| Water sparks hot debate |
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| News | |||
| Written by Brian McCauley | |||
| Wednesday, 05 August 2009 08:00 | |||
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The stress of rising water rates in Paola reached a boiling point during the Paola City Council meeting last week. City officials have planned for rate increases since the beginning of the joint water plant project with the city of Louisburg, but a review of the numbers over the past few months has begun to give the officials a clearer picture of just how drastic those rate increases will need to be. In July, the city increased the water monthly usage fee from $4 per thousand gallons used to $5 and increased the debt service fee from $12 per month to $14. But it was just the first of several planned rate increases over the next several years to offset the debt from the more-than-$30-million water project with Louisburg, which includes the construction of a water plant along the Marais des Cygnes River. City Manager Jay Wieland previously has said Paola has a reserve of just more than $1 million from the collection of the debt service fee during the past few years, and that money will be used to help offset the bills and keep the water rates from skyrocketing. But during the July 28 council meeting, it was announced that under the current rate structure, the reserves could be dried up by 2011, with almost $600,000 of it budgeted to be used in 2010. Wieland said the rates will have to go up to compensate, and he said a $2 increase in the debt service fee and 5 cent increase in the usage fee per 1,000 gallons will likely need to take place at the beginning of next year. Councilmen Jack Rowlett Jr. and Pete Bell both expressed concern over losing the reserves too quickly and said the rates may have to go up even higher than that. “We’ve got to come up with a lot more money pretty quick,” Rowlett said. “It really is a crisis situation.” Bell agreed. “I’m not encouraging disposing of reserves right now,” he said. If the rates continue to jump up, it will put more of a burden on residents and business owners, many of whom are already feeling the pinch of higher rates. Chad Oehlert, who owns Paola Auto Wash and Four Seasons Car Wash, asked the council earlier this year to lessen the burden of the rate increases to keep him in business. Because of the elimination of the discount for high-volume users, Oehlert said his monthly water bill will jump more than $600. Oehlert again spoke at the July 28 meeting, this time asking the council to treat him like a wholesale customer and sell him water at a reduced price, something the city is considering to do with Miami County Rural Water District No. 1 to keep the district as a customer. Oehlert said he has already raised his prices because of the economy, but the new pressure of increased water rates may force him to lose his businesses or leave Paola. He said he already has the land where the Four Seasons Car Wash is located up for sale, and he may have to bull doze that structure at the intersection of Hospital Drive and Kaskaskia Street near Casey’s General Store. Mayor Artie Stuteville encouraged Oehlert to attend the city’s work session, which was scheduled to be held Tuesday night. “I feel like I’m being heard, and yet I’m not being heard,” Oehlert said in frustration. “I’m fed up. I’ve had it with Paola.” Alan Hire, who is the chairman of Miami County Rural Water District No. 2’s Board of Directors and has criticized the PUA’s water project throughout its duration, also spoke at the July 28 meeting. “The end result of what I predicted years ago has happened, and it’s ugly,” Hire said. He added that the entire payment structure for the PUA is skewed, with Paola paying for water lines that it will never use. “It was wrong from the beginning six years ago, it’s still wrong, and nobody has fixed it,” Hire said. Hire eventually was reminded of the five-minute time limit for public comments on non-agenda items, which Councilman Bell said he disagreed with. “I don’t see a problem with violating the five-minute time limit,” Bell said. No official decision about water rates was made during the meeting. The results of Tuesday’s work session were not available at press time.
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