Thursday, June 28, 2007

Oskaloosa hikes base sewer rate to $30

by Kenneth Lassiter

As the June 21 city council meeting neared the four-hour mark, council members voted unanimously to approve a large sewer rate hike that will go into effect in August.

Council members had a full plate during the meeting as much discussion revolved around the citywide sewer rehabilitation and replacement project. Officials from the county humane society were also on hand to talk to council members even before the regular business of the department reports was set to begin. Near the end of the meeting, the council decided to more than double the city’s base sewer rate.

Brian Kingsley of BG Consultants, the city’s contracted engineering company, and Donna Crawford of Governmental Assistance Services, who is working to help the city procure grant and loan funding for the sewer project, gave the council an update on the status of the project. Kingsley said work continues on the engineering report that will accompany the city’s applications for funding from Rural Development, Community Development Block Grants and the state department of health and environment.

Kingsley said compact discs of pictures and digital video discs of videos from the recent TV sewer inspection have been received at the city office and he showed council members some of the video from the inspection that showed line offsets, cracked pipes and other problems. BG has broken down the project into three priorities, starting with the highest priority of the immediate sewer issues in the city. “Priority 2” problems were classified as those that will likely need to be addressed within the next five to 10 years while “Priority 3” areas included the lines and manholes where there were no structural problems.

BG plans to give the city the cost of the entire project as well as several other scenarios, including just doing the top priority work and doing both the Priority 1 and Priority 2 work. Kingsley said the entire project is estimated at $3.2 million, and that may be BG’s ultimate recommendation as breaking up the project into phases may lead to sewer rates higher than they would be doing the project all at once.

The next step of the process, Kingsley said, is to take the finished engineering report to a Kansas Intergovernmental Agency Committee meeting of RD, CDBG and KDHE officials July 24 in Topeka, at which the agencies will state their preference of how the project is done and the potential of the city receiving grant and low-interest loan funding for it. Kingsley said the big money for the project, if received, would come from Rural Development with CDBG and KDHE being able to also help with the cost. He said the TV inspection findings would be a main part of the KIAC meeting.

Kingsley classified about 40 percent of the city’s sewer system as the Priority 1 section of the project, and about 25 to 30 percent as each of the Priority 2 and Priority 3 sections. Crawford pointed out that the three funding agencies would want the city to do enough project work to make the system need no major work for at least 20 years. Kingsley said BG would keep that in mind when making its final recommendation to the city.

Both Kingsley and Crawford said they would return to the council’s July meetings to update them on the status of the project and give them updated financial information about it as it is refined to allow them to state a preference of how they would move forward with the project prior to the KIAC meeting.

Discussion turned to rates and what the city would need its base sewer rate to be. The city’s current rate was $12 per month as the base rate for usage up to 6,000 gallons of water, $13 plus $1.55 per 1,000 gallons from 7,000 to 10,000 gallons of usage and $13 plus $1.85 per 1,000 gallons for 11,000 gallons usage or more. Kingsley said CDBG usually likes municipalities to have at least a $14 monthly base rate while Rural Development prefers closer to the state average for municipalities of around $30 per month for a base rate. Council member Allen Wise said the city has some sticker shock from those numbers. Kingsley replied the funding agencies would want the city to be able to not only pay off any project loans with the sewer rate but also be able to build a reserve to lower the potential of having to procure a huge loan the next time a major sewer project comes due.

Council members moved on to other topics before returning to the subject of sewer rates at about 10:30 p.m. City Clerk Patty Hamm said that, in order to pay back the preliminary $220,000 loan the city has applied for from KDHE, the city’s base sewer rate would need to be at least $26. After some discussion, the council decided to raise the base rate to $30 per month from $12 for usage of up to 6,000 gallons. The base rate would be $30 plus $2 per 1,000 gallons for usage from 7,000 to 10,000 gallons and $30 plus $4 per $1,000 gallons for usage of 11,000 gallons or more. Those rates will go into effect Aug. 20.

Wise made the motion to approve the rate hike while James Malsbury seconded it. It passed, 3-0, as council member Mike Boyd was unable to attend the meeting and council member Kelly Hattemer had to leave earlier in the meeting.

Wise said he knew the public wouldn’t like the rate hike but it would have to be done at some point because councils in the past had raised it only $1 here and there infrequently when a regular and bigger jump was needed. The rate will likely have to rise again if and when the city receives funding for the main project.

Bill Heard, city maintenance superintendent, said city officials would hear complaints as city residents just voted a 1 percent sales tax into effect this spring. That tax, when it starts being collected in October, is to be used for street work and other infrastructure. Council member Lisa Cross reiterated Wise’s statement that past city councils had turned a blind eye to the problem rather than preparing for it. Wise said the biggest obstacle to public understanding of the rate hike would be that they can’t see the sewers and the state they’re in. Cross suggested the city could post pictures from the sewer inspection at the city office to show the condition to the public. No further action was taken on the matter.

Keith Haynie of the county humane society also met with council members to request funding of $3,893 from the city for 2008 to help cover payroll costs at the society’s shelter in Valley Falls. Oskaloosa has been one of the most active of the county’s municipalities in bringing stray animals to the shelter according to information supplied by the society. Haynie pointed out the society had asked the county for half of the $44,000 it needed for the payroll costs for next year and had requested from the other half of the money from the six county towns. He said recently the society had one part-time paid employee voluntarily switch to a volunteer position while another part-time position was cut because of financial restraints.

Cross and Hattemer commended Haynie and the society on the impact of the shelter as both said the number of stray animals in Oskaloosa has dropped noticeably with the opening of the shelter in 2006. Council members indicated they would include the funding for the society in the 2008 budget.