ThisWeek CW 09/25/2014

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/09/22/canal-winchester-minor-increase-eyed-for-city-water-sewer-fees.html

Canal Winchester officials are considering a “minor increase” in water and sewer rates over the next four years.

Public Works Director Matt Peoples asked Canal Winchester City Council at its Sept. 15 meeting to consider a pair of ordinances that would put in place a new rate schedule, now that the previously approved schedule is expiring, for both water and sewer user rates over the next four-year period.

“These ordinances are to modify sewer and water user rates,” he said. “In 2008, we put in place a five-year rate increase and this legislation is to do the same kind of thing, with only a very minor increase to fund the systems and keep us in compliance.”

If approved, water usage rates will increase from the current $5.85 per 1,000 gallons to $5.97 per 1,000 gallons in 2015, a 2-percent increase. The water rate will then increase each year by an additional 2 percent, ending at $6.33 per 1,000 gallons in 2018.

The 2-percent increase for sewer usage won’t begin until 2017, at which point the current sewer rate of $5.65 per 1,000 gallons will increase by 2 percent to $5.76, and then increase once more in 2018 to $5.88 per 1,000 gallons.

Finance Director Amanda Jackson said she used the previous rate analysis as a template for completing a new, six-year analysis, along with the actual costs from the last five years, to determine the proposed new rate increases.

Councilman James Wynkoop questioned why this increase schedule is only for four years instead of five.

“Five years is hard for us to predict for this,” Peoples said. “Like with the salt — it’s going to be a $12,000 increase for rock salt between this year and last year, and so those prices seem pretty volatile; same for the chemical costs for water and wastewater treatment, and also electricity.

“So going out five years gets a little uncomfortable estimating that,” he said.

Jackson added that in her analysis, she found a number of ancillary cost factors that officials decided to deal with separately from the direct costs for the systems in order to keep the rates reasonable.

“We’re not trying to cover all of those increases with this,” Jackson said. “By doing this over four years instead of five years, we can come back in year five and, hopefully, say we don’t need that increase instead of automatically putting an increase in place now.”

Council heard a first reading of the ordinances Sept. 15, and anticipates giving the legislation a full three readings. That means a final vote will likely be scheduled for the Oct. 20 council meeting.