Tuesday, December 12, 2000
Pipeline costs may drive water
bills up
By Samuel Segrist
Reporter-News Staff Writer
Most water customers shouldn’t notice
when a pipeline to the O.H. Ivie Reservoir begins pumping water
to Abilene in about 18 months.
But they’ll be hard pressed not to
notice their water bills in March if a proposed water rate schedule
garners the Abilene City Council’s approval.
To pay for the Ivie project, city administrators
are recommending a rate scale that will increase water rates about
50 percent and double the monthly service charges for many customers.
The council will consider the rates, along with other water-related
issues, at a meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday at City Hall, 555 Walnut
St.
The pipeline and a treatment plant are expected
to cost about $60 million, said Mike Morrison, assistant city
manager. City administrators have been warning the public about
the increase in water fees since January, when the council ordered
them to start planning to build the pipeline to Lake Ivie. At
times, administrators said rates could double or triple.
The rate hikes essentially mean that Abilene’s
era of cheap water is over. The proposed rates are not a temporary
measure, as the project will take about 15 years to repay at a
cost of about $6.5 million per year.
Water customers on Monday took a point-of-view
similar to people preparing for a long-awaited storm: They knew
it was coming and are bracing themselves for the impact.
“It’s not something we didn’t
expect,” said David Polnick, the Abilene Independent School
District’s deputy superintendent for business and finance.
The school district used 97.173 million
gallons in 1999, putting AISD on the water utility’s top-10
user list.
Polnick calculated the increase will add
roughly $150,000 to the AISD budget, which would translate into
about 1 cent on the school district’s property tax rate next
year. The school district faced a $3 million budget shortfall
last summer and Superintendent Michael Moehler has warned the
deficit will be worse in 2001-02.
City administrators determined what rates
to propose after considering how much money is needed to build
the pipeline and estimating interest rates in the coming year.
The council must consider the rates now
because the city plans to sell bonds for the project in January
and begin work in February or March.
“The people who are going to be repaid
need to have an assurance that the money will be there,”
Morrison said.
The rates were planned to ensure the city
would have enough money if construction costs or interest rates
are higher than expected, Morrison said. Therefore, the rates
could be reduced slightly if either is lower than predicted.
Furthermore, if the city manages to obtain
federal or state grant money to help pay for the project, the
rates could be reduced more, he said.
Morrison said the rates were designed with
two things in mind: The city wants to affect smaller water customers
the least and to promote water conservation. Hence the monthly
service charge for most residents will increase from $5.25 to
$8.50. For larger customers, the fee will double.
Rates for sewer service and refuse collection,
which are billed along with water use, will not change.
Whether rates can affect consumption has
been a matter of debate at City Hall for years. Water utilities
director Dwayne Hargesheimer has often said higher rates translate
to less consumption; others have countered that it doesn’t,
noting that higher gasoline prices have not slowed people’s
penchant for driving.
Scott Warren, manager of Garden World nursery,
said the rate hike will affect his business “somewhat.”
Warren said he will likely find the money to pay for the increases
by tightening his labor budget.
“I’d much rather have higher rates
and water in the lake than low rates and a dry lake, like last
summer,” Warren said, referring to the water level at Lake
Fort Phantom Hill, the city’s main water resource. Low lake
levels forced the city to implement water restrictions in August
1999.
Higher rates are one of the four water-related
issues the council will consider Thursday. Council members will
also:
- Discuss and consider the capacity of a
treatment plant for Ivie water. City administrators have recommended
an expandable plant that could treat 8 million gallons of water
a day upon completion at a cost of about $15 million. Several
council members have publicly doubted that that will be enough.
- Consider condemning the remaining land
needed for the Ivie pipeline right of way. Morrison said the
city has not reached an agreement on two plots of land under
which the pipeline will eventually travel. Condemnation proceedings
will ensure the city obtains the property.
- Give a final reading to the repeal of
an ordinance that bans adding fluoride from the city’s water
supply. Voters approved fluoridating the city’s water supply
in the November election. Morrison said the equipment needed
for the project should be in place by summer.
Contact city government writer
Samuel Segrist at 676-6744 or segrists@abinews.com.
Check out our Web site at www.reporternews.com
Send a Letter to the Editor about This
Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address)
of This Story to A Friend:
Copyright ©2000,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
|
