MONROE — The city has to increase water rates, but the question is who should swallow it.
The city has asked the Sky Meadow Water Association to endure part of the pain by proposing a new rate of about $1.11 for 100 cubic feet of water, a rate increase of about 45 cents, said Carol Grey, the city’s finance director.
If the association, which serves 375 customers west of the city, used the same amount of water as last year, the city would get about $93,000 on the new contract, an increase of about $38,400, Grey said.
The city needs to increase the rate for the association, which has been on a lower rate than those inside the city.
"They are comfortable with the old rate, but we can’t afford to give them water at that rate any more," Mayor Donnetta Walser said.
The city’s contract with the association expires at the end of the month, city officials said. If the association decides not to go with the new rate, it would have to pay the same $2.03 per 100 cubic feet of water that other individual customers outside the city pay.
"They can continue to get (water), but it will be pretty expensive," Walser said.
Clark Vellema, the association’s manager, said it hasn’t decided on the new contract.
"We’re asking the city to continue negotiations to review various rate consideration," Vellema said, adding the association questions a rate study used by the city to determine the new rate.
The city conducted the study last year to propose new rates for the association and the state prison in town. While the association pays 66 cents for 100 cubic feet and the prison pays 59 cents, customers in the city pay $2.49 and those outside the city pay $2.03.
The city and the state Department of Corrections have agreed on a new contract, officials from the two agencies said. The prison would pay about $1.59 on the new rate, which the city expects would bring in $448,000, or an increase of about $183,000.
Unlike the prison, the association has its own storage system, said Brad Feilberg, the city’s engineering director. That’s why the new rate is lower than the one for the prison.
The new rates for the prison and association would keep the rate for the others from increasing, Walser said.
"What we are trying to do is to be fair," she said.
There should be a difference between the rate for the association, which doesn’t have many meters for the city to read, and for the other customers, Vellema said.
The city is trying to downplay the difference and use the association as "cash cow," he said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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