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Bethel Park Council mulls tax increase

By Cara Host 3 min read
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Property owners in Bethel Park may experience a double whammy next year, with possible hikes to both the tax and sewer bills.

Municipal council will consider adopting, at the Nov. 9 meeting, a $24.2 million general fund budget that includes a property tax increase of .21 mills. The municipality will use the extra revenue to pay for a new public works building.

“We are at a crossroads. We have to do something,” board President Tim Moury said of the 60-year-old building that houses Bethel Park’s road equipment and vehicles.

The municipality will consider floating a $9 million bond to cover the estimated $8.3 million public works building as well as $400,000 to $500,000 in renovations to the community center.

The projects are still in the early stages; Moury said Bethel Park won’t be ready to break ground on the public works building until spring at the earliest.

However, council members expressed uneasiness with the possibility of rising interest rates and councilman Jim McLean said it might be best to incur the debt now, since he expects rates to rise at the start of 2016.

“It’s a very old building and it requires our attention. Renovating it would cost more than if we would just build a new building,” McLean said.

If approved, the tax increase will bring the municipal tax rate to 2.53 mills and the owner of a $100,000 house can expect to pay $253 in municipal property taxes next year, an increase of $21 over this year’s tax bill.

Residents will also see an increase to their sewer bills. Bethel Park Municipal Authority will increase rates by 5 percent in January and it may tack on another 3 percent hike by summer. The authority needed the extra revenue to pay for improvements to the sewer system, which were made due to new environmental regulations. The local authority is also paying more to Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, which treats a portion of Bethel Park’s waste water.

The kitchen floor in Bethel Park’s community center is buckling in places, so council is considering a renovation to fix the floor and make other improvements to the building. Bethel Park may float a bond to cover that project as well as the new public works building.

Bethel Park’s architect, Mark Edelmann of EPM Architecture, estimated that a new building would cost $8.3 million. Initially, his estimate was a bit higher, at $10 million, but council asked him to scale down the project.

In another matter, council will consider Nov. 9 approving conditional use for Artis Senior Living, a planned, 72-unit, assisted living facility at 1001 Higbee Drive.

“It is our hope to be a welcome and very prominent part of the community,” said Thomas Jones of Artis.

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