WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2026 |
Photo – Photos of water department – Courtesy City of Rawlins
Rawlins officials are considering raising utility rates to keep pace with inflation.
On Monday evening, the Rawlins City Council held a workshop to discuss the fiscal year 2026 through 2027 budget, with a focus on the city’s enterprise funds. An enterprise fund is a self‑supporting account that must cover its own costs through fees instead of taxes. The City of Rawlins has four enterprise funds: water, sewer, landfill, and recycling.
Finance Director Laura Malone said the average in‑town customer pays $76.21 a month for water. Malone said out‑of‑town tap users pay $92.77 per month on average. She added that the average commercial water user pays $4,171.44 a month.
With those figures in mind, Finance Director Malone recommended a three percent increase to both the monthly water fees and the usage rates.
Under the proposed increase, the average Rawlins resident would see their monthly water bill increase from $76.21 to $78.50. Malone also proposed a one or two percent increase and a tiered system where churches, apartment complexes, and trailer courts would be charged for water at different rates than standard residential properties. The final decision to adopt Malone’s proposed adjustments or tiered rate structure rests with the governing body.
Altogether, Malone said the three percent water rate increase could generate up to an additional $84,831 for the water enterprise fund.
Councilman Steve Sanger asked if the rate increase would bring the city closer to being eligible for United States Department of Agriculture grants. Malone said that even with the higher fees, average residential water rates still fall below the USDA threshold.
The average residential water rate in Rawlins would need to be raised by an additional $9.07 to meet the USDA’s $85.28 eligibility cutoff.
Malone also proposed a three percent increase to the city’s sewer rates.
Residents inside city limits would see their fixed sewer fee rise from $25.50 to $26.27 a month. Out‑of‑town users would go from $34 to $35.02.
The sewer enterprise fund is used to maintain the city’s aging sanitary system. When asked about repeated sewer backups along La Paloma Drive, behind Memorial Hospital of Carbon County, Public Works Director Cody Dill said the fund has never had enough money for a project of that scale, but the proposed rate increase will help.
Dill added that a recent sewer inspection camera trailer upgrade will allow city crews to find and address specific problems while they wait for funding for larger projects.
Finance Director Malone also recommended increasing residents’ monthly landfill fees by three percent, from $12 to $12.36. She also proposed raising the fee to dump used tires to match the city’s costs.
Malone also suggested raising the fees to dump all other materials by 50 cents per one hundred pounds and $10 per ton. Altogether, the rate increases are proposed to generate an additional $105,000 for the landfill enterprise fund over the next fiscal year.
The City Council asked if the additional revenue could be used to install doors on the municipal solid waste transfer station, a measure meant to deter crows. Public Works Director Dill said he would rather use the money to purchase an entirely new building.
Dill said the money can be used as a grant match for a new solid waste transfer station building.
And finally, Finance Director Malone recommended a three percent increase to residents’ recycling fees, which would raise monthly rates from $6 to $6.18.
The proposed changes will be included in the 2026 through 2027 budget when it is read for the first time during the May 19th City Council meeting.
