WARREN — Trumbull County’s Sanitary Engineer Department has requested county commissioners consider increasing several fees, including permit fees for the installation of new meters, monthly fire line fees and pool hydrant fees.

“We are currently losing money on our water permits,” Gary Newbrough, the county sanitary engineer, said during Tuesday’s workshop. “The cost of meters has gone up, and this will not affect anyone who is already a current customer at all. This will be for new connections that are coming in. We need to increase our fees so we can recover our costs.”

“For a three-quarter inch tap, for example, it used to be $429, but to recover our cost we need to make that $475,” Newbrough said. “For someone who needs a meter pit, it needs to go from $3,700 to $4,950. Anytime we go out to place a meter pit, we’re losing that much money. We need to shore that up.”

The costs increase as properties require larger waterlines and meters.

Newbrough said the county is losing money when a property needs one of the larger 2-inch radial meters.

“They are paying $7,402, and it is costing us $11,500,” Newbrough said.

Newbrough said existing projects that are already scheduled to be placed would not be affected by the proposed increase.

Commissioner Tony Bernard questioned why these proposed increases were not brought up during the discussions about water rate increases that occurred over the last three months.

“Why wasn’t this brought up?” Bernard said. “I know this is a separate issue, but I believe it should have been brought up.”

Newbrough also requested commissioners look at amending the county’s fire line rates. Fire lines are not connected to water meters.

“Usually, there is no water going through these fire lines,” Newbrough said. “If there is a fire and sprinklers go off, we do not have a way of measuring it. This is basically a flat fee the customer pays to have that water available.”

The county has 117 accounts with fire lines. Fire lines are 2-inch to 8-inch firefighter waterlines that customers have, which are used only when there are fires.

Monthly rates for customers with fire lines between 2 inches to 4 inches are proposed to increase from $37.50 to $50. Customers with fire lines from 4 inches to 6 inches are proposed to increase from $55 per month to $75 per month, and those with fire lines of 8 inches or more are projected to increase to $100.

These are primarily industrial and commercial customers.

The department also is looking at increasing rates for sanitary engineer-owned pool / hydrant meters and set the water consumption rate for usage of hydrant meters.

Current rates being charged for hydrant meters are $50. It is being proposed to increase to $250. The hydrant meter water charge per 1,000 gallons will increase from $10 to $15.

Commissioners on Tuesday decided to delay deciding on these requests until after the water advisory panel, which was established as a response to the recently increased water rates, has its first meeting sometime over the next month.

The county’s water rates are being increased to $11.75 per 1,000 gallons. To obtain a unanimous vote for the increase, the commissioners earlier this month agreed that a state performance audit be done on the sanitary department and the establishment of a 12-member water advisory council that will have representatives from each township and city participating in the county water system.

The advisory council will consist of representatives of water districts in Trumbull County, as well as a county representative. Not all members of the advisory panel have been selected.