A unanimous council decision will see the cost of water in the city be increased as of Jan. 1.
The nine per cent increase is part of the city’s five year utility rate increase plan to accumulate funds for system upkeep and operation that needs to be done to keep the system running, as well as to ensure that water and sewer costs will not be subsidized from city tax dollars, says City Manager Roy Hardy.
As of right now, the city is not subsidizing water and sewer costs with taxes, says Hardy.
“Where we’re at right now, we are only now starting to catch up on doing the amount of work we need to do each year.”
A family with an average water use of around 42,000 gallons a year, will see an increase of around $92/year. This amount will not be big for most people but those on fixed-income and low-income families were discussed around the council table.
Councillor Sandra Weyland voiced her concerns before the final vote, saying it may not be significant to those around the table but nine per cent is a significant increase to other Humboldt residents.
“I appreciate and understand the needs for infrastructure improvements but I am concerned about how that increase affects people on fixed incomes.”
Infrastructure is expensive and it is a hard decision to make, she says, but it is also unfortunate that council has to keep on asking for increases to do the work.
“I think all the other communities are struggling with the same issues.”
There is a lot of backlog when it comes to work that needs to be done with a lot of pipes needing work all at the same time, says Hardy.
“For us, our job, when we’re doing our capital planning, is to try and spread that as much as we can.”
Repairs to water and sewer infrastructure does take a lot of resources but once it is done, the city is good for another 50 years, says Hardy.
A new contractor with the city is also going to give cost of upgrades a slight rise compared to the their previous contractor who was well trusted by the city.
“We’ve seen a bump in the cost of getting work done here and that’s another reason we’ve sort of stayed on the higher end of the increases.”
Public Works Director, Peter Bergquist, says that the work includes water and sewer mains, lift stations, and water stations.
Part of the asset assessment done by the city is to record how long the infrastructure is going to last before needing repairs, says Bergquist.
“According to our asset management plan, it states how many dollars we need to remain sustainable.”
Tackling repairs have to be done strategically, says Hardy.
“(You have to) try to make sure that if you were to have a critical break, that there is still one piece of pipe that you can flow water through.”
Hardy says increases do make people more conscious of their water usage and that is important as the city manages water.
