Local business owners heat up over water rates

Published 10:25 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

For the city leaders of North Bend, growth means more water and sewer services are needed and to pay for that rate, increases are necessary, said city officials.

Last month the North Bend City Council took action to ensure payment of current and future water and sewer services by voting to amend an ordinance that would change the taxes, rates and fees for the city utilities.

The council had their reasons and the new amendment language reflects their thoughts for making the decision. The amended ordinance indicated that the cost of operations to provide water has increased, the water system needs updating over the next six years and future capital projects need to be funded to help meet the growing demands currently underway.

In his State of the City address before City Council, Mayor Ken Hearing told the council he wanted to encourage economic development. Water and sewer services would have to improve and grow to meet the demands over the next 10-year period.

“We are following a realistic timeline,” Hearing said.

The new fees became effective on March 6.

Some commercial water-users inside the city of North Bend were shocked to see their new water sewer bill, which arrived in April for the period of March.

Factory Store general manager Ed Cook did the math and found he actually had an increase of 28 percent, without watering the grass.

“It might be a little brown here this summer,” Cook said.

Cook said he thought the city increased the rates 3 percent per year until 2011. He found out this was only part of the rate changes.

“When you see the commercial billing rates and compare it to the old rates, the increase is much higher than that,” he added.

Commercial property water sewer rates in December 2005 were set at $262.63 for the first 100 cubic meters. If a commercial customer used 100 cubic meters of water sewer services in March 2006, the water sewer bill would be $335.81, an increase of 28 percent.

Cook used 1,100 water sewer cubic meters in March.

“I didn’t even have our irrigation on until just recently,” Cook said.

Cook isn’t alone in his distress over the new rates. Just across state Route 202 is the Mount Si Chevron gas station and car wash. Owner George Wyrsch said he was shocked to see his bill had increased nearly 50 percent.

His water sewer bill increased from $815 in March to $1,203 in April.

Wyrsch also owns the Shell gas station in downtown North Bend. “Last month my Shell station water sewer bill was about $200 a month. This month it jumped to about $300,” he said. Wyrsch said he doesn’t understand why he has such a large increase in rates. He feels the city should reward car washes. He feels he is being penalized for being a commercial enterprise.

“I have a closed water system and car washes are much more efficient than home car washing. It only takes about three-five gallons at a car wash,” he said.

Just a few miles away in Snoqualmie is another car wash facility owned by Joe Eddings. He also experienced a city water sewer rate increase on his bill. But unlike the North Bend businessmen, he believes his water rates are reasonable.

“My average water bill runs between $600 and $900 a month. The increase here wasn’t a big deal,” he said.

Cook and Wrysch both agree commercial users are being hit hard by the rate increase in North Bend and the city overburdened local businesses with large rate increases.

North Bend city staff said they did not create the new fees without research. North Bend city treasurer Elena Montgomery said the city staff spent about a year working on the new rate schedule. During that time, the city contracted a consulting firm that worked closely with city staff to develop the new rates.

Montgomery said the schedule change was long overdue.

“The last time rates were increased was January 1, 2000,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery and North Bend Public Works Director Ron Garrow were the two key city officials who worked on the new rates.

“After the consulting firm completed their study, we did work with the firm to tweak the rates a bit more before going to council with our final recommendations,” Montgomery added.

The city staff will review the rates annually and make recommendations to the City Council for changes.