POULSBO — When it comes to water use, Poulsbo residents are thrifty consumers.
“We are doing a great job in reducing water usage per capita, and that is a very good thing,” Poulsbo City Engineer Andrzej Kasiniak said.
“On the other hand, when you think about it, we are reducing our revenues. The system is the same size, we serve the same number of customers, but our revenues have been reduced. We have to catch up.”
While recent improvements to the city water system’s efficiency have paid off for conservation, they haven’t paid off, financially, to operate the system. It is chiefly why the City Council unanimously approved a $13,985 contract with Gray and Osborne, Inc. at its Oct. 8 meeting. The consulting firm will analyze Poulsbo’s water system to determine if water rates need to be raised.
The firm cites a rate increase of 13 percent in an Oct. 2 proposal for work, but Kasiniak notes that no figure has been approved or decided. He hopes that the analysis will be completed before the end of 2014, as the city completes its 2015 budget.
Poulsbo currently charges residential customers a monthly base rate of $12.50 per month, and $1.94 per 100 cubic feet of consumption. Commercial users are charged a base rate of $13.33, and $1.63 per 100 cubic feet in the winter, and $2.46 in the summer.
Unlike other Washington communities with snow-packed mountains nearby that send water downstream, the Kitsap Peninsula largely depends on the water that falls on it; rain that is then stored underground in aquifers. Poulsbo’s water comes from a series of wells located around the city, pumping water from aquifers and sending it to homes. Gray and Osborne will consider the cost of that system.
In its Oct. 2 letter to the city, Gray and Osborne pitched its scope of work to take on the job.
“It is our understanding that the city wishes to review water rates and connection fees to ensure that the proposed capital improvement plan is financially feasible,” the letter states. “The city intends to raise water rates 13 percent in 2015.”
Water rates are only half of the job for Gray and Osborn. The other half is to look at connection fees; one-time charges when a new connection is made to the city’s water system.
“We look at the connection fees every six years,” Kasiniak said. “There are two elements to it: what is the value of our system, how many customers do we have today; and what are we planning to be in the future.”
Assistant City Engineer Diane Lenius told the council at its meeting that Poulsbo’s connection fee is $2,477, while the average fee in surrounding communities is around $4,700.
“It is clear that our rates are very low compared to neighboring cities,” she said.
Water utility rates and connection fees may not be the only changes coming down the pipe for residents. Kasiniak is expected to present another consideration to the council on Oct. 15 to raise stormwater rates.
“We did a gap analysis,” he said. “We look at what our processes are today, and what is required and how they should look, and we create a gap in how we have to change.”
“For example we’ll have to clean more catch basins more often than previously, then we will analyze how much it will cost and then transfer it to rate increases,” he said.
The current monthly stormwater rate in Poulsbo is $10.72 for each residential unit. Kasiniak is expected to ask the council to authorize a process to increase stormwater rates. A public hearing will be part of that process.
