By a vote of 6-1, the Cottonwood City Council approved a notice of intent to raise water and wastewater fees over the next 5 years at a meeting on Tuesday, April 16.
Councilwoman Jackie Nairn was the only member of council to vote against the increase.
This is just the first step in approving the plan to raise rates over the next few months with an upcoming public hearing on the topic on May 21. New rates would go into effect Monday, July 1.
Under the proposed plan, the rate increases would be spaced out over multiple years in order to avoid a massive jump in one year. Wastewater monthly residential rates would climb from $32 in 2018 and 2019 to $37.65 in 2020, continuing to increase in increments to reach $58.85 in 2024, a total increase of $26.85 over five years. Water connection fees would rise by small increments from the 2018 and 2019 rate of $44.25 to $48 in 2024.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Cottonwood Deputy City Manager Rudy Rodriguez made the case for the rate increases by pointing to the loss of general fund and other monies going into the water and wastewater accounts that have in past years been allocated as part of the process of construction of the Riverfront Water Reclamation facility. With the completion of the project, the wastewater fund loses $3,709,743 that was paid in 2018 in 2019 unless council fills it by dipping into the general fund or other sources. With the 5-year plan the council voted in favor of, the wastewater fund is projected to face a deficit in coming years before reaching the black by the end of the rate increase schedule.
Rodriguez also pointed to the need for some capital improvements in the system — a replacement roof for the Mingus plant, aeration blowers, diffusers and the need to dig up and replace some water lines — as an additional reason for the increases. He also pointed to the value of preparing for what- ever other costs come in the future.
“If we had any catastrophic failure, one of the things we might have to deal with is coming back to council to get some
additional funding,” Rodriguez said.
At the meeting, recent choices in managing wastewater funds, including the construction of the Riverfront facility, were targeted by members of the council, even as they voted to raise the fees.
“A large part of this is a result of this $14 million wastewater treatment plant, that somebody decided we needed to do, which pretty much looks like a vanity project,” Councilman Michael Mathews said at the meeting. Mathews, as a recently elected member of the council, took aim at previous councils and administrators for their handling of the project. “It should never have gone to $14 million. It completely exhausted all those reserves. And now we’re asking our citizens, and I understand we need to do it. We need to do this. But we shouldn’t have spent so much money. We should have capital to go up there and do whatever we want to with that wastewater treatment plan up on the hill. So I’m really not happy about this.”
“Even $5.65 is really difficult for many of our low-income folks who live here, and this burden shouldn’t have to fall to them,” Nairn said. “And with the outcrying that I’m hearing this week, I don’t think I could in good conscience vote for any of the plans.”
