Northampton petitioners target stormwater fee for repeal

By AMANDA DRANE

@amandadrane

Published: 04-20-2017 10:34 AM

NORTHAMPTON — Mansour Ghalibaf says city pipes couldn’t handle what the Fairfield Inn & Suites had to offer, so he spent $500,000 building an underground drainage system for the building. Still, he pays more than $2,000 a year to the city in stormwater fees for the property.

“Considering all of that and the increase in the (water and sewer) rates, I think the stormwater charge is a little bit over the top,” he said Wednesday.

Situations like Ghalibaf’s have some in the community worried that the city’s stormwater fee, instituted in 2014, is an undue burden that will push people out of Northampton. A grassroots effort to repeal the fee took off in recent weeks, and organizers submitted a 500-signature petition to the city clerk on Wednesday.

Their mantra: “Keep Northampton affordable.”

“For our parents, for us and for our kids,” said John Riley, who’s spearheading the effort. “There’s always some new little fee coming along.”

The group delivering the petition Wednesday — Riley, Tony Patillo and Crystal Willard — said they enjoyed enormous success going door to door. Riley said that even some who didn’t necessarily want to repeal the fee still signed the petition because they felt strongly the fee should get voter approval.

“Even our opponents are our friends,” he said. “This is a huge majority of people.”

Now that the petition is filed with City Clerk Wendy Mazza, it goes to City Solicitor Alan Seewald for review. Seewald has to verify that what’s being requested is actionable. Then, organizers will have to collect more signatures — up to 15 percent of the voting base, which is roughly 3,000 signatures. Mazza said the 500 already collected would count toward that total. All told, the signatures require verification before the measure can be placed before voters. If organizers jump through the required hoops, the question could appear on the November ballot.

Unfunded mandates

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Mayor David Narkewicz said he understands people don’t want to pay the cash because costs just keep going up — it’s a sentiment he shares in relation to state and federal government.

“Costs go up for government as well,” he said. “And now all these mandates are coming down from the federal government, but there’s not additional funding. If anything, federal funds are being cut.”

He said that after Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers cracked down on inspections of levees and dikes. That impacts inland cities like Northampton that are situated beside a major river, he said.

Additionally, federal mandates coming down through the Environmental Protection Agency are targeting pollution in major waterways. Narkewicz said that means more regulation, more inspection and more maintenance. What it doesn’t mean, he said, is more funding.

“We live by a river and we have a major stormwater control system and we are having to manage our stormwater discharges,” he said of new regulations and requirements. “We’ve created this revenue source (the stormwater fee), which is just under $2 million a year in additional revenue, that’s helping us pay for these projects — for this compliance work we need to do.”

Since the fee was approved in 2014, he said the roughly $2 million a year has gone toward work such as unclogging culverts, which keep the roads from flooding, and maintaining 124 miles of stormwater infrastructure. He said money has also gone toward work on the Barrett Street Marsh, Day Avenue road work and the stormwater drainage swale at Pulaski Park.

‘Paying for rainwater’

Still, residents question that the city needs all that it’s collecting. Patillo said he has sensed a lot of angst in the community in his work collecting signatures.

“They’re very concerned about our future,” he said. “They feel their voices aren’t being heard.”

Riley argued that the fee is really a disguised tax, as a fee is something you pay when you get something in return.

“It sets a bad precedent,” he said. “You should get a service if you pay a fee.”

Ernie Booth, owner of Ernie’s Garage on King Street, said the bills have just gone up and up over his decades in business. He pays nearly $300 a year in stormwater fees.

“Paying for rainwater that lands? That’s nature!” Booth said. “I just know it’s more than what it should be — whether it’s 10 cents or a dollar, it’s a tax. They should have planned some other way.”

In response to the criticism, Narkewicz said he’d consider restructuring the credit policy, meaning that property owners who address drainage issues may be eligible for certain credits.

“I am open to talking about, are there ways we can improve it?” he said. “We have a credit policy and we’ve made changes to it over time.”

Whatever happens, Riley said the new charter’s provision for citizens’ initiatives was a great addition. He said he’s been able to put democracy in action without spending much money.

“We’ve been able to do this on a shoestring, and that’s the way it should be.”

If the stormwater fee is repealed, Narkewicz said he doesn’t know how the city would make up for that lost $2 million, which he says is required to keep up with the times.

“I don’t know what other communities are doing. Places like Chicopee have been grappling with this for years,” he said. “(The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission) has been looking at regional grants. We all have to do it, so we should just do it together.”

Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.

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