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A Rahway by any other name…

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This photo has nothing to do with today’s post but I finally got an updated photo of the Fulton-Irving street realignment as promised. As you can see, it was a race against the sunset too.

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An idea to change the name of the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority to disassociate it from Rahway because of the skyrocketing bills the past few years has been dropped. The RVSA plant is located in Rahway and handles wastewater for the city and a number of surrounding towns.

It’s been almost 20 years since the name of Rahway State Prison was changed to East Jersey State Prison, and most people still associate it with Rahway — especially out-of-towners. The old Rahway Valley Railroad has nothing to do with Rahway and in fact goes nowhere near the city.

With the changes going on in Rahway these days, maybe it’s time the city changes its name, rather than these other entities changing theirs? A few Garden State towns have tried to change their names in a quick-fix effort to change their perception. Two that come to mind were South Orange trying to become South Mountain (disassociate with the other Oranges in the process) and West Paterson trying to drop the Paterson from its name. And no, they weren’t going to be called simply “West” but I can’t recall what they came up with; something associated with Garret Mountain perhaps. It happens in business too; see Phillip Morris and Altria Group.

Rahway once was called Spanktown (which everyone gets a kick out of for obvious reasons). OK, so changing the city’s name is just a silly idea — who’s got the money to waste changing all those Parkway and Turnpike signs, for starters — but maybe you have some suggestions, for conversation’s sake?

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Those of you who still hold out hope for a brewpub downtown, grab a pint and check out this New York Times piece in the meantime. The Times‘ list of Jersey brewpubs includes a number of towns that Rahway aspires to be, in the sense of a thriving, walkable downtown at least: Montclair, New Brunswick, Princeton, Red Bank, South Orange. Coincidence? I think not…

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City Council

Flat fee for sewer bills; budget to be adopted

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The good news: Municipal taxes for the average Rahway home are going down $2 compared to last year, from $2,278 to $2,276. The bad news: sewer charges historically included in municipal taxes are not included in that figure for 2008. More good news: The average assessed home ($133,000) paid about $391 in taxes to cover sewer charges last year, but under a new sewer utility, will pay a flat $245 annual sewer fee, separate from property taxes.

The city’s $44.3 million budget for 2007-08 is up $1.2 million from the previous year, almost 3 percent, while the tax levy is up 0.6 percent. In addition to splitting out sewer fees, the city collected more than $2 million in water and sewer connection fees from new development, the city’s taxable assessed value rose $10 million, and $1 million was returned as Rahway’s share of surplus from the sewer authority. The redevelopment plan “is starting to work now, and as projects come on line that $10 million will increase,” said City Administrator/Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier. A public hearing and final approval of the city budget is scheduled Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. in the Emergency Management Room at City Hall.

The City Council approved the creation of a sewer utility during a special meeting Thursday night. Historically, the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority bills the city, which acts as a conduit and lumps a town’s assessment into the municipal tax bill. Annual sewer fees for various properties would be as follows, under the new sewer utility:

Single-family home, $245
Two-family home, $392
Three- or four-family home, $392 + $147 per unit
Condominium, $196
Nonprofit/Apartment/Government, $125 + $2.64 per 1,000 gallons
Commercial/industrial, $355 + $3.96 per 1,000 gallons
Industrial/Merck, $355 + $5.28 per 1,000 gallons

The annual sewer fee would not change for at least five years, said Pelissier, the city’s representative to the RVSA, adding that the only costs in creating a utility would be billing, which are expected to be about $50,000 a year. No new positions would be created. City Attorney Louis Rainone described the utility as merely an accounting mechanism.

Residential properties currently are charged for sewerage based on the value of their home, not on what’s being used. “A utility will make it more equitable,” said Dieter Lerch, the city’s auditor who presented the proposal to City Council last month. Residential properties currently cover about 62 percent of the city’s RVSA bill, according to officials, but are only responsible for 50 percent of the assessment, thus subsidizing commercial and light industrial properties.

RVSA member communities Woodbridge and Clark both created a sewer utility to handle sewerage assessments and Kenilworth also is considering establishing a utility in the wake of rising RVSA assessments the last several years as a result of a $250-million upgrade to increase capacity at the Rahway plant. “Had RVSA not increased its rates, Pelissier said, the city probably wouldn’t be doing this. “It’s not a gimmick, it’s the cost of sewers,” he said, and the costs are staggering, whether included in the tax bill or not, and are borne by property taxpayers.

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