City Of Canton issued the following announcement on Nov. 12.
COUNCIL HIGHLIGHTS: The biggie at this month's regular Canton City Council meeting was utility rates. Prior to the November 10 session, a public hearing was held on proposed increases to current utility rates. Notice of the hearing was included with last month's utility bill, promoted on Facebook and the City's website, and advertised in the Fillmore County Journal for two weeks. No public feedback was submitted to city hall ahead of the public hearing, and there were four residents in attendance on Tuesday evening. An informational packet was reviewed with those residents, which included financial statements, monthly consumer usage, utility rates in neighboring cities, suggested rate increase proposals, and actual dollar impacts on consumers. In addition, Jeff Dale, with the Minnesota Rural Water Association, was in attendance to answer questions and provide additional information. After an hour-long discussion, the public hearing was closed and the regular meeting convened. During the agenda discussion, the council (Randy Gossman was absent) decided to vote on a proposed increase to the current rate structure. It was unanimously approved and includes the following:
* WATER BASE RATE: Effective January 1, 2021, the monthly residential water service charge will increase to $28.50. Currently, the residential water service charge is $12.50 and there is a separate $5.00 water system upgrade fee; that's a monthly total of $17.50. So, the monthly water service charge will increase by $11.00 per residential user. NOTE: The $5.00 water system upgrade fee (line item on your monthly bill) will go away in 2021; it is included in the new $28.50 base rate.
*WATER USAGE: Effective January 1, 2021, the cost per 1,000 gallons of water used will increase from $3.00 per 1,000 gallons to $4.84 per 1,000 (or .00484 per gallon). That represents an increase of $1.84 per 1,000 gallons.
*SEWER BASE RATE: There will be no change to the $33.00 monthly residential sewer service charge.
*SEWER USAGE: Effective January 1, 2021, the cost per 1,000 gallons of sewer used will increase from $2.40 per 1,000 gallons to $2.44 per 1,000 (or .00244 per gallon). That represents an increase of $0.04 per 1,000 gallons.
*GARBAGE: Effective January 1, 2021, the monthly service charge for a 32 gallon collection tote will increase from $10.49 to $10.70 (increase of $0.21 from the current charge); the monthly service charge for a 64 gallon collection tote will increase from $11.97 to $12.22 (increase of $0.25 from the current charge); and the monthly service charge for a 96 gallon collection tote will increase from $13.44 to $13.71 (increase of $0.27 from the current charge).
*RECYCLING: Effective January 1, 2021, the monthly service charge for weekly recycling collection will increase from $3.85 to $4.00 (increase of $0.15 from the current charge).
So, what does all this mean to your pocketbook? The majority of Canton households use between 2,000 and 4,000 gallons of water per month. We'll use 3,000 gallons as an example to calculate a monthly utility bill using the new rate structure.
WATER SERVICE CHARGE = $28.50
WATER USE: 3,000 gallons x 0.00484 = $14.52
SEWER SERVICE CHARGE = $33.00
SEWER USE: 3,000 gallons x 0.00244 = $7.32
64 GALLON GARBAGE = $12.22
GARBAGE TAX = $1.20
RECYCLING = $4.00
NEW MONTHLY TOTAL = $100.76
CURRENT MONTHLY TOTAL = $83.69
MONTHLY INCREASE = $17.07
A few things to keep in mind...
1) A rate increase is not something we wanted to do; it is something we had to do. At the end of this third quarter, our Water Fund was already operating nearly $8,500 in the red. Municipal water and sanitary sewer systems are expensive to operate and maintain. In addition to monthly expenses and employee wages, in CY2020, we have made nearly $40,000 in bond payments. We have one revenue source to draw from -- sales income. We cannot use General Fund dollars (i.e.: your tax dollars) to support our public utilities.
2) The 2021 rate structure does not make Canton's rates out-of-line with our neighboring communities. In fact, we compared water and sewer rates in nine area cities and found that even with the new rates, only three of those cities have lower rates. According to Jeff Dale, most Minnesota residents pay between $50 and $60 per month for municipal water service and $50 and $60 per month for municipal sewer service.
3) This rate adjustment is not the be-all and end-all. Utilities are a business enterprise and must be operated as such. Moving forward, each year, the council will be reviewing utility rates to make certain they are self-sustaining. The goal will be to make incremental adjustments, as needed, to avoid significant increases. Unfortunately, an adjustment -- particularly to water rates -- should have been implemented a couple of years ago. However, that did not occur, so here we are.
We hope this additional information is useful and our numbers help paint a clearer picture of the action taken by your city council. Remember, while certain monthly utility charges are unavoidable, you do have control over your water/sewer usage. How much you use, each month, is up to you and your family. We'll include additional information about the rate change in the December newsletter, along with details about a new utility billing system set to launch in 2021.
Original source can be found here.
Source: City Of Canton
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