“It’s not like you haven’t given us fair warning,” Humboldt council member Cindy Holingsworth told city administrator Cole Herder at the city’s council meeting Tuesday evening. “You’ve been telling us that this was going to get ugly.”
The topic was the city’s water and sewer rates, and how much the city would need to raise rates in order to begin planning to pay for the replacement of water lines scheduled to begin mid-2025. The project, estimated at around $13 million, will include new water distribution lines and repairs to water towers and treatment processes. In total, Herder expects about 12-18 months of construction once work begins, but the city still needs to resolve 65 easements necessary for the project’s completion.
And Herder was none too thrilled to present the council the opinion of Ranson Financial, a municipal financial advisor group, that recommended Humboldt double the city’s water rates to finance the project.
“Our analysis of the scenario concludes…that the System might need to increase revenues and/or decrease expenses by approximately 100.25% in order to pay forecasted operating expenditures,” reads a letter from Ranson Financial sent to the city. Ugly indeed.
The prospect of such a drastic increase seemed untenable to Herder. Currently, a Humboldt household pays $55.66 for 5,000 gallons of water. With the rate increase, that would jump to about $111. Kansas’s most recent average residential water bill for 5,000 gallons was around $38 for cities.
Herder recommended the council consider raising water rates by 67% at either their December or January meeting, with the updated rates to take effect in the March 2025 billing. He also suggested the council raise sewer rates by 8%. “We need that increase just to break even,” noted Herder. “The last rate increase was by 5% in April 2019.”
A sparse council, with only Holingsworth, Otis Crawford, and Blake McDaniel attending in person (Sunny Shreeve joined by phone, while Sarah Hart left early due to a family emergency), appeared receptive to Herder’s recommendations but took no action.
TUESDAY’S MEETING wasn’t all bad news, however. Herder notified council members of a significant breakthrough in the city’s search for more affordable health care. It comes from the Kansas Municipal Insurance Trust (KMIT), a self-funded pool that provides workers compensation coverage and health insurance coverage to more than 170 public entities in Kansas.
The city currently offers insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace, after changing from Chamber Blue, a policy available to Kansas Chamber of Commerce members. But when Herder caught wind of a scheduled 9% increase for 2025 for the same coverage, he pursued coverage via KMIT.
The result? No increase at all for nearly the exact same health, dental and vision coverage, saving the city about $23,000 and keeping rates the same for 20-25 city employees who use the city’s insurance. To join, Humboldt would need to agree to KMIT’s bylaws and agree to join the organization, which council members moved to do unanimously. The city currently pays for 100% of an employee’s premium but does not contribute to covering spouses or children.
IN OTHER NEWS, council members:
Learned Sunny Shreeve would resign from her position after the council’s December meeting. Shreeve, who represents Ward 2, notified the council she and her husband are moving to Georgia. Herder encouraged residents interested in filling Shreeve’s position to contact the city.
Accepted the recommendation of Dana Peters, Humboldt Chamber of Commerce director, for the upcoming Bike Around the Square, scheduled for Friday, Nov. 29. “The only change we’d like to make would be to start blocking off streets at 3 p.m. instead of 4 p.m.,” said Peters, explaining the extra hour will provide more time to clear the square of vehicles before the event. Bike Around the Square, a Humboldt tradition helping ring in the holiday season, begins at 5 p.m. and will last till around 7 p.m.
Agreed to schedule a hearing at the council’s December 9 meeting to continue their participation in the Neighborhood Revitalization Program.
Moved to continue negotiations with the Kansas Municipal Gas Agency (KMGA) for a natural gas project. Humboldt and the KMGA would purchase the natural gas from Black Belt Energy, a municipally-owned corporation based in Alabama. The gas would ultimately come from WoodRiver Energy of Colorado. The agreement would be for a 30-year term and allow Humboldt to obtain natural gas at a discounted rate.
