North Webster Town Council set the date for the sewer rate hearing at its monthly meeting Tuesday. The proposed rate is $48 per individual residential customer. That is an increase of 31.25 percent.

The hearing will be held 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 3, at the North Webster Community Center.

The increase will not only bring the town’s sewer system into compliance with Indiana Department of Environmental Management mandates but will lay ground work for the future. The sewer was originally installed in 1974.

In other sewer related business, the council authorized President Jon Sroufe signatory powers for the town for the preliminary application and accepted the preliminary engineering report.

Commercial strip mall owner Alan Williams questioned why this is all happening. It was explained the IDEM mandates had come down about six months previously and the town is working hard to comply while keeping the rates as reasonable as possible.

Bonnie J. Mann, CPA for the London Witte Group, explained not only did IDEM have safety concerns but if things were not taken care of it might become a public health concern. London Witte is the town’s consultant on the sewer rates.

Police Chief Greg Church noted he would start looking into new computers for the four police cars and solicit bids. NWPD answered 197 calls of service in April with officers working 648.25 hours. The highest number of calls were traffic related, 32; citizen assists, 22; and agency assists, 16. The department drove 3,029 miles using 253.8 gallons of fuel.

The next regular meeting of the council will be 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 17, North Webster Community Center.