Two important issues were brought up during the Dec. 11 council meeting.
Director of Public Works and Utilities Peter Bergquist announced a 2.31 per cent to 2.76 per cent increase to utility rates, in part to counteract the annual increase from SaskWater.
Bergquist anticipates this to be between a $2.54-$3.89/month increase on water bills with amounts varying based on individual usage.
Broken down, Bergquist reported to council a 4.85 per cent increase to water consumption rates to keep pace with changes brought forth from SaskWater, a one percent increase to the water base rates, sewer base rates, and sewer flow rates which will, “cover some inflation expenses to the utility,” and a 2.44 per cent increase to the Storm Water Levy as per Bylaw 08/2017.
This coincides with the 20-year agreement from 2016 that is seeing “provisions of drinking water and ongoing capital upgrades to the Wakaw-Humboldt Water Supply System,” according to Bergquist’s report to council.
The increase will see a seven per cent to what SaskWater charges the city at cost for water, says Bergquist, which then leads to changes to cover the increase. However, the actually cost that the city pays is dependant on actual consumption.
As per the money being brought into the city, Bergquist says they are not at a rate yet to cover development costs from year to year with an estimated $1 million needed annually to cover the replacement of water and sewer mains, and lift stations.
“That’s what our asset management is telling us is that we need about a million dollars a year for replacement and repairs of the assets we currently own.”
As it stands right now, 60 per cent of the city’s water mains are PVC with around 40 per cent cast iron that needs to be replaced. It would cost around $56.4 million to replace everything that needs to be replaced.
Around 40 per cent of sewer lines are PVC while around 60 per cent are still cast iron. It would cost around $30 million to replace everything that needs to be replaced.
Replacements should last around 100 years with less water main problems occurring with PVC.
Change is coming for the committee structure of the city in 2018 with the four committees uniting under one executive committee.
Currently, the city has committees that meet once a month: Communications and Community Development Committee, Community & Leisure Services Committee, Corporate Services Committee, and Public Works & Utilities Committee, with council representatives being a part of those committees.
City Manager Joe Day says this was not a very effective strategy with issues being discussed at committee with a few councillors and then discussed again at council with all the councillors.
“What we’re hoping we’ll do is have a lot of early stages of reports and project proposals will come to this executive committee so we’ll have good feedback from council.”
The executive committee then hopes to work on improving the project before bringing it back to be approved on by council. says Day.
“Generally, people will understand the background and how we got there.”
Decisions will continue to be made during the council meeting while it is possible that council meetings will be made shorter by the move to an executive committee.
“A lot of the discussion doesn’t need to take place in council. It’s more valuable if it takes place is a little less regulated environment that an executive can provide for.”
When Day brought this forth at the recent council meeting, councillors were concerned about the meetings going too long with the four individual committees going for a fair bit of time. Combining all four will require some time management.
“I do believe we can introduce a few more efficiencies into the process. I don’t anticipate that being a big problem.”
The executive committee will start meeting once a month starting February 2018.
While the number of permits are down for the City of Humboldt, the city saw an increase in commercial permits being released.
The city also released their building permits for 2017 and saw 48 permits with a value $12,955,814.
This is an increase from $4,886,698 in 2016 with 57 permits.
Of that 2017 total, $11,779,331 were from commercial permits.
“Residential numbers have been low for the last two years,” said Sandra Pauli, City Clerk in a press release. “However, permit values for commercial projects have been excellent and we hope for the investment to continue for 2018.”
Of those commercial properties, permits included, as noted in the press release, renovations for the St. Elizabeth Convent, a new Dental Clinic building on 21st Street, and the new Horizon School Division office on the north side of Hwy 5.
While 2017 has been a good year, according to the city, they have not beat 2015 numbers which saw 52 permits valued at $15,819,288 with $12,999,952 worth of residential development, $2,799,336 worth of commercial, and $20,000 worth of institutional.
