The Clarion Borough Stormwater Authority will soon send out its fourth-quarter bills. At the same time, it will send delinquent account notices to property-owners who have not yet paid the fee.
The authority was established, in part, to oversee a system under which all property-owners are billed according to a set formula based on the amount of runoff stormwater created by their roofs, driveways, sidewalk and other impervious surfaces.
That runoff is collected in and flows out of town through the borough’s stormwater sewers. As that system aged and deteriorated, the borough was looking for a way to pay for repairs by levying a fee on all property owners, to include properties exempt from real estate taxes.
Other property owners in Clarion Borough owe a combined $114,511 in past due fees.
In total, the authority is carrying $214,242 in past due fees on its books.
On the other side of the ledger, it has collected $283,184 through the first three quarters. All figures are current through the end of August.
Clarion Borough Treasurer and Projects Manager Todd Colosimo said the authority will begin collections procedures against the past due accounts, including the university and school district without contracting with a debt collection service.
“We are treating everybody the same,” Colosimo said. “The fourth-quarter bills will go out in October and the (delinquent accounts) notices will go out at the same time. Probably as a separate mailing.”
Clarion University
As a part of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, the property owned by Clarion University is exempt from real estate taxes.
But its numerous buildings, parking lots and sidewalks send a tremendous amount of runoff water into the borough’s stormwater sewers.
The authority believes the stormwater fee is not a tax, but a fee levied on all property owners in the borough, and therefore, it charges the fee on the university as well as all county-owned property, churches and other nontaxable properties.
Clarion County paid the fee.
PASSHE, however, is arguing in another similar case in West Chester that the fee is in fact a tax. Therefore, as a state-owned entity, it is exempt from paying it.
After Clarion University was billed for the fee last year, Andrew C. Lehman, chief legal counsel for PASSHE, told Colosimo via letter “the university will not be paying the invoiced fees.”
Lehman said the university is immune from stormwater fees.
“It is the legal position of the university that stormwater fees, unlike water and sewer service fees, are a tax to which the commonwealth is immune,” Lehman wrote.
Cody Jones, chief strategic relations officer for the office of the chancellor, told the Clarion News he could not comment on pending litigation and forwarded a copy of court documents outlining the arguments between the borough of West Chester and West Chester University.
Clarion schools
Clarion Area School District Superintendent Joe Carrico acknowledged the district is in arrears on its stormwater fee, but explained it is the district’s assertion it also, like the university, is exempt from the fee.
“Is it a tax or a fee? That’s the question they’re debating in West Chester,” Carrico said. “We’re waiting to see how that turns out.”
Carrico said the district has been in “cordial and respectful” talks with the authority.
“If it comes down that we owe (the fee), we’ll settle up,” he said.
Payment delay matters
Colosimo declined to comment on the specific situations with the niversity and the school district based on the pending legal arguments.
But, he said, the delay in collecting all of the due fees does have an effect on the authority’s plans.
“It won’t stop us, but it does slow us down,” Colosimo said.
The authority owes Clarion Borough about $150,000 for costs the borough covered while the authority was established, properties were surveyed, legal paperwork was completed and filed, and a truck was hired to clean out inlets.
The authority expects to have that bill paid off by the end of the year.
Beyond that, Colosimo said the stormwater fee is intended to be used to repair and maintain the sewer system.
“We want to put that money right back into the ground,” he said.
One of the goals of the authority is to keep moving forward with sewer-line repairs and maintenance.
Colosimo said as a legal entity the authority has more opportunities to apply for grants and loans than the borough does.
“On a $1 million project, we don’t have that money in the accounts; so loans and grants will be a big part of what we can do,” he said.