Everett passes utility rate increases
Published 11:11 pm Wednesday, September 24, 2008
EVERETT — The Everett City Council on Wednesday approved a bundle of utility rate increases aimed at keeping the city’s utility department solvent and cleanup work on the Everett riverfront moving.
The city anticipates a bond sale next year to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars in planned sewer and water projects.
Everett’s utilities department also plans to hire about 13 additional full-time employees to keep up with increasing environmental regulations and to quell labor-management tensions over the practice of using day laborers.
“We are running out of money,” said Everett’s public works director and utilities chief Tom Thetford.
Without the fee increases, Thetford said, the city would deplete its utility reserves by mid-2009, something that would prevent the city from its goal of selling $40 million in bonds to support sewer and water projects.
Unlike most city departments, the utilities department is supported by user fees. It is not subsidized by the general fund, which is primarily used to pay for police and fire protection.
The rate increase will see combined sewer and water bills for single-family homes climb by nearly $16 by 2012.
The increased fees for water and water filtration, storm water, sewer and solid-waste services are expected to raise about $35 million for the utility over the next four years.
Monthly sewer and water fees for single-family homes will adjust annually, growing to $77.40 a month from the current monthly rate of about $61.60.
Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said not moving forward with the rate increases would result in “devastating and significantly more costly” problems down the road.
“This is clearly not an issue that resonates unless it fails,” he said.
Meanwhile, one-time fees charged for a new single-family home to connect to the city’s water and sewer lines will increase to $7,075 from $1,037.
The steep climb in hook-up fees attempts to close a wide gap between fees in Everett and fees charged by other municipalities, Thetford said. Hooking up to Everett’s water and sewer systems now costs a fraction of what it does in Bellingham, Tacoma, Mukilteo, Silver Lake, Seattle and Bellevue, according to a city rate comparison survey.
Extra money collected by the city’s utilities department would pay for water and sewer line replacements, projects at the water filtration and wastewater treatment plants and for expensive storm drain upgrades designed to limit pollution in runoff that flows into streams and eventually Puget Sound.
Increased solid-waste fees will also go toward millions of dollars in cleanup of a closed dump along the Snohomish River where an outdoor shopping mall is planned.
New water and sewer rates will take effect Jan. 1.
Thetford acknowledged the increases come at a difficult time for many people, but he added the utility is not insulated from the rising costs of doing business. The price of soda ash, hypochlorite and other chemicals used to treat water have skyrocketed this decade.
Councilman Arlan Hatloe, a member of the council’s budget committee, agreed.
“It’s a difficult decision to make,” he said. “But I think it’s the right one.”
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
How the utility rates compare
Approved sewer and water rate increases for single-family homes in Everett:
Water and water filtration: $6 per month increase
Now: $20.70
2012: $26.70
Sewer: $6 per month increase
Now: $27.90
2012: $33.90
Storm water: $2.30 per month increase
Now: $10.50
2012: $12.80
Solid waste: $1.50 per month increase
Now: $2.50
2012: $4.00
Total: $15.80 per month, or $189.60 a year
More information is available online at www.everettwa.org.
