It was like Christmas. Everyone knew it was coming and tried to get ready for it. Now increases in utility rates are here, but there is little joy to be found.
Residents had been told rate hikes were inevitable during a series of town hall meetings where the one-cent sales tax was discussed. The tax money was earmarked for a drinking water treatment plant and a serious upgrade to the sewer treatment plant.
The drinking water plant is being built to get the city out from under a Department of Environmental Quality consent order. That order allowed the town to continue providing untreated water as long as it was working toward a long-term solution. The treatment plant is that solution.
The waste treatment plant improvements are necessary for the town to grow. For instance, the now-shuttered Diamondback Correctional facility northeast of town could not be brought back into use unless operators built a sewage lagoon. The added costs could make the facility infeasible to operate and the city would not benefit from the cost of treating the wastes if it were in operation.
Electrical rates are included in the increase.
City manager Karrie Beth Little has said each of the utility services needs to support its own costs. About half the city budget, she said, is from the utilities.
The water rates will be based on consumption. Residential service charges will go to $12 per month and the first 1,000 gallons of water will cost $2.40. Each thousand gallons thereafter will increase by a nickel. For instance, a household using 5,000 gallons will pay $2.60 per thousand.
Sewer rates will change to $12 per month for residential use. If a resident uses between one and nine units, the cost will be $3.75 per unit. Units 10-50 will be at a cost of $4 and more than 50 will be at a cost of $ 3 each. The sewage use is set by water consumption, although not all water that flows into a home is disposed of through the sewage system.
On the electrical side, the residential charge will go to $20 per month and the first 500 kilowatts will cost .109 per kilowatt. Over 500 will be at a rate of .1164 per kilowatt.
Garbage rates will change as well. The first poly cart at a residence will cost $20 for a once a week collection. Each cart hereafter will go to $8. Commercial rates will climb to $20 per week for a small commercial poly cart, $69 for a 2yard dumpster and $97 for $-yard dumpsters.
The council had deferred the increases until it had begun repayment on the loans for the new treatment plants. With the approval of the rate change ordinance at the March city council meeting, the increases will go into effect on the April bills due in May.
“This is not something we want to do, it’s something we have to do,” said Mayor Bill Seitter.
“We have been under this consent order and have to build a water treatment plant. The sales tax (restricted to the water projects) is about $30-40,000 per month. That’s about half of what we need,” he added.
Like almost every town across the state, sales taxes in Watonga have slumped. In addition, the town has already begun repayment on the $14 million loan from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, even though the projects are still in the planning and engineering phases.