Come April, Kent residents are going to face higher water and storm-drainage bills.
The Kent City Council voted 4-3 Tuesday night to increase the basic water rate and the storm-drainage rate starting April 1.
Household customers will pay about $42 more per year because of the new water and drainage rates, said Bob Nachlinger, city finance director.
Water rates will jump about $14 per year per customer. The storm-drainage rates would jump about $28 per year for each customer.
City staff recommended the water-rate increase to help the city pay for the operation, maintenance, replacement and expansion of the city water system as required by federal and state regulations for fire codes and health standards. The expansion of the system also would enable the city to potentially sell excess water to neighboring jurisdictions.
City staff said storm-drainage rates need to go up to help pay for capital-improvement projects to the water system. The projects are designed to meet the requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued each year by the state Department of Ecology. The drainage-rate increase also will help pay for $25 million of repairs to Green River levees in the city to help control flooding.
City staff suggested making the rate changes effective Jan. 1, but the Council opted to delay the change to April 1.
“We wanted to defer the the fees until April to minimize the impact on residents (due to the downturn of the economy),” Councilwoman Deborah Ranniger said prior to the vote.
Ranniger, Council President Debbie Raplee, Ron Harmon and Les Thomas voted in favor of the utility-rate increase starting in April.
Tim Clark, Elizabeth Albertson and Jamie Danielson opposed the ordinance because they wanted the increase to start Jan. 1 in order to bring revenue in sooner so work could start on the water and storm-drainage system projects.
“It’s about the health and welfare of the community,” Clark said. “I’m not happy with the delay. I think it will hurt us.”
Larry Blanchard, city public works director, said despite the three-month delay in the rate increases, the city should be able to meet the August deadlines to complete water system projects in order to be in compliance with federal and state regulations.
“But we can only do the design at this point until we collect additional revenue,” Blanchard said of the rate-increase delay until April.
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