would
be prohibited.
HE SAID developers would end up
paying at least the amount of the sur-
haul sludge but instead could store any
extra sludge until plant improvements
were finished. "We can't ask the people
of Ann Arbor to pick up half a million to
help out the developers," Fisher said.
"I think there's got to be some kind of
middle position," Louis Senunas (R-
Third Ward) said. Senunas said he
thought that since part of the reason the
city had to get rid of the sludge was the
tightening of federal pollution standar-
ds, therefore, "We all have to pay the
price for improved water quality."
However, Senunas said, "I'm sure
the increase will not be 23 per cent."
One of South America's foremost exponents
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Appearing at the
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May 7, 1979
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Nightingale 594:8031
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