By Corey Lewis - Daily World Writer, 1/18/2001
Come March, Aberdeen residents will see a change in their utility bills. There will be a new $4 stormwater fee, plus a reduction - and an increase - in their sewer rates.
The bottom line is that most utility customers will be paying $1 more per month.`
Sound confusing?
The change is the result of a compromise concocted by the City Council and the city's Public Works director, Larry Bledsoe.
Two weeks ago, Bledsoe proposed the new $4 stormwater fee to pay for upkeep of the city's stormwater drainage system while keeping the city's sewer fee at $26.50. Since money to pay for stormwater system upkeep currently comes from the sewer fee, the net result would have been a $4 increase in customers' monthly bills.
The additional revenue would have been used to pay for the higher cost of operations - largely electricity - with the excess saved to pay off court - mandated, multi - million dollar improvements to the city's sewage treatment plant.
Several City Council members objected because the plan seemed to be a sewer rate increase in disguise at a time when other utility bills are sharply increasing.
Under the plan crafted Wednesday night, residents will be charged a new $4 stormwater fee, while sewer rates will be reduced by $3. The net result - a $1 sewer fee increase - will be used to pay cost increases, namely electricity costs.
As of March, sewer bills will be reduced to $23.50 and the new $4 stormwater fee will start appearing. The total monthly utility bill for most will go up $1 to $78.83.
The plan will net the city an extra $90,000 per year.
Bledsoe had presented the council with a report that included four options for dealing with the stormwater fee:
- Not create the new fee;
- Create the new fee and lower sewer fees by a corresponding amount;
- Create the new fee and keep sewer rates at their current level, which was Bledsoe's original proposal, or ä
- Create the new fee and lower sewer rates by $3, allowing for cost increases.
Bledsoe said that of sewer fees weren't boosted to deal with higher expenses, the Sewer Department would be headed for a revenue shortfall. Rising electricity costs will add about $80,000 to $90,000 to the cost of operating the sewer system, the Public Works director said.
Bledsoe said he backed off of his original proposal after he consulted a senior policy adviser - his wife.
"No matter how I explained (the original proposal), my wife would not accept it," Bledsoe told the council with a sheepish grin.
During the ensuing discussion, Mayor Mike Wilson proposed that the council split the difference and raise sewer fees by $2, thereby paying for cost increases and raising $90,000 to save for sewer plant improvements.
"That way you'd pay for cost of living increases and you can start saving for the future costs," Wilson said.
The council balked.
"(A $1 increase) would lessen the impact for people who are getting rocked and socked by their other utility bills," Sixth Ward Councilman Jim Manenica said. "From an engineering standpoint, (raising sewer rates by $4) would be the most prudent. But right now, given the rising utility rates, that's unacceptable."
After discussing the options, the City Council reached a consensus in supporting the $1 increase.
After the meeting, council members and the mayor said they were happy with the end result.
"It's a good compromise on the part of the council," Wilson said. "They realize that bills are going up and maybe the $4 increase would have been a little much for people to accept. By the same token, I think you can see by my proposed compromise that I thought we'd have been better off to split the difference and save money for the sewage treatment plant."
"The new rate increase pays for the cost of doing business, which is what I thought the intent should have been all along," Manenica said. "This makes it very clear to the citizens where their money is actually going. It's going to the sewer department. The stormwater fee had nothing to do with this. So, I'm very happy that's where this ended up."
Mixed into all this was the looming need to make updates to the sewage treatment plant, which are court mandated as the result of a lawsuit by Friends of Grays Harbor.
"What people need to understand is that Friends of Grays Harbor have gone to court and gotten a judge to agree that we have to change our sewer plant, and that's going to be a very expensive proposition," First Ward Councilman Bob Shortt said. "We have a political gun to our head right now and we have no choice (but to do the sewage plant improvements) and I hate to say this, but we're going to have to raise rates somewhat dramatically down the road to pay for what FOGH and that judge have told us to do."
Manenica, Wilson and Bledsoe also warned that a sharp rate hike will come some time in the future to pay for these improvements. Bledsoe said they would likely come in a year and a half, when the project starts.
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