The Official Unofficial Minutes of the WL BOA
6 OctoberAs confirmed by a recent notice in the Landmark, the Mayor proposes an increase in water rate and sewer fees to tame the loss of revenue curve in both accounts. Jerry attributes the lower water usage in the last two years running. No doubt the above average rainfall the last two years has reduced the amount of watering necessary on neighborhood lawns. The biggest problem, in my opinion, has been the unexplainable lack of passing along increases by KCMO the past two years running. Not any more. The proposal to increase rates will go into effect the first billing cycle after the Board passes the new rates in November.
How much you say?
- Grinder fee to double from the current $6 per billing cycle to $12, sewer rate to stay @ $122 bi-monthly.
- City water currently $8.42 per 1,000 gallons for the first 4,000 gallons going to $9.00 per 1,000, no change in rate $2.82 per 1,000 thereafter.
- Non-resident rates $16.84 to $17.25 per 1,000/4,000. (for some reason, not stated, Jerry is proposing cutting a break for non-residents. Traditionally the out of city rate has been double the city) rate.
Your opportunity for comments/questions will be on November 10th @ 6:30PM, City Hall during the required Public Hearing on the proposed rate increases.
9 comments:
Why would we cut a break for NON residents? We don't get CUT A BREAK from KC do we. We still have to pay more because we are NOT KC and are buying their water. I understand KC charges us extra on our water bill, I just don't understand why it is SO much higher than water ANY WHERE else in the metro area. Go to Parkville average family water bill $35-40/month, KC, KS average $32-38, Gladstone $34-$41, Liberty $42-$52. Yes these came from calling their local water department
7:47 - What are you talking about????
According to Jerry, it's good to be a good neighbor. We should help out KC. See how much faster KC has been on the bridge? Imagine if we weren't giving our neighbors a break!
7:47 - Are you sure you are comparing just the water bills? Our bills include sewer charges.
7:47.....11:40 is correct. Our bills include sewer costs. This is a major part of the bill due to our grinder pump -- and all other stuff that goes with it -- infrastructure. Plus, now that we have bi-monthly billing, it has made an already seemingly high bill look even higher.
So it's not just our water that creates a large bill.
The bill totals came from contacting the water departments in those cities. It takes into account WATER AND SEWER. However most of those residents don't get FLAT rate sewer bills they get billed for what they actually use. So in other words UNLIKE us every neighbor regardless of if 2 people or 10 people live there or if they take 5 minute or 55 minute showers they do not ALL have the same sewer charge.
Also we have a GRINDER fee of $6 which is going up to $12 so the grinder should have nothing to do with sewer. Sewer should be how much water you are actually putting down the drain so to speak!
5:14 pm.......last time I checked, the grinder helps push "waste stuff" along our sewer system. Just ask anyone that has had their grinder fail when they weren't home..........it has A LOT to do with our sewer system. Doubt that you would say it has nothing to do with the sewer when gallons of poo are backing up in your house. Those machines, like any mechanical device, die over time. We have to replace them. We've continued to remanufacture as we can, but that only goes so far.
While great in theory -- and in practice in larger communities -- if you investigate how much it would cost to install the infrastructure to measure how much water and "stuff", and flushes each household uses, you'd be happy with what we have.
Approx 750 households multiplied by the cost of each one of those monitoring devices would make even the richest on this lake vomit!
While 5:14pm and 4:11pm argue over what a bill is or is not, do either of you ever go to the city website and look at what amounts are paid for the sewer monthly. On the August 3rd agenda it shows a sewer bill to be paid of $27866.64. Our website also shows we have 736 homes here in our community each of us are charged $122 every 2 months which is $61/month that would equal $44896 each month collected for sewer that is a surplus $17030/ month or $204360.yearly. Over the course of 10 years that is $2,043,600. So I am curious where we have spent 2million dollars in the last 10 years towards our sewer systems. Better yet where over the last 40 years has 4 million dollars gone?????
8:14pm doesn't your $61/mo. also include water? So $61 isn't really a fair estimate. And, lets level the playing field and assume that your estimates for surplus are correct. Wouldn't that be $405K for the past two years? If so, here's some things that I think would account for using up that portion of the fund. I didn't live here so I can't speak for years prior, but...
I think there was a survey to inspect the entire system throughout weatherby. instituform to seal the pipes. Changing out several lengths of the sewer system i believe near potomac/miami that weren't gravity feed. Replacement of some of the grinders (quick google search showed about $1500/piece - not sure if they are the ones we would use though) I think they did 30 in the past couple of years. Wasn't there some issue of major sewer failure over by Hillside that had to be corrected? Other ongoing maintenance issues?
Seems like there's been decent activity. Not sure it it saddles with your estimates, but I'm not convinced the money's being wasted.
I believe when 8:14pm said $61 that was only counting sewer I looked at my bill it is $122 for sewer the water is priced seperately so perhaps 4:22am needs to go have a looksy at their own water bill... I would agree we have had our fair share of water related bills around here, not sure I agree with 4:22am that some isn't being WASTED somewhere though, since 8:14pm figures DO seem to add up
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