Over the past two years, the City has been updating the master plans of three of its utilities (water, sewer, and storm water). Each master plan lays out current and future needs of each service in terms of both needed projects and revenue.
The City Council has been reviewing the plans individually to understand each utility's needs and to evaluate all proposed projects. It is also considering strategies to fund needed improvements through regular fee increases over 5, 7, and 10 years. This will ensure the reliability of these essential services.
In March, the City Council approved a $1.00 per month increase to cover the needs of the storm drain utility. The City Council also adopted the sewer utility master plan and accompanying user rate study. The adoption of the sewer utility master plan will have no impact on your rates this year; but in future years, incremental increases will be necessary to keep the utility functioning and repaired.
The next step of the utility master plan approval will be the presentation of the draft water utility master plan, along with the accompanying user rate study on April 12th in the council study session @ 3:00 PM. On April 26th @ 6:00 PM in the city council meeting the water utility master plan and user rate study will be brought forward for official consideration.
The City Council is doing its best to balance the needs of the utility systems with the impact of rate increases to citizens.
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