December 12, 2022 |
In Rawlins, the water rate increase approved in September went into effect with the December bills residents just received. While the increase was applied across the board to residents and businesses alike, the corral owners in the south-side Glenn Addition are among the hardest hit.
For the first time in recent memory, the owners of the 56 corrals are paying a water usage fee, making the rate increase especially painful.
The Glenn Addition is a section of agricultural land that was once used as stockyards by the Union Pacific Railroad. The 56 lots are owned by different residents to corral horses, as well as to raise chickens and cows.
Water infrastructure to the corrals has been under-engineered historically. The original water meters froze and were never replaced. The result is that city water to the Glenn Addition passes through one main meter and then distributed to the individual corrals with no way of monitoring how much water is used at each corral. Some people use more than others but have been billed the same rate for years.
The unusual billing policy for city water service to the area came under new scrutiny after the water bill came out at the beginning of the month.
A water rate study conducted earlier this year revealed that the corral owners at the Glenn Addition use about 450,000 gallons of water a month. Under the new rate, this usage amounts to a bill of $1,566.
With no way of metering how much water each lot uses, the bill from the main meter was divided by the 56 corrals, equaling $28 month. Some people own more than one corral. They will pay the fee for each lot owned.
Unlike other properties in town, the corrals have never paid a water usage fee. In the past, corral owners were only charged the water base rate, the landfill maintenance fee, and the recycling maintenance fee. Prior to just enacted rate hike when the base fee was $14 a month, corral owners paid about $30 month total.
Then came the double whammy. The base water rate doubled in the December bill to $29.48. Combined with the first-time ever water usage fee, corral owners in the Glenn Addition saw their city utility bill jump from $32 month to $75. City water service in the agriculture area can only be used for livestock and irrigation.
Shocked, some owners turned out to last week’s city council meeting. Seven spoke to the issue with questions and concerns during the public comment section of the meeting. Some were confused about the new water usage fee. A question from Austin Thomas about ow the fee is applied – by the spigot or to a corral – revealed another layer of confusion that both Mayor Terry Weickum and Councilman Debari Martinez tried to answer.
City staff has since confirmed the bill is per lot. The discussion last Tuesday revealed that the Wild West way that the Glenn Addition has been administered has created confusion. “Corral” and “spigot” are used interchangeably by some, but neither term is found in city code. One this is certain. Billing in the Glenn Addition is not residential and business zones where users are bill by tap connections and metered usage.
Additionally, fences that may have existed at one time in some corrals, have been removed. A big corral today may have been several smaller lots in the 1990s. Section 13.08.045 of municipal code, which addresses water usage for property owners in the Glenn Addition, is not clear either.
City code doesn’t use either term, “corral” or “spigot.” It only refers to “property.” Mayor Weickum acknowledged the problem
The current remedy is not seen as ideal, either. Rawlins resident Dori Fritz owns three acres in the Glenn Addition and pays two bills. Fritz said she wished she that she had been given some warning about the new usage fee that lot owners will have to pay.
Public Information Officer Mira Miller told Bigfoot 99, who was juggling multiple grant applications and the transition between city managers at the time of the rate increase, acknowledges that that the city could have done a better job. Miller said two groups were left out of the messaging: Business owners with larger water connections that the standard residential tap and the Glenn Addition property owners who being charged with the new water usage fee.
Most residents saw a rate increase of about $20 a month. Glenn Addition residents saw their rate increase by at least $45.
As a result of the new policy, the city has traded one imperfect solution for administering the water fees in the Glenn Addition for another. For instance, Fritz asked if she could install a water meter to track usage at her property. Mayor Weickum said that is part of the long-term plan to address what is a known issue.
Mayor Weickum likely meant to say “spigot” per lot, not “meter per lot”—again evidence of the confusion surrounding the way the Glenn Addition has been administered over the years. The mayor said re-engineering the area is a goal.
A long-term solution is included in the city’s master plan. Councilwoman Smith offered Glenn Addition owners hope that a fix could come in less than five years. Smith said water meters are another project on the city’s long list of infrastructure issues.
Installing more fire hydrants would be part of the re-engineering of the water system in the Glenn Addition.
