Town passes intent to raise water rates

CORRECTION: The proposed rate of increase for the base water rate is $6.27 and the base sewer rate proposed is an increase of $2.65. 

PLAINS – The town council passed a resolution of intent to raise water rates at the monthly meeting on Monday, April 7.

In the mayor’s report, Mayor Greg Eitelberg gave a PowerPoint presentation on a leak that occurred in town due to failing lines. According to Eitelberg, the galvanized pipes were not replaced when the new AC main was put in. Instead, a 6 to 8 foot extension of copper was added to the existing pipes.

Now those pipes are failing.

“Any major overlay would be premature at this time or replacing (the road) because of these galvanized lines breaking on us constantly,” Eitelberg said. “We’re tearing up the roads now. This is obviously putting a hardship on out water (budget).”

The pictures in the presentation showed the pipes, which were rusty, both inside and out – causing a health concern.

Approximately 50 percent of the pipes are located under roadways. Those roadways will have to be torn up in order to replace the pipes, however, the money would have to come out of the water budget instead of the general fund.

“In some respects we haven’t been charging this out incorrectly,” Eitelberg said. “When you tear up something because you are fixating it for the water, that money has to come out of the water department.”

To fix the break in the pipe, the town had to pay over $2,600 in labor and material.

“What I’m going to propose going forward in my one, three and five year plan is that we go ahead and try to fix all of these galvanized pipes because we are shooting ourselves in our foot if we don’t,” Eitelberg said.

Later in the meeting, the mayor asked the council for an intent to raise water rates, which was approved unanimously.

The town will schedule public meetings before the rates are raised, if indeed it gets to that point.

Eitelberg said he was in line with what was proposed in an earlier meeting and said the base rate would have to increase of $6.27, while the base sewer rate would be $2.65. 

“We’re trying to set the base rate where we could put the money away for the tank and then the little bit of money that we make off of actually selling the water, we use to replace these aging water lines,” Eitelberg explained.

The inside of the water tank needs to be repainted and has been long overdue.

In his mayor’s report, Eitelberg explained that the leaks are costing the town a lot of money. For last month, the town pumped approximately 3,420,000 gallons and only sold approximately 2,700,000 gallons. Those numbers show the leaks lost the town approximately 720,000 gallons of water.

The month before, the town lost 1,314,000 gallons, partly because of two major leaks that occurred.

According to law, the town has to hold public hearings before a rate increase occurs.

The Town of Plains will schedule the meetings before their next town council meeting.

The meetings will be posted on the board in front of Plains Town Hall.

The next board meeting will be on Thursday, May 1st.

The meeting was rescheduled from its original date because much of the town council will be away at training on the first Monday of the month.