Iolans will pay about 30 percent more for sewer services.
City Council members approved the higher rates at their regular meeting Monday, which City Administrator Carl Slaugh hopes will push reserves high enough to pay for ongoing repairs and improvements to the wastewater system.
Before the rate hike, Slaugh described the fund balance and revenues, as “inadequate to make improvements necessary to maintain and improve the quality of the system, much less make payments for a large improvement project.”
The city pays $175,795 annually to retire general obligation bonds used as part of a $3.5 million project to improve the capacity of the sewage lagoons in 2008.
Slaugh noted the wastewater fund balance, as of March 31, was negative $2,974.74.
Council members approved 6-1, a $1.50-per-month increase in the base monthly charge, from $5 to $6.50. Additionally, customers will pay 45 cents more per unit of water.
For an average user, sewer rates are expected to go from about $21 a month to $28.
Additionally, the new rate policy contains automatic cost adjustments in accordance with the Social Security Index.
The sole dissenter on the rate hike was Councilman Ken Rowe, who said the city should continue to look at ways to cut costs instead of consistently looking at rate increases.
Councilman Kendall Callahan said he voted for the rate hike after Slaugh assured him the number of employees in Iola’s Gas, Water and Wastewater Department was lean and efficient.
Councilman Steve French was absent.
In a related matter, council members said they would use other utility reserves to make a bond payment for construction of the city’s water treatment plant.
The city has $129,000 in water fund reserves. The upcoming payment will cost $310,000.
Council members voted 7-0 to use the other utility reserves on a temporary basis to cover the bond payment.
Slaugh said the council’s approval in 2011 of an 18-percent hike in water rates meant water fund reserves are stable, but not growing, as he had hoped. Slaugh recommended a larger increase in water rates last year, a proposal rejected by the council in lieu of the smaller increase.
Slaugh said the city will likely need to revisit its water rate structure in the near future.
