MONROE — When a city puts off upgrading its infrastructure for utilities, Janet Osborn knows all too well how people can be affected.
Osborn, 72, has had her Monroe home and yard covered with mud and muck after an aging city water line broke and flooded her Park Street property. That’s happened last September and three previous occasions in the past 10 years.
“I was just beside myself,” she said “All four times it has done damage to my property and my home. It has also affected my neighbor’s home.”
The city’s water lines were designed to last 50 years but have been in the ground since the 1940s, Monroe Public Works Director Brad Feilberg said.
Now, he said, the City Council wants to increase revenue from utilities and make other changes so Monroe can pay for maintenance and upgrades, such as replacing pumps and water lines.
Osborn hopes the city does a better job at keeping up on its infrastructure after improvements are made. After a city line burst near her place on both the second and third time, water was spraying around her yard and seeping into her home. The mess was so extensive after the floods she had to pack her belongings into storage and move out for several months.
Osborn and Scooter, her pomapoo, twice had to stay with friends while sand and silt was removed from their home, water was dried and other costly repairs were completed.
“I’ve kind of had it here,” Osborn said
On Tuesday, the City Council asked Monroe staff to do the work that would allow the elected lawmakers to approve more revenue from water, sewer and stormwater and make other changes to utility systems for 2016. The extra money could help the city pay for upgrades and maintenance for utilities.
City staff will spend the coming weeks digging up city codes related to utilities and rewriting them. Once the work is completed, it will go before council for final approval. Feilberg expects that to happen sometime this fall.
The council wants to increase the revenue from its water system by 7.5 percent each year through 2023.
Sewer revenue would remain the same. But revenue from stormwater would rise by 4 percent a year through 2021.
“People’s bills will vary wildly from that,” Feilberg said. “Some will go up and some will go down.”
That’s because the city has proposed several other changes to utility systems that will affect how much money is brought in. Like the revenue increases, the changes will result in more expensive bills for some while others are expected to save money.
The council based its suggestions on a study done by consultants on Monroe’s utilities and what improvements are needed.
“We looked at what was aging and likely to fall apart,” Feilberg said.
The consultants and city staff suggested the council base water bills on meter size, not the number of units in a multi-family housing development. That’s because people living in multi-family housing have been subsidizing other ratepayers by paying on meter size and the number of units.
If the change is approved, all ratepayers will be charged based on their meter size and how much water they use.
The city is also looking at changing the fire suppression charge. Now households with fire sprinklers pay the same as commercial businesses. The city wants to instead charge the fee based on the size of the water line.
The council also wanted staff look at reducing the amount of revenue from the monthly water base charge from 68 percent to 40 percent. That way the more water a customer uses, the greater the increase on their bill.
The council is also considering changes to its sewer system, such as eliminating overage charges for single and multi-family households. Commercial users would still pay for overages and their usage allowance would be reduced by half during the next three years.
About 6,800 people use Monroe’s utilities. Osborn, who is recovering from two recent shoulder surgeries, hopes the city does the upgrades before another water line breaks and causes more havoc to her home.
She said she is grateful for the work of city crews, however, she would have appreciated more help jumping through government and insurance hoops from Monroe officials.
“I’m this old lady. I live alone. I try to do my best and all these curves sent my way aren’t fun,” Osborn said.
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports.
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