DesotoExplorer.com / De Soto City Council schedules water workshop

Archive for Friday, July 11, 2008

Workshop to be rescheduled

On Thursday, the De Soto City Council approved a 3 percent increase to the city's water rate. The council also scheduled a water workshop to discuss the future of the water department for 5 p.m. Thursday, July 17, at City Hall. Read more about the rate increase and the city's water concerns in coming issues of The De Soto Explorer.

By Elvyn Jones

July 11, 2008, 6:08 p.m.

Updated: July 14, 2008, 3:15 p.m.

The De Soto City Council approved Thursday a 3 percent increase to the city’s water rate.

The rate increase will be reflected in water customer’s August billing.

The increase is the fourth 3 percent increase since January 2007. The council also approved increases for September 2007, and January 2008.

When the last water rate increase was approved in January, the council — concerned that water rates could become too much of a burden on city customers — asked that city staff further investigate a wholesale water purchase agreement with the city of Olathe. Staff now has the estimated costs of such an agreement, which are to be shared with the council at a workshop with costs associated with building a new water plant or refurbishing the current water plant the city now operates at the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant.

Council members agreed last Thursday to schedule that workshop for 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7.

As for the latest rate hike, the water department’s cash balance could become dangerously low in the near future without the increase, City Administrator Pat Guilfoyle said.

He provided a worksheet with “conservative” and “probable” projections. The conservative figures reflected the worst case situations would require all the water department’s annual budget be spent, Guilfoyle said, while the probable numbers assumed some cash would be left at the end of the year for the department’s reserve.

Both scenarios showed the end of the year balance from the current 11 percent in the next five years without the 3 percent rate increase. The probable scenario predicted the year end reserve would fall to 5 or 6 percent in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Looking at the projections, council members agreed they had little choice but to approve the rate increase.