City to look at sewer rates

By Ralph Pokorny

Herald-Tribune

NEVADA -- The Nevada City Council plans to consider two emergency ordinances, during Tuesday night's council meeting, to raise water and sewer rates to a level that will cover the operation and maintenance costs of the system.

"They don't make enough to sustain themselves, let alone to cover the cost of capital improvements," interim city manager Harlan Moore said Thursday afternoon.

The water and sewer operations should be run like a business, Moore said.

Everyone understands that it costs more to do anything today than it did 20 years ago, he said.

The new rate structure for water would increase the cost for the first 1,000 gallons of water from $10 to $10.30 and the next 49,000 gallons of water would increase from $5.65 to $5.82 calculated to the nearest 100 gallons. For a customer using 3,000 gallons of water per month, the payment would increase from $21.30 to $21.94.

In 1983 the city issued bonds to pay for a new water treatment plant and also set the rates to help pay off those bonds. At that time, the city set the water rate at $6 per 1,000 gallons of usage and promised to lower the rates when the bonds were paid off in 2005.

In 2005 the city lowered the water rates to the current level.

Sewer rates will continue to have two structures, one for non-metered users and one for metered users, which are large commercial customers like the 3M Commercial Graphics Division.

For non-metered customers, the base rate would change from a minimum monthly charge of $1.69 for the first 1,000 gallons of sewage and $1.17 per 1,000 gallons calculated to the nearest 100 gallons for the next 28,000 gallons, to a minimum monthly charge of $3.39 with no sewage discharged included and $2.93 per 1,000 gallons calculated to the nearest 100 gallons. This will raise the basic monthly bill from $1.69 to $6.32 and a customer discharging 3,000 gallons per month will see their bill increase from $4.03 to $9.25.

Metered customers will also see their rates increase from the current $1.95 for their first 999 gallons of metered usage and $1.17 for each additional 1,000 gallons to include a minimum monthly charge of $4.88 plus $2.93 per 1,000 gallons to the nearest computed 100 gallons for all volume discharged.

If the council passes the ordinances on Tuesday, the new rates will go into effect on Dec. 1.

During the Oct. 17 council meeting, Carl Brown, a consultant hired by the city to do a water and sewer rate study, said that according to his findings the current rates are not high enough to cover the operating cost of the system.

Brown worked for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for 14 years doing rate studies as part of his job. He started his own business about one year ago.

The city will play the videotape of the Oct. 17 council meeting on Cable Channel 3 several times before the Nov. 7 council meeting, so residents can see Brown's presentation explaining why he believes the rates should be increased.

According to City Clerk Julie Lewis, the tape will be aired at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday, at 5 p.m. Sunday, and at 1:30 p.m. Monday.