Columbia County Board of Commissioners will discuss the proposed increase to the water and sewer rates at an upcoming meeting.
At the Columbia County Public Works and Engineering Services Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 23, Matt Schlachter, assistant county manager, told committee members the county has not changed the water consumption rates since 2016 and has not adjusted the tap fees since 2017. However, since that time, there has been an increase in the cost of chemicals construction, equipment and labor.
“In order to keep our fund balance from dipping down to zero, we need to amend our rates,” Schlachter said. “Mr. (Stacey) Gordon has done a rate study. He’s projected that at our current rate, I believe we’ll hit a zero balance in three years. Three years, and our fund balance will be completely gone if we maintain our current rates. The proposed rates will help us level that fund balance out.”
The staff recommended a slight increase over the next three years. If approved, for the first year, the residential water base charge would be $11.95 with the rate per 1,000 gallons starting at $2.35 for less than 10,000 gallons. The residential sewer base charge is $15.21 and the rate per 1,000 gallons is $2.66. For the second year, the residential base charge would be $12.31 with the rate per 1,000 gallons starting at $2.42 for less than 10,000 gallons. For the residential sewer rates, the base charge is $15.67 and the rate per 1,000 gallons is $2.74. For third year, the residential base charge is $12.68 and the rate per 1,000 gallons is $2.50 for less than 10,000 gallons. The residential sewer base charge would be $16.14 and the rate per 1,000 gallons would be $2.82. For all three years the commercial water and sewer rates vary depending on the service size. The increases would take effect on July 1 of each year.
“We’re still the lowest of the areas we compared,” Schlachter said. “Keeping our rates low for our citizens is definitely a goal. We also have to cover our costs to operate.”
Gary Richardson, committee chair and commissioner, mentioned that previously he and Duncan did not feel that rates should be raised because there was a fund balance of $60 million.
“We didn’t do that, staff heard that loud and clear,” said County Manager Scott Johnson. “We have held off on any sort of rate increases until we got to this situation we are now. We have spent the fund balance down significantly now. We are now at a much more comfortable position with that fund balance.”
Commission chairman and committee member Doug Duncan asked what the current fund balance was, which is $20 million.
Richardson asked if the county was expected to have a 180 day fund balance, with Schlachter stating the policy is that the county should have no more than 180 days. Duncan inquired about how much in surplus is generated each year, because that was the issue previously.
“It varies,” Schlachter said. “I think this year we’re probably $7 million. That’s why we’re able to project out those projects above what we have in fund balance because we knew we were adding money to the fund balance every year. But at this point our fund balance is sinking faster than our reserves are adding back to it.”
Johnson added that the staff has waited to ask for a rate increase, but now is the time because if not, the county will be in a situation where it cannot meet demands.
“We are asking for three years,” Johnson said. “We’re doing that so we can do incremental increases to get us to where we need to be over a three-year period as opposed to hitting our citizens with one big rate increase at one time. we’re not looking for anything beyond that, we’ll have to re-evaluate after the three years, we’re not looking to say in year four we add more. I think this three-year increase gets us where we need to be, but we have to continue to evaluate.”
Duncan said he would like to see more analysis of the financials before voting for the increase. Richardson and Commissioner Alison Couch both voted to move the item to the debate agenda for the full board of commissioners.
