Water bills in Mendon headed for the high jump
By Kimberly Ralphs
March 12, 2004 | MENDON -- Mendon residents will most likely see an increase in their culinary water bills starting this June to help fund improvements in their water system. Mendon City Council members have discussed different water rate structures, but won't make any final decisions until May.
"You need to look at quite a bit of information to determine what your rates need to be," Curtis Ludvigson, a representative from the Rural Water Association of Utah, told the council in a workshop last week.
The public is invited to public hearings in April and May to discuss water rates. The council will set water rates in May's city council meeting, to be implemented beginning in June. The council had talked about water rates during the February meeting but decided they wanted to know more about the issues before making any decisions.
Zan Murray of JUB Engineering spoke to the council about improving the water system and said water is "a hot topic. There's not a lot of water out there right now."
The city is looking at putting a new pump on the existing well soon and putting in a new well in the next few years to meet the city's needs. In order to fund these projects, Councilman John Hardman said the city is looking at getting a $1 million loan. The city will increase water rates to help pay off the loan and because most funding agencies won't give them a loan if water rates are too low.
"In evaluating this thing, you really need to take a good look at the whole thing," Ludvigson said.
Though they didn't make any final decisions, the council is leaning toward creating an inclining rate structure where residents will pay more per gallon of water as they use more. Currently Mendon has a flat rate structure where residents pay $22 per month for 18,000 gallons of water and 30 cents per 1,000 gallons over 18,000.
Hardman said the city brings in approximately $117,000 from water bills annually. In order to finance the loan the city is going to get, he said the city will need to generate $168,000 per year.
One scenario the council looked at would raise the average user's bill from $85 to $140 for the quarter ending in October, and increase the city's annual revenue by more than $46,000. The average user last year used 102,000 gallons during July-October, which is when people use the most culinary water outdoors. In this scenario, the base rate would be $22 for 12,000 gallons per month and overages would be as follows: 85 cents per 1,000 gallons for up to 22,000 gallons, $1.15 per 1,000 gallons up to 67,000 gallons and $1.35 per 1,000 gallons for anything above that.
The lowest users wouldn't see any increase in their rates and the highest user would see their rates go from $472 to $1,876 for that quarter.
Water rates are currently higher for households in the Cobblestone area south of Mendon because the water has to be piped uphill. Currently, Cobblestone residents have a base rate of $33 for 18,000 gallons. Under the new scenario, the average Cobblestone resident would see their water bill increase from $113 to $260 for the July-October quarter.
The council used past data to project the effect of this and other rate scenarios on residents' water bills and the city's revenues to find rates that would raise enough money for the improvements but not be so high that it would hurt the residents.
"I don't want to hit them (residents) any harder than we have to," Mayor Sydney Larsen said.
Murray estimated that a new pump for the existing well would cost approximately $50,000. A new well would cost $200,000, plus engineering costs and $40 per foot of pipe to transport the water to a storage tank.
The mayor said he is in favor of raising the rates a little this year and see if that brings in enough revenue, with the possibility of having to raise them again next year rather than raising the rates a lot right now. He also mentioned that new growth will help increase revenues. A study done by the city last year for their annexation plan showed that the population of Mendon could possibly double to more than 2,000 residents by the year 2020. Larsen pointed out that if that happens, water revenues will also double, but operating costs probably won't.
Hardman said it's been 20 years since the city has changed the overage rate and six years since the base rate has been changed. Ludvigson said Mendon's current overage rate is very low compared to other cities and the base rate is comparable to others.
Paul Murray, who owns two apartments in Mendon, brought up the issue of multiple family units. He suggested that the apartments and a trailer park in town receive a base rate allowance for each household. For example, since the trailer park has 15 families, they would receive 15 base allowances or 270,000 gallons per month before being charged overages. Most of the council members agreed that this arrangement would be fair.
Murray said a new pump and controls would increase the existing well's performance. He said Mendon has rights to 1.5 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water from their existing well, but is only getting about 1 cfs or 450 gallons per minute. Hardman said improving the existing pump would also buy the city more time before they needed a new well.
Mendon will also probably need a new water tank in the next few years and a new meter system sometime in the future. The council talked about these items, but didn't discuss when they might implement them.
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