The Town of Culver is now turning its attention to adopting an amended water rate ordinance.
During a special meeting Tuesday night, the Culver Town Council introduced the language – which will likely be approved in mid-June. Culver is working to upgrade its water treatment facility, the costs of which call for an increase in water rates.
Culver Financial Advisor Jeff Rowe says the water utility now needs to generate another $61-thousand.
“In terms of the impact on the average bill, if you use 4-thousand gallons which kind of is what [State Revolving Fund] estimates to be an average bill, you pay $30.23, that would go up to $35.58 – which is an increase of $5.35,” says Rowe.
The Town Council approved an ordinance allowing bonds to be issued to help pay for the construction on Tuesday. Still, a revenue source is needed to help repay that debt.
Culver has previously amended a 2008 ordinance, and is now looking to amend a 2014 water rate ordinance to help pay for the upgrades. Which rates are imposed, however, depends on the project scope. By including a storage facility, or Alternate One, as part of the upgrades, residents would see an additional $1.30 per month on their utilities bills on average.
Rowe says the proposed rates are all about future decisions.
“We wanted to keep that option open to the town incase there’s a change of mind on that and you decided to include Alternate One,” says Rowe.
The Town Council has made it a point to take every precaution as part of a bond issuance process, even approving language to simply introduce the water rate ordinance.
Culver’s Financial Advisors have built in contingencies to allow future water improvement projects, such as replacement of water mains.
The Town Council will meet again on June 15th to adopt the ordinance.
