City, subdivisions back proposed deal on sewage lift stations

CEDAR RAPIDS - The seven privately owned and operated sanitary sewer lift stations in Cedar Rapids will be taken over by the city as part of a proposed cost-sharing agreement with the neighborhoods involved.

The City Council's Infrastructure Committee this week approved the takeover plan, which has been under study since early last year, and the committee sent a recommendation on the matter to the full council for a decision.

Garrett Prestegard, a project engineer for the city, outlined the proposed agreement to the committee and said he thought most if not all of the seven subdivisions with private lift stations would agree to the plan.

Representatives of four of the seven neighborhoods told the committee that the agreement was fair because it included a cost-sharing arrangement and did not put the entire cost on the homeowners to improve the lift stations to city standards before the takeover.

The city owns six lift stations, and the neighborhoods argued that the city pays the cost of those stations and factors it into fees paid by residents throughout the city, Prestegard said.

In the proposed agreement, homeowners using the private lift stations - which are needed to move sewage from low spots to the city's gravity-flow sewer system - will pay a 40 percent increase in their monthly city sewer utility bill for 10 years to help pay to upgrade the equipment.

Prestegard estimated that the increase would add $8 to $10 a month to the typical homeowner's sewer bill in developments with private lift stations.

Council member Scott Olson, chairman of the Infrastructure Committee, said the fee increase was smaller than he thought it might be.

'If I was a homeowner in one of those subdivisions, I would be thrilled,” Olson said.

The proposed new policy, which is voluntary for the developments with private lift stations, also calls for the city to own any future lift stations.

The seven private lift stations were built between 1988 and 2007 and will serve 462 homes and 1,524 people when each of the developments is completed.

The largest three private lift stations - which will serve 396 homes and 1,307 people - are in southwest Cedar Rapids east of Interstate 380 in the College Farms, Hoover Trail and Prairie housing developments. They were built between 2004 and 2007.