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Home  News Latest Utility hike to be voted on at council meeting
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Utility hike to be voted on at council meeting |
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Wednesday, 11 April 2007 |
By Buck Traxler, I-O Editor
If it had been a TV show it would have been canceled for low Neilson ratings. You could cram all the people that showed up for a utility hike public hearing at Norley Hall on Tuesday into a VW Bug and still had room left over.
Mayor John Shelvin opened the meeting promptly at 7 p.m. and like Tom Ring of the DEQ at the MATL transmission line hearing last Tuesday, cautioned those there to, “Keep it clean, you are being recorded.”
He really didn’t need to caution folks, because no one had a public comment on the utility hike.
Jerry and Velda Cowie, former residents of Utah, were on hand just out of curiosity and to see what was going on.
Final decision of the rates will be made at the regular council meeting on April 16 following an additional public hearing at 8 p.m.
The new rate will continue to be based off the minimum of 5,000 gallons of water use in the winter months and 10,000 gallons of summer use.
Besides water use, the utility hikes also include wastewater and solid waste rate increases.
Council members are building a reserve fund for construction costs that will meet discharge permit requirements and bring us into compliance with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
The estimated cost of improvements is about $2.3 million, which is needed to pay the bond principal and interest, provide a bond reserve, and cover engineering and inflationary costs.
A change in the solid waste rates would increase revenues for solid waste collection, fund the reserve for the possible replacement of the current system, make sure that annual alley clean-ups are continued and cover inflationary costs.
 Mayor John Shevlin
The current water rates for winter usage (5,000 gallons) are $32.08. This stays the same in the summer months when the minimum gallon use is bumped up to 10,000 gallons.
The new-metered rate, which comes out to be about three percent, would be $33.04 for the minimum 5,000 gallons of water use in the winter and would be the same for 10,000 gallons during the summer months.
If a user exceeds the minimum for the month, you would pay nine cents more per 1,000 gallons in the winter and three cents more per 1,000 gallons in the summer.
The current base rate sewer charge for a metered minimum of 1,000 gallons is $14.83. The cost over the minimum, 1,000 gallons, is $1.52.
The new proposed rate for a minimum of 1,000 gallons (metered) is proposed at $15.57 with a bump of eight cents to $1.60 for going 1,000 gallons over the minimum.
The proposed increase for the sewer would be .74 cents more per month and if the average exceeds the minimum, it would be eight cents more per 1,000 gallons.
The current charge on solid waste for a residential minimum is $7.80 with the dumpster minimum being $14.71.
The new rate increase that is proposed is $8.19 for residential and $15.45 for dumpster.
That comes out to be .39 cents more per month based on the residential minimum and .74 cents more per month based on the dumpster minimum.
There will be a final public hearing at 8 p.m. during the regular meeting of the city council on April 16. Following that, aldermen will vote on the proposed rate increases.
If you have further questions or need more information, contact Mayor Shevlin at city hall, 271-3623.
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