BRSA Approves $13 M Preliminary Budget for 2012

The Bayshore Regional Sewerage Authority (BRSA) approved a $13.1 million 2012 preliminary budget on Monday at its meeting at in Union Beach.

Commissioners David Cohen of Holmdel, John Colligas of Holmdel, James DiNardo of Hazlet, and Frank Wells of Union Beach approved the budget, 4-0. Commissioner Kathleen Parsells of Union Beach and Chairman Lou Pisano of Hazlet were not present for the vote. The budget will be sent to the state Department of Community Affairs Local Finance Board. If approved, it will be sent back to the BRSA for a formal adoption at a public hearing in December.

The budget includes the Debt Service Agreement, which allows for the bondholders to be paid back.  The amount of debt will go from $7 million to $4 million by the end of 2012. It will be paid off by the end of 2013.  

According to BRSA Executive Director Robert Fischer, the reason for the debt is that the plant underwent an expansion in 1996. “So we have ample capacity (for the incoming waste) for the next 20-something years.”  Fischer said the Debt Service Agreement is no different than paying back a loan or paying off a mortgage.

Another part of the budget is the Operations budget. The budget calls for a 1% overall decrease in the Operations budget. “It’s not a big drop in operations,” said Fischer. “It’s going down, that’s the main part."

Fischer says there are a number of areas that made the Operations budget decrease versus last year. One item is chemicals. “We’re using less in terms of chemicals these days because the water is cleaner.”  According to BRSA engineer, Peter Canal, the filtering of the incoming wastewater by the plant has become more efficient by the year. “We’ve always been above the standards of the state (in terms how clean the treated waste is). We kept improving on that, well beyond the standards.”

Another reason the Operations budget will go down is the rate of electricity. Fischer says that parts of the plant use secondary voltage. The primary electrical voltage goes to the filtering equipment used for the flow, according to Canal.

According to Fischer, the BRSA found a good deal on electricity for other parts of the plant. Fischer says they signed a new one-year contract for secondary voltage in the upcoming year.

One of the reasons the electricity rate has gone down is efficiency, specifically during the first part of the treatment process. One of the parts of the process is getting solids out of the waste. 

If that filtering process is efficient, then the costs can go down, he said.  “The way we treat our wastewater, we’re able to do it more efficiently. And as a result of that efficiency, we’re able to reduce the chemical and electrical needs and that essentially drops the rate a little bit.”

According to BRSA administrative assistant Kimberly Newins, there are other places where the BRSA are cutting costs. “We’re turning the lights off. We have timers on the lights. We’re going LED.” Says Newins, “We’re trying to look at every single aspect of the plant to cut costs.”

Another part of the cost-cutting is to only raise employee salaries 1.5%. Newins said that the state’s average cost of living increase for public employees is 3%. “The governor put a 2% cap on (cost-of-living increases). We stayed below what the state was doing,” said Newins.

This development comes along as the BRSA plan for the first new . The new Service Agreement, which changes the rate formula to a rolling five-year average from a budgeted number of gallons of waste, could save the serviced towns up to around 20%.