BPU District Heating customers will see a rate increase starting Nov. 1 while the utility continues to decide on the future of the district heating system.

At the August board meeting, the board began looking at some of the key items for some of the budgets for 2026, specifically in the areas of District Heat and Solid Waste. Kevin Karr, BPU finance and customer accounts manager, discussed the two divisions with the board, beginning with the District Heat division. He said in the district heat division, people should expect to see a rate increase beginning Nov. 1, with a communication to be sent out to district heat customers on that. Additionally, Karr said they are continuing work on cost control, noting that costs are continuing to rise everywhere so they are working to keep costs for district heat as low as possible. Capital improvement projects are also set to continue.

“We are going to try to continue to install some valves in the system to make it easier to do repairs while minimizing outages to some of our customers,” Karr said. “Some of our concerns are, based on that, first of all retaining a strong relationship with UPMC. They’re our biggest customer; we communicate with them and we want to keep that relationship going.”

Other concerns for district heat that Karr highlighted are the aging infrastructure, state regulations with natural gas, and monitoring leaks and replacements.

For the solid waste division, Karr said the goal is to be able to buy two new garbage trucks this year while also continuing to possibly look into electric vehicles for those in 2026 or beyond.

“We are also looking at installing a new recycling container tracking system, so we can track who recycles and who doesn’t,” Karr said. “The system we have is starting to have some failures so we’re looking for a new system in that.”

No rate adjustment is expected for solid waste in 2026, and Karr said they are looking to successfully execute the grant reimbursement for the past purchase of two recycling trucks.

Concerns include; any increase in fees from the county landfill, an employee turnover — which Karr said is probably one of the biggest concerns for solid waste –, and vehicle repairs.

The board discussed hiring employees and helping them to get their CDLs and the costs of that certification and the cost difference between a regular and electric garbage truck. General Manager, David Leathers, said that preliminary budget drafts are being worked on, and it was noted that key items for the water and waste water divisions will be looked at next month, along with the solid waste and district heat preliminary budgets.