City: Rates may increase if bond fails

SANDPOINT — Voters won’t decide the fate of a $17 million water bond until November, but the City Council is already mulling alternative ways to pay for treatment plant renovations if the bond once again fails.

The council hosted water rate specialist Tom Gould Wednesday evening to discuss the financial implications of the Nov. 3 election. Working under the assumption that renovations to the lake water treatment plant will occur one way or another, Gould explained how user rates would be affected with or without the bond.

If the bond passes, users would see their water bills increase approximately $4-6 per month while the loan is paid down. If it fails, as it did last May, the council has the option of funding the renovation through increased water rates. According to Public Works Director Kody Van Dyk, rates would likely need to be increased by $14-16 per month for a number of years in order to pay for the renovation project.

“That’s the pay-as-you-go option,” Van Dyk said. “It’s no different than buying a car. Do you save up to buy that car, or do you put in on credit?”

She doesn’t necessarily support the option, but Councilwoman Carrie Logan said plant renovations — which would substantially increase the city’s treatment capacity — are such a necessity that she would vote for a “pay-as-you-go” plan if the bond fails.

“What we talked about was trying to save $2 million per year, and we’d do that by increasing rates and taking that additional amount and basically putting it into a savings account for five, six, seven years, until we have enough to just pay cash for it,” she said.

Like Logan, Councilman Stephen Snedden said something needs to be done in order to meet the growing demand for water, even if that means implementing steep increases to user fees.

“If the water bond doesn’t pass, I’d expect that we would look at some tough conservation rates in order to encourage people to save water during July and August and September — our high-use months — and I’m in favor of those,” he said.

Nobody on council suggests that plant renovations are completely unnecessary, but some, such as Councilwoman Helen Newton, said if it means substantially raising user rates, the renovations can wait. Echoing earlier comments made by Councilman Michael Boge, Newton said instead of raising fees, the city needs to find ways to cut water use during the summer months.

“I agree that this is not the time to be raising anybody’s utility bills and I agree that we need to look at other methods to reduce consumption during the peak months, which is only two months out of the year,” she said.

The bond election will take place Nov. 3 at Sandpoint City Hall. Absentee ballots are available now until election day.