City OKs sewer rate increase, postpones water rate decision

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday night to give preliminary approval to raising the city's sewer rates and voted 4-1 to not approve an increase in the city's water rates until they had more information and possibly hold a public hearing on the issue.

Councilman Bill Gillette, Bill Edmonds, Russ Kemm and Dick Meyers voted against increasing the water rate and Jim Rayburn voted for the measure.

On the sewer rate increase, Russ Kemm, Jim Rayburn and Bill Edmonds voted yes and Bill Gillette and Dick Meyers voted no.

The proposed increases in water and sewer rates come from a rate study the city hired Carl Brown to conduct to see if the rates were sufficient to cover the operating cost for the water and sewer systems.

Before starting his own company Brown worked for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources doing rate studies for communities that wanted to qualify for the Missouri State Revolving Loan program to build new water or sewer plants. The DNR requires communities to have adequate rates to cover maintenance and operating costs to qualify for the loan program.

"I can't vote for this without seeing the '07 budget," councilman Bill Gillette said, referring to the water rate increase.

Gillette said that he is also against supplying water to customers outside the city limits, which the proposed ordinance includes.

If they want city water and sewer they should move into town, he said.

Mayor Jim Rayburn told the council that although he thinks the tap fee for new customers needs to be adjusted, he favors raising the water rates.

"There hasn't been a water rate increase for 25 years and I have to feel that fuel and labor is higher than it was. The tap or connection fee is what a new customer is charged to pay his share of the cost of the infrastructure so existing customers are not subsidizing him," Rayburn said.

The city is proposing raising the tap fee from the current $50 plus cost of materials and labor to $500 plus materials and labor.

Monte Curtis, a local real estate agent and builder told the council that he thinks the proposed tap fee is too high and will discourage developers from building new housing in town.

Curtis told the council that he called a number of towns about Nevada's size to see what they charge for tap fees.

"Some are higher -- some are lower," he said.

For example, he said that Bolivar charges a $25 tap fee plus $500 for equipment and installation; Cameron charges a $225 tap fee and includes needed equipment. Republic charges a $380 tap fee plus $400 for equipment.

"The city does not do much to help developers, like install streets; however, I think if you raise the tap fee you may push people outside of town," Curtis said.

The proposed 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.

Dick Meyers told the council that he was disappointed that more people did not come to last night's city council meeting.

Harlan Moore, interim city manager, suggested that the city could host a well-publicized public meeting and have Carl Brown be there to explain the reason for the rate increases.

"I think we can do a presentation with some photographs of things the public never sees to help them to understand the situation," Moore said.

The city is proposing large increases in the city's sewer rates. For residential customers the base rate will 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 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.

In other business the council:

* Approved the appointments of Denise Nelson, Julie Sitz and Robin Miller to three-year terms on the Nevada Regional Medical Center board of directors. Nelson will be serving her second term and Sitz and Miller will be serving their first terms, all of which will expire in December 2009.

* Approved the appointment of Mike Hutchens to fill the unexpired term on the Nevada Housing Authority. His term will expire in December 2007.

* Voted unanimously to permit Robin McHugh, recreation director, to contact local civic organizations to provide manpower to man the annual Christmas at the Lake light display. This will prevent the need for city personnel working overtime to do this. Any money collected will be split with the organizations providing the assistance.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance establishing a street and infrastructure board to replace the current streets committee and infrastructure committees and determine street repairs and improvements needed and make recommendations to the city council. The board will have five members who are city residents who will each serve three-year staggered terms.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance approving an extension of Harlan Moore's contract until May 17, 2007, or until a permanent city manager is found first. The contract can be terminated sooner if agreed upon by both the city and Moore.

* Voted 5-0 to not pass on second reading a previously proposed ordinance approving a lease agreement with the Nevada R-5 School District for Lyons Stadium and Bushwhacker Field. This measure was replaced with an emergency ordinance.

* Passed 5-0 on both first and second readings an emergency ordinance approving an amended lease agreement with the Nevada R-5 School District for Lyons Stadium and Bushwhacker Field. The 99-year lease provides a mechanism for the R-5 School District to terminate the agreement and also provides for a procedure for the city and the school to meet periodically and discuss maintenance and use of the facility.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance reducing the membership of the airport board from six to five members to make it easier to have a quorum. Two of the members must be residents of the city.

* Passed on first reading a special ordinance establishing bid procedure and indemnification on the Marmaduke Park enclosed shelter house.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance authorizing a plumbing service agreement with Potter Plumbing.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance granting a special use permit to Gail Agee for an accounting office at 305 N. Ash Street.

* Voted 4-1 against changing the zoning at 510 N. College to change zoning from R-1, single family, to C-3 commercial.

* Gave final approval to a special ordinance to change the zoning at 1010 E. Locust from R-1 to M-2, heavy industry, at the request of Andy Remington so he can construct a storage building for his personal use on the property. R-1 zoning does not allow for storage buildings.

* Passed on second reading an amended special ordinance declaring the Key Building, as surplus property so it can be sold by sealed bids to the highest bidder. The ordinance was amended to require that money received from the sale of the building go back into the Friends of the Parks Trust Fund, which provided the money for the purchase.

* Passed on second reading a special ordinance approving litigation costs for claims adjudicated between June and September 26.

* Passed a special ordinance authorizing the city to participate in the Star Loan program for the Nevada Airport. The city has been approved for a $250,000 loan through this state program, which can be used to provide the city's required matching funds for other grants for runway improvements.