Water rates might rise

The Bloomington City Council began to discuss the possibility of water-rate increases and a plant expansion Wednesday.

During the first of two Committee of the Whole meetings, the council discussed ordinance 10-06, which called for an increase of water rates and ordinance 10-07, which focused on the bonds associated with the possible increase.

The council decided to tackle the ordinances by discussing each one by topic.

Michael Bengtson, Bloomington’s assistant director for engineering, talked about the capital improvements that would be associated with the rates.

Bengston also talked about instances where the water plant exceeded its capacity. Between 2007 and 2009, the city exceeded 21 million gallons of water for 19 days.

He said one of the most recent instances was in December 2009 when there was a main break on 17th Street. During the break, the city lost about three million gallons.

“We don’t want the operational side to be lacking,” Bengston said. “We need to match our demands.”

One of the reasons why the Utilities Service Board is pushing for the expansion is because of the number of times the city exceeded plant’s water capacity.

Although later, it was said no customers were directly affected during these days because they were not left without water.

The council also discussed the different expansion contracts that differ in how much of an expansion will be made to the water plant.

In March, the Utilities Service Board recommended a 54 percent increase on water rates, which would include funding for an expansion of the city’s water.

The city debated the 54 percent increase and also talked about the possibility of a 47 percent increase, which was the original proposed increase.

Before the 54 percent recommendation, the Utilities Service Board considered three different types of increases.

Tom Swafford, the president of the Utilities Service Board, said one of the reasons why the board decided to recommend the 54 percent increase was because it would help save more than $9 million in bonds.

However, Mayor Mark Kruzan attended the meeting and said he would like to see a 47 percent increase because it would not be as drastic as the 54 percent increase for customers.

Council member, Susan Sandberg , said she would also like to see a 47 percent increase because it is less severe than the 54 percent increase.

“The big problem is the sticker shock,” she said. “The big problem is that we are trying to deal with this problem all at once.”

Another thing the council discussed was a conservation plan. Although the Utilities Service Board recommended to go ahead with the conservation plan, they did not think it will be the solution, Patrick Murphy, Bloomington’s director of utilities, said.

“We don’t believe that we can conserve our way out of this one,” Murphy said.

The city council also briefly discussed ordinance 10-07, which discussed the issue of bonds that will be used with the expansion of the plant.

The city council agreed to continue the discussion of both ordinances during the next Committee of the Whole meeting on May 12.