Duane Hicks
Town council is eyeing a 2.5 percent increase to water and sewer rates for this year.
Over and above the money needed to operate and maintain the water and sanitary sewer systems, an additional $126,038 in revenue is forecast to be collected in 2017, Operations and Facilities manager Travis Rob reported at yesterday’s pre-budget meeting.
These funds will be used to put in reserves for future infrastructure needs, namely the replacement of pipes under the streets of Fort Frances.
As indicated in the 2012 inflow and infiltration study commissioned by the town, there’s 5.7 km of sanitary sewer lines that need to addressed, with an estimated total cost of $32 million.
“It’s gotten a little bit better but we still have a long way to go,” said Rob, referring to the ongoing pipe replacement the town has been engaging in.
The town also is carrying through with the changing over of the new bio-solids dewatering equipment at the sewage treatment plant, and the final cost won’t be known until this year.
Council agreed last year to a three percent water and sewer increase for users—and ended up with a $103,974 surplus.
This was due to the fact the town ended up producing less water than expected and also made $75,000 more in revenue in 2106 than projected—the latter at least partially due to the sale of water to New Gold (this was a one-time sale).
Coun. Ken Perry said he would like to see some of that surplus brought forward so council could reduce the residential increase this year to less than the suggested 2.5 percent, especially since residents continue to subsidize the water rates of other classes.
“What I was suggesting was use part of that $103,000 to leave residential where it is, or give residential less of an increase than commercial and industrial,” he explained.
But Fort Frances treasurer Laurie Lindberg noted the town continues to have a large infrastructure deficit, particularly for sewer, and any time there’s a surplus, council has put it into reserve funds so the town can keep up with capital projects (i.e., replacing pipes)—a practice she feels they should continue.
“I can’t agree more,” said Coun. Paul Ryan, adding when he looks at the other towns that have the same problem (100-year-old pipes), they have to raise water and sewer rates 10 percent each year for five years.
Fort Frances, by contrast, merely is considering a 2.5 percent hike because council has been diligent about socking away dollars into reserves.
Both Couns. Wendy Brunetta and Doug Kitowski also felt council must keep contributing to reserves to fix those old pipes.
Fort Frances CAO Doug Brown noted $1.9 million for pipe replacement is built into the 2017 water and sewer budget right now, and putting that money forward is helping the town’s eligibility for grants to do more infrastructure work.
He recommended council keep up with what it’s been doing, noting that even doing so, Fort Frances’ utility rates remain lower than in Dryden and Kenora.
Even so, council agreed to refer the matter to the Operations and Facilities executive committee for further discussion.
A report with different rate scenarios likely will come back to council at its next regular meeting Jan. 23.
It’s possible the new rates will be in place by the end of February.
