Connection to the sewage treatment plant: This is how the citizens decided
Created: 2/6/2022Updated: 2/6/2022 8:22 p.m
By: Fabian Dilger
copy-of-hattenhofen2022-5.jpg © Peter Weber
The people of Hattenhofen have decided: A clear majority of citizens voted on Sunday for the connection to the Mammendorf sewage treatment plant to be financed entirely through the sewage fees.
Mixed financing is thus off the table.
Hattenhofen – the people of Hattenhofen voted 566 times for the fee solution and 152 times for mixed financing.
Half of the costs for the connection to the sewage treatment plant would have been covered by an increase in sewage charges and half by contributions to improvements.
Depending on the size of the property, property and house owners would have had to make a one-time payment once the connection had been completed.
Voter turnout was 58 percent.
"It's clear what the citizen decided," said Mayor Franz Robeller (UWG Haspelmoor) on Sunday.
The result did not surprise him.
"I assumed that, I have to be honest about that now."
Robeller himself and the majority of the municipal council had decided on mixed financing last year.
From the point of view of the head of the town hall, however, it was unavoidable that the committee had put the question of financing back to the citizens.
Otherwise there would have been a citizens' initiative on the issue, Robeller is convinced.
"Now we can live with it," he said.
The referendum is binding.
Further resolutions of the municipal council are therefore not required.
From 2023, the wastewater fees will be charged at a new level.
The fees will be calculated after the final sum of the construction costs for the connection to the sewage treatment plant in Mammendorf has been determined.
According to Robeller, all invoices for the entire construction should be on the table by the middle of the year.
In an initial calculation, the administration assumed EUR 3.93 per cubic meter of wastewater.
For Siegfried Karner, who supports pure fee financing, the outcome of the referendum also came as no surprise.
"The fact that there is a mood for the fee model was actually recognizable when you talked a little with the citizens." The information event in the sports center also showed that the majority was against contributions for improvements.
Proper turnout was already apparent before Sunday, said Karner.
Many people had already told him that they and the whole family would definitely vote.
Like Robeller, Karner is now happy that the topic has been answered unequivocally: "You just have clarity now."
