Seguin City Council encouraging residents to make the switch from septic to sanitary sewer system

(Seguin) — If you live in the Sunrise Acres or Deerwood Circle subdivisions, the city of Seguin wants to make sure you’re taking advantage of the sanitary sewer services that are available in that area.

The Seguin City Council on Tuesday took action that effectively incentivizes switching from septic systems over to the city’s sewer system. The city extended sewer services to that area after it was annexed into the city.

City Engineer Dave Rabago says homeowners in that area were initially given a window of opportunity to pay a lower rate to connect to the system, but not all homeowners did so at the time. That initial window has closed, and homeowners would now have to pay significantly more for tap and impact fees, that are now based on current rates. Rabago says extending access to those lower rates will help to get more customers onto the sewer system.

“The way the term would work is that if after council were to approve this sanitary sewer connections fees then the residents would have one year to be able to tie in to these improvements at the lower rates essentially. Just for comparison, you are talking about $3,942 as compared to $1,683. One other statistic that I wanted to throw out there — right now in Deerwood Circle, you have 34 homes there on septic systems and in Sunrise Acres, 18 homes on septic systems,” said Rabago.

Councilman Mark Herbold sponsored by the item, and explained that some homeowners may have initially been hesitant to make the switch, but that’s not the case for many of them now.

“What happened initially and I live out there is that everyone’s septic tank was working well so we didn’t have many people take advantage of it and over time, they have had situations but it’s been so high, that they’ve just paid the repairs over and over again so this would give everybody on board and give them a year and if we could somehow make everyone aware of that out there that they have a year now to get on, I think we’d see a lot of success in filling those numbers. So, that’s why we are trying to do this,” said Herbold.

Assistant City Manager Rick Cortes says that this is a situation that benefits both the city and the homeowners in that area. He says getting rid of those septic systems would ultimately be a good thing for all. Cortes says they are also exploring an option that might allow the city to seek grant funding to help move more homes from septic to sewer.

“Our goal is to go ahead and try to get everybody off the septic systems and on our systems so it’s really a win-win for both of us. We will be coming back to council on the 16th with a request for a grant application also to help decommission those septic systems if people choose to accept,” said Cortes.

The council unanimously approved the offer to residents in Sunrise Acres and Deerwood Circle. However, Councilwoman Fonda Mathis says it was important that the residents in that area be given this information, and that this is very likely the last time that this discounted rate would be offered.

“I really want to make sure that we have good plans made to promote this, because I don’t want to be here in five years and going ‘oops, should have, could have, would have — and let’s bring the price down (again),'” said Mathis.

Staff members indicated that they would be reaching out to the neighborhoods to make sure that those homeowners, who still have septic systems, understand how they can take advantage of this offer.

To view the original story from Seguin Daily News, please click here.