The debate over raising water rates was heated during public hearings last summer, but there was little fire Tuesday night when the Port Orchard City Council approved — almost apologetically — a plan that will add $12 a month to loc-
al bills over the next four years.
“We’ve agonized over raising water rates in the midst of these economic conditions,” Councilman Jerry Childs said, adding that “it’s difficult, but we’re just gonna have to do it.”
The vote was unanimous at Tuesday night’s meeting to approve raising water rates by $4 a month in 2012, $4 a month in 2013, and an additional $2 a month in each of the two years after that.
Councilman Jim Colebank noted that even though the rate increases will be accelerated, the amount was kept to no more than $4 in any year and the total cumulative increase was held to $12.
He said the council considered all the comments from two public hearings on water rates last summer, and he read a letter from a resident who wrote “while I don’t want to have my rates go up at all, if you do, please make it just the $4.”
Colebank, who said he’s opposed any increasing any rates over the past four years, also noted that the water system has to operate only on revenue that comes from ratepayers, not the city’s general fund.
“By law we have to make this a solvent utility, and that means we have to balance the budget,” he said. “I think we’re doing the best we can do with your money, and I hope that you will support our decision.”
The council has worked on a long-term water system plan for more than a year, and the higher rates are needed to cover a significant shortfall in paying for operating expenses and to fund needed capital improvements.
Because a $1 million project to resolve water quality issues in the area supplied by Well 9 needs to be completed as soon as possible, the council accelerated the schedule for phasing in water rate increases. The original plan was to implement the $12 monthly increase by raising rates $4 every other year starting in 2012.
The city will install a special filtration system at Well 9 to remove hydrogen sulfides, which have been identified as a primary cause of brown water that residents in the area have experienced intermittently over the last few years. The other part of fixing the Well 9 water quality problems will involve sending special devices called “pigs” through the water distribution lines to scour out a buildup of manganese.
The project should be completed next summer, and the council decided to pay for it out of a water/sewer reserve fund rather than getting a revenue bond that would have saddled the city with considerable interest costs.
That will draw the reserve fund down to about $750,000, which is only half the balance that the City Council’s utilities committee and Public Works Director Mark Dorsey would like to maintain in case other emergency repairs are needed.
Accelerating the water rate increases will allow the city to replenish the reserve fund sooner than would have been possible in the City Council’s original plan for a $4 monthly increase every other year.
