MONTICELLO — A new sewer policy and American Apparels bidacceptance were the main topics at the Monticello Board of Aldermanmeeting Tuesday night.

Town residents may see a new sewer fee if they call out citycrews at night or on weekends to repair problems on private linesafter the board voted unanimously 4-0 to accept Mayor David Nicholsproposal. Alderman Dick Reeves was not present at the meeting tovote.

The mayor said the city crews are called out nearly everyweekend to deal with sewer problems, and most of them turn out tobe on private lines and not city lines.

“Nine out of ten times the problem is with the property owner’sline,” Nichols said.

He said roughly 75 percent of the problems are related to greaseblockages.

The city has been absorbing the overtime costs of these callsand repairing the line, Nichols said, but it is not cheap. Hisproposal was that when city crews are called out at night or onweekends, not during regular hours, and discover the problem iswith the property owner’s line, a $50 charge be added to theirwater bill for the repair.

The charge would not be added if it was on a city line. The cityis responsible for the main and service lines, but not the linefrom the house to the main.

“If it’s our problem, then we’ve got to take care of it,”Nichols said. “We’re not trying to be mean or vindictive, but whenit starts costing us extra money we need to take a look at it.”

Fire Chief Wayne Harrison asked if this would put the city incompetition with area plumbers.

“I don’t think so,” Nichols said. “Hopefully, this will makethem call the plumbers.”

The mayor said the city will continue to respond to any callsand see where the problem is, but if the problem is in the propertyowner’s line they will provide the option of repairing it for the$50 charge or allow them to call a plumber.

The goal, he said, is to get the city out of the private sewerrepair business and to save the city money. The board decided ifthe present fee was not sufficient to make property owners call aplumber, then they could refigure the fee at a later date.

In other matters, the board accepted a bid of $106,000 fromHirsch International Corporation for two pieces of equipment forAmerican Apparels Inc. The funds will be taken from a grantprovided for the business to set up its infrastructure.

The bid was not the lowest received, but it was deemed the bestbid by the board because it included some items not specificallyaddressed in the bid announcement. The Hirsch bid also included anArtist Plus software package, supply kit, a $2,500 supply creditand complete freight and unloading.