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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Details should be disclosed soon in the proposed sale of the sewer lines, said City Administrator Rick Gazenski, with the hope a deal could be signed by the end of the year.</p><p>The urgency to have an agreement in place before Mayor Tony George&#8217;s term ends has to be balanced with fully informing city council that will vote on the sale with long-term ramifications, however.</p><p>&#8220;We need to give council a much clearer picture of what&#8217;s happening,&#8221; Gazenski said Thursday.</p><p>What&#8217;s known so far is that two bids have been submitted by Aqua America and Pennsylvania American Water. They&#8217;re being reviewed by Philadelphia-based Public Financial Management, the adviser hired with state grants to guide Wilkes-Barre out of its financial straits.</p><p>Two years ago PFM, that&#8217;s in the process of preparing a plan for council&#8217;s approval, raised the possibility of selling the sewer system and included the &#8220;complete analysis and due diligence on potential asset monetization&#8221; among the steps for the city to take.</p><p>The city charges residents and property owners an annual $50 fee to maintain the system that&#8217;s also used by neighboring municipalities free of charge. The revenue raised often falls short of the repair and maintenance costs, the mayor said.</p><p>This year the city budgeted $1.3 million in revenue from the maintenance fee, compared to approximately $1.1 million in sewage collection expenses. The majority of the expense &#8212; $900,000 &#8212; is for repairs. Next year the repairs are budgeted at $950,000.</p><p>The mayor embraced the idea of the one-time asset sale and touched on it in his 2020 budget presentation last month.</p><p>&#8220;Every year the general fund is on the hook for repair costs that our sewer fees don&#8217;t always cover. It&#8217;s been a tedious process, but we are getting closer to reaching an agreement that would provide the city with a windfall of cash that can be used to address some of our larger issues such as the continuously increasing pension costs,&#8221; the mayor said.</p><p>The sale would prevent the city from asking the state to declare it financially distressed under Act 47, George said. The state last year turned him down when he applied for it and told him to exhaust all the options under the Early Intervention Program it&#8217;s been working on with PFM.</p><p>Specifics on the allocation of the sale proceeds are still to be determined and dependent upon a deal being reached, Gazenski added.</p><p>The effect on rates also has yet to be determined, but Gazenski said he hoped it would be minimal at first.</p><p>In addition to the city&#8217;s maintenance fee, the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority charges an annual rate of $220 to treat the sewage transported through the sewers to its plant in Hanover Township. On top of that there&#8217;s the fee paid by residents for the city&#8217;s voluntary participation in the regional stormwater management plan administered by the WVSA.</p><p>Gazenski said he would like to see the rates stay the same for a while and have that included as a condition of the sale. &#8220;I&#8217;m hoping for three years,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre City Administrator Rick Gazenski</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_WB-City-Administrator-Rick-Gazenski-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre City Administrator Rick Gazenski</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre’s sewer system sale details forthcoming