San Juan Bautista
– San Juan Bautista officials are discussing raising the base
water rate in the Mission City by more than 100 percent to help
procure funding for a complete overhaul of the city’s decrepit
water and sewer system, according to the vice mayor.
San Juan Bautista – San Juan Bautista officials are discussing raising the base water rate in the Mission City by more than 100 percent to help procure funding for a complete overhaul of the city’s decrepit water and sewer system, according to the vice mayor.
After at least five years without a rate increase, residents could see their base rate of $11.50 per month jump to between $22 to $25 a month, said Vice Mayor Charles Geiger.
“It’s been shown that over the last couple years services provided are not paying for themselves,” Geiger said. “We haven’t been moving rates in accordance with the cost.”
Geiger hopes to have a rate increase put on the council’s meeting agenda by the next city council meeting, he said. If it passes, residents could see an increase in the next couple months, he said.
The rate increase could assist the city in gathering more than $1 million to match $3.1 million offered by the San Benito County Water District, along with a $3.8 million grant it received from the federal government to improve its water and sewer system, Geiger said.
“It would assist us, but I don’t want to say this is going to fix the water system,” he said. “Currently we’re running at a deficit in funding the water and sewer system at the current rates. What the community needs to understand is that the failure to increase city rates has been an ongoing issue that the council has been waiting for the city to bring to them.”
Geiger blamed former City Manager Larry Cain for failing to bring the needed information before the council on water rate increases. A lack of communication was one of the reasons council members cited for their reasons in firing Cain in a 3-2 vote a couple weeks ago.
While the rate increase wouldn’t finance all of the money San Juan needs to raise to cover its portion of the bill, Geiger said officials are talking about implementing a “joint powers of authority agreement,” to take care of the remaining funds. The agreement would enable the city and the water district to work together to solicit bonds to help raise the money, he said. However, the water district hasn’t agreed to initiate a joint powers of authority, and officials have little details about how it would pan out at this time.
The city is hoping to have an agreement with the water district drafted and signed by next week, he said. Without the agreement signed and delivered to the federal government by April 11, it will lose the $3.8 million federal grant.
To completely revamp the city’s water and sewer system, officials originally estimated the total cost at $7.9 million. However, that number was calculated several years ago, and the price tag could end up being much higher because of inflation, said Ken Perry, water district board member.
Perry said the water district has committed $3.1 million to pay for a new water treatment plant, but if the treatment plant ends up being more the district will pay for additional expenses, he said.
A concrete figure for how much San Juan will have to provide won’t be known until the project goes out to bid, which could be a year or more in the future, he said. City officials originally said construction could begin in about 10 months, but Perry said a starting date is at least two years out.
“The first step is to get through the grant process…. Then we start another step which is to go out to bid for the actual project,” Perry said. “Once that’s established then we’re going to know how much actual money the city of San Juan is going to have to put in.”
Perry originally said San Juan would have to cough up about $2.8 million before the water district signed off on the agreement, but he said Monday that it was closer to $1 million. However, by the time everything is said and done and the project goes out to bid, he said the city could very well be responsible for nearly $3 million to finance the project.
“That number is a moving target. I’m sure it’s going to be in that ballpark – we’ll just have to see,” Perry said. “But I feel very confident it’s going to move forward.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
