Town Council talks water rate increase

A ninety minute work session by the Thermopolis Town Council still did not yield an easy answer for the water rate increase.

The council's goal is to make a fair increase and to have a reserve of funds for future maintenance needs of the water plant and system for the town.

There was representative of the community in the audience. Margo Skaggs voiced her opinion for the increase. She had several concerns, one that the rate increase will not keep up with future inflation.

Another concern she Skaggs voiced is that the town's aging infrastructure cannot be maintained with a simple rate increase over time.

Living on a fixed income Skaggs brought up that she would rather see a big increase all at once, a fix that would take care of the financial issues of the water system all at once.

The Mayor explained several issues ranging from depreciation of the water plant to several areas in town that use several million gallons of water. Mentioning that the Schools, Airport Cemetery, and Hospital are the big users and they need to be put on raw water and that will take time and money.

Heath Overfield the town engineer recommended that they should work with the following making sure that the base rate should cover the cost operating the plant, per thousand costs should be high enough to cover the water that is made, out of town users need to pay their fair share of the system.

Discussion soon focused on a setting a fair price on the base rate and what to charge per thousands, the question is what are the true numbers and what will be a fair price.

Bart Bader from the Owl Creek Water district had a concern that if a flat increase was made that his division would not be able to keep up with the prices.

He was for a per unit charge, otherwise a single rate increase would make it difficult to keep up financially. There just isn't enough users in the division to keep up with the cost increase.

In the end a resolution was closer but still not settled on, more numbers are needed to be crunched and fined tuned.

A plan to draft a rate for single user rate and per thousand cost then a tier increase rate for large consumers is in the works.

The Town Council had originally passed a water rate increase on first reading at their August meeting.

However, at the Sept. 1 Town Council meeting they decided to defeat the new rate increase as written and the special meeting was planned.