Q. (From a Citizen) Any chance we can encourage our Am. Fork City Council to re-evaluate the rising cost of water? Now that pressurized irrigation has gone in, culinary water rates have more than doubled for most families in AF even though water usage is down due to the wet spring. How can such significant rate increases be justifiable? Last year June $68 for Water & Sewer. This year, $128 PLUS $17.00 for the reclaimed... Any suggestions?
I understand the need to pay the bond, and I voted for the action, as I thought it was the right thing to do over the long run. I've hooked into the PI for all outside watering, and culinary use should be down compared to last year. I've talked with several folks who are saying the same thing, so it may be worth looking at.
A. When we looked at pricing the water, John Schiess (Horrocks) gave us several alternatives. The need to cover the Bond payments was the most critical element in the equation. We discussed charging a "hook-up fee" but decided not to. We had planned to cover the total depreciation of the system. Several small business's complained about their rates, i.e. Parker's, Buhler's, etc. We adjusted the rates downward by reducing the amount of depreciation. That will be "deferred maintainance" in the long run. Also, we wanted to encourage conservation of the culinary water and the increase in culinary rates will encourage people to hook up to the PI system. The increase in culinary rates will also shift some of the burden of paying for the system to some of the large business's who don't have much landscaping and will not be hooked up to the PI, i.e. Walmart, Home Depot, etc. I think that as we looked at the "total community" we felt this was about the best we could do to balance the cost between the residents and the business community. We do have concerns about the Bond payments as we factored in some payments from impact fees which have been substantially reduced as you know.
Our hope is that we will get a higher take rate than the 85% that John Schiess calculated. As we get finished with the system and see how it performs financially, we can look at possible adjustments.
Q. I have low pressure in my PI system, What can be done?
A. We have had some instances of low pressure in isolated areas. I had the problem in a business park. We found several pieces of debris, leaves etc. The filter people actually came out as it was at the end of the line. Sometimes your installer may have installed too small of pipe. Call the Water Dept to come and look.
Q. The roads, can we do anything?
Trenching was necessary and was contemplated when voters passed the bond. We have had very few complaints, and most contractors have complied and done a good job. We have some obvious funding challenges. Overall infrastructure and long term capital improvements have been neglected in the past. We are getting our arms around a long term maintenance and funding programs.
More answers can be found at www.afcity.org. Thanks to my colleague, Dale Gunther who contributed to this post.
