Storm water utility fee will go up

By Adam Tobias of the Daily Times staff
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 12:14 PM CST

Watertown residents and property owners will see another hike in their monthly water bills.

The Watertown Common Council Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution increasing the monthly storm water utility fee for all property owners and renters in the city.

According to the resolution, all single-family home owners will now see a $6.35 storm water user charge rate on their monthly water bills. The old monthly rate was $3.90.

With the rate increase, single-family home owners will have to pay $76.18 per year, which is up $29.38 from the previous rate of $46.80.

The new monthly rate for residents in duplexes is $6.35 and the rate for those who reside in multifamily buildings is $5.81. The former rate for citizens who live in duplexes was $3.90 and the rate for multifamily dwelling residents was $3.57.

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The monthly rates for commercial buildings is $6.62 (old rate of $4.06), manufacturing structures is $6.08 ($3.73) and institutional buildings, recreational/open space and agricultural land is $5.01 ($3.09).

The increase is needed to fund the storm water projects near Mary and Clark streets and Mayor Ron Krueger said the new rates should not come as a surprise.

“The increase that is coming here is not a surprise,” the mayor said. “It was built into the storm water utility from its inception that we would do the sediment ponds on Welsh Road and some more over in the Mary and Clark Street area. These had always been planned into the storm water utility.

“This is not a surprise or just something coming out of the box,” he added. “It's something that from the start of storm water utility we knew was coming down and that it would be coming down at this time.”

Alderman Tony Arnett said that after all the major storm water projects are completed, the monthly storm water utility fee should start to level out.

“When the utility was put together, the plan at that time identified several large-scale projects that have been open wounds on the community for a very long time, which we all saw evidence of, particularly this last summer with the extreme flooding,” Arnett said. “We knew at the front end of this utility that we were going to tackle those big issues, get them done and that there wouldn't then be another huge set of additional issues beyond that so we wouldn't have to see the escalation in rates that we see at the beginning of the utility.

“So yes, we are seeing at the beginning here, the first few years of the utility, ramping up those revenues to take care of those large projects that were identified, but beyond that it should be smoother sailing,” he added.

Krueger said the storm water utility fee has been placed on the water bills so that all properties that contribute to the storm water runoff issues have to pay their fare share, which even includes tax exempt organizations.

“If they were put on the tax bill, then the individual home owners, instead of paying what will now be $6.35 a month, would be paying probably $10 to $12 a month,” Krueger said. “All of the tax free properties in the city would not be contributing to the storm water utility. So that means every church building, every school building, every tax exempt property in the city is sharing this burden with the rest of the taxpayers in the city because they contribute to the storm water runoff.

“That's why we formed the utility,” he added. “There are other communities where this has been fought and the individual single-family home owner is paying probably double what our residents are paying here.”

Krueger added that even city buildings have to pay the monthly storm water utility fee.

The city of Watertown was forced to implement the storm water utility a few years ago when the federal Environmental Protection Agency mandated that states across the nation reduce the suspended solids in storm water runoff, Krueger said.

“All 50 states took that under advisement, 49 of them went ahead with it and the Wisconsin DNR (Department of Natural Resources) decided that they needed to be more specific - the only state in the country,” Krueger said.

According to Krueger, the Wisconsin DNR has made a requirement that state communities reduce their total suspended solids by 20 percent by the end of 2008 and by 40 percent by the end of 2013.

Krueger said the city has already achieved the 20 percent reduction, but he added that it would be close to impossible to get up to 40 percent without spending millions and millions of dollars.

“It's achievable in the low 30s to mid 30s, but when you try and get that extra five to six points to get up to 40 percent, then you start talking millions of dollars, and that's where we are working diligently - the Alliance of Cities and the League of Municipalities - with the DNR and the powers at be with the state to rethink their mandates,” Krueger said. ‘We are all in favor of clean water, but we are not in favor of bankrupting every community in the state to achieve it.”

In other action Tuesday night, aldermen approved a resolution authorizing Visu-Sewer Clean and Seal Inc. to repair a 171-foot section of sewer pipe under Lafayette Street.

During a recent inspection workers found that the pipe under Lafayette Street between the manholes on Monroe and Warren streets is collapsing and needs to be repaired.

The final reading of an ordinance amending the responsibilities and authorities of the city Historic Preservation Commission was approved by the council.

The Historic Preservation Commission will now review and make recommendations regarding requests for facade and sign grants to the Main Street Board of Directors.

The Historic Preservation Commission will also be combined with the Main Street Program's Design Committee.

Council members made an amendment to the ordinance so the commission will be made up of seven members.

Aldermen also approved the final readings of three ordinances that amend the license fee, pre-licensing fee and re-inspection fee for tattoo and body piercing businesses, retail food establishments and environmental sanitation.

The final reading of an ordinance changing up some of the section numbers within the city's building code was also approved by the council.

During the time for public comment at the beginning of the meeting, Raymond Koehler, of 700 Western Meadows Drive, asked the council to consider leaving money in the budget to fix the storm water problems near Welsh Road, cutting back on 80 percent of street rebuilding for a year and reducing the wages of top salary city workers by 10 percent so union city employees will not be laid off. He also proposed that the city install curb on the west side of Welsh Road from West Main Street to Evergreen Drive so vehicles do not drive into the retention ponds.