The City of Bingen is undergoing a study on the fee schedule for water and wastewater services, and recently they had Nancy Wetch, engineering consultant with firm Gray & Osborne, present preliminary findings on potential cost increases for new or significantly transformed developments ahead of a final recommendation.
The presentation was focused on system development charges, which is a type of fee beyond the cost of the physical connection. This charge accounts for the equitable share of the cost of the system, Wetch said.
System development charges are one-time fees, she said, and not anything that an existing rate payer needs to worry about.
The City of Bingen’s current system development charge for water is $750 and $2,000 for sewer, based on a three-quarter inch meter, the most common size meter in the city. These fees represent system development charges on top of physical connection fees.
Wetch said every water and sewer system is tailored to individual municipal needs, meaning the fees “need to be specific to your city as best you can do.”
The consulting firm used two different approaches to determine a fee schedule, and recommended that the city implement a system development charge of $2,100 to $3,100, and to consider additional installation and setup fees.
With the city’s current fee for water hookups, Wetch said much of that money would be going towards meter installation and may not be accounting for staff hours used to set up an account, install the meter, and inspections.
Mayor Catherine Kiewit asked whether it makes sense to adjust the rate schedule or connection charges while the city does not yet have an updated water system plan, to which Councilor Joseph O’Sullivan suggested that the city could incrementally update the schedule as plans are revisited and edited.
“I agree… But I’d like to see it done as soon as possible,” Councilor Phil Jones said.
A public hearing would be required for such a change, which has not yet been scheduled.
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