02-03-82 Council Workshop Minutes

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M:INUTES City Council February 3~ 1982 5ewer and iYiayor Hanson brought up the £act that under the City~s ordinance Water Nates senior citizens are charged a reduced flat rate for sewer service. and Budget Hanson brought up the possibility o£ changing the £1,at rate to a for 1982 percentage so that when there are sewer rate increases, the cost to the senior citizen would also be increased, Hanson suggested that a percentage of 50% might be a possibility. Mrs. Nardini asked what other cities do with regard to reduced rates for senior citizens. R.oger Ulanzer replied that about half give a reduction and about half don~t. ftoger Glanzer informed the Council that the City is currently loosing money on water and gaining revenue on sewer. However, as the City~s current system gets bigger this is expected to reverse. Ulanzer corrunented that he is proposing that the City combine the two systems for accounting purposes and combine the maintenance expense that is charged for the two systems, Glanzer a:lso stated that the more people that buy water from the City, the lower the rate charged will become. G].anzer stated that currently the City only charges people using City water maintenance costs~ and the whole City benefits from the water system~ either from fire protection or avaalability. The City Clerk informed the Council that the City has to project water loss costs to the City, Mr. Glasazer informed the Council that the City cuxrently charges 80 cents per 1~000 ga:l.lons o£ water and the City of St. Paul charges the City the same cost for water. Glanzer proposed to the Council that the City raa.se its water rate to ~1.Q0 per 1~000 gallons o£ water. This cost wouJ.d include the cost of water loss to the City, Glanzer stated that it was only in the past couple of years that the City became aware of the water loss situation. Mr. Glanzer estimated that tYa:e cost increase would amount to about a$la,00 increase per quarter For someone hooked up to water. Mr. Forsberg commented that there is some fat in this increase and he does not like this, ~Srs, Scalze commented that she did not see anything wrong with this. The Clerk reported that for the past quarter the City had a 9 mi-11ion gallon water loss. Mr. G~.anzer reported that the City staff is trying to check thzs out~ but has not determi.ned where this water is as yet. In the previous quarter the CityYS water loss was 3%. The Clerk stated that if it not determined to be a computex error, he is going to call for a water audit. Page -5-