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21 <br />designated criteria to assist those persons with the cost of connecting to a water or <br />sewer system. It remains to be determined whether each unit of local government would <br />operate its own program or whether a joint program would be established. A method to <br />fund individual homeowner connections to water and /or sewer infrastructure is to create <br />a community development fund, set up for the benefit of low- moderate income <br />individual. <br />If a utility district is created, one of the benefits is that the availability of community <br />development funds could be limited to property owners within the district. The District <br />could not distinguish between or have differential sliding scales based on how long a <br />resident has lived in the Rogers Road Neighborhood. After establishing a policy that <br />makes funds available for individuals to connect to water and /or sewer utilities, for low - <br />to- moderate income homeowners, individuals could apply for grants and /or loans to pay <br />for utility connection charges. No one would be forced to connect to the system, but in <br />any case the qualifying criteria would not be limited to residents of the District. <br />Connection cost: <br />The Proposed Utility District has not yet been formed and a fees structure has not yet <br />been considered. The current OWASA fee structure could be used as an example of the <br />fees a new Utility District customer would be expected to pay. A new sewer customer <br />will be expected to pay for a sewer service lateral, a clean out and service availability <br />fee, a water customer will be expected to pay for a water service lateral, meter box, <br />meter, and service availability fee. The estimates are based on a 2,500 sq. ft. house, <br />pumping out and abandoning a septic tank, a private lateral 150' long, and no internal <br />plumbing modifications. <br />Exhibit 6 (Historic Rogers Road Area Estimate Schematic) provides a detail <br />breakdown of what an individual home owner could expect to pay to connect to both <br />OWASA water and sewer. In this example, the fees paid to OWASA would be $11,495 <br />and the estimated cost of a private plumber is $10,850. <br />15 <br />