By JAYSON JACOBY

Baker City Herald

City councilors will meet at least one more time before deciding how much to raise water and sewer rates.

Councilors agreed Tuesday to schedule a special meeting for Monday at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

They will meet with the city’s Public Works Advisory Committee.

That committee recommends the City Council boost water rates by 8 percent and sewer rates by 15 percent.

Those figures translate to an increase, for an average residential customer, of about $4 to $5 per month.

Mayor Jeff Petry said this morning that he expects councilors will make a final decision on water and sewer rates during their April 22 meeting.

As for the Public Works Advisory Committee’s other suggestion that the city institute a local gas tax of 2 cents per gallon councilors briefly discussed the matter Tuesday but made no decisions.

andquot;Right now I don’t see a lot of strong support for it,andquot; Petry said.

Councilor Sam Bass, who is the City Council’s representative on the Public Works Advisory Committee, said the committee strived to propose rate increases as small as possible.

Councilor Beverly Calder said the city needs to explain to residents, in detail, how the city will spend the extra money.

Michelle Owen, the city’s public works director, and other city officials have said at previous meetings that there are two main reasons for boosting water rates.

First, the city has not done so since 2001 even to account for inflation, which amounts to 21 percent to 23 percent during those seven years, City Manager Steve Brocato said Tuesday.

Second, the city plans to spend several million dollars over the next several years to replace several miles of the century-old, leak-prone concrete pipeline that brings water from the Elkhorn Mountains to the city.

The water department, with a cash reserve of about $844,000, is in much better financial shape than the sewer department, with reserves of about $55,000.

Raising sewer rates will allow the city to install liners in pipes to prevent groundwater from seeping in through cracks, Owen told councilors during a meeting earlier this year.

Groundwater infiltration adds to the load at the city’s sewer lagoons, she said, and as that load grows the city will eventually need to build a new lagoon or otherwise increase its treatment capacity.

But the biggest-ticket item looming is the likelihood that, within the next six years or so, state and federal environmental agencies will order the city to stop dumping treated sewage effluent into the Powder River, Owen said.

In that case the city would have to dispose of the wastewater elsewhere probably either by sprinkling it onto pastures near the lagoon, or by piping the effluent several miles east to wetlands at Baldock Slough.

Either option probably will cost millions of dollars, Owen said.

Calder said she thinks the City Council should consider revamping water rates so that customers who use very little water might even see their bills drop.

Now, the city charges a base monthly rate of $24.86 (for a 5/8th-inch water meter, which most homes have) that includes three 750-gallon units of water.

Customers who use more than three units per month pay 53.4 cents for each additional unit (or portion of).

Calder asked Owen to count how many of the city’s approximately 3,200 households use two units or less per month.

Calder pointed out that several cities charge a smaller base rate than Baker City’s $24.86 among them Ontario ($10), Hermiston ($11.52) and La Grande ($13.41).

Yet all those cities charge much more for the amount of water customers actually use Ontario, for instance, charges $1.35 per 1,000 gallons, and La Grande 88 cents per unit.

Calder said the basic idea she endorses is that the city should shift some of the financial burden from people who use hardly any water to people who go through tens of thousands of gallons each month.

Councilor Terry Schumacher said that although he doesn’t think the city should lower the base rate for anyone, he agrees with Calder that the city’s per-unit cost is too low.

The Public Works Advisory Committee recommends the City Council boost the rate from 53.4 cents per unit to 57.7 cents.

Schumacher contends even the latter figure is so low as to be andquot;ridiculous.andquot;

He suggests the City Council consider boosting the rate, perhaps over the next three years, to $1 per unit.

Proposed gas tax

Although there was no consensus, some councilors, including Andrew Bryan and Dennis Dorrah, said that if the City Council concludes the tax is necessary, then all the city’s voters, not just the seven councilors, should decide whether to impose the tax.

Councilors do agree, though, that the purpose of the proposed tax raising money to repair streets, which are rougher now, according to a city report, than they’ve been in more than a decade is a valid one.

andquot;We need to fix the streets,andquot; Schumacher said. andquot;None of us wants to increase any fee, but the city has to take care of its assets just as people take care of their homes. We’re in this together, folks.andquot;

Schumacher said he has not decided whether he favors a gas tax.

Councilors did not even get as far Tuesday as discussing whether they should take a gas tax to voters, or when.

The next chance would be the Nov. 11 election.

Petry said he does not think voters should decide the gas tax issue, should the City Council choose to pursue that option.

andquot;I think it’s a council decision that’s what we’re elected for,andquot; Petry said.

Another way to raise money for streets is through a property tax levy, and in that case the voters would have the final say, Petry pointed out.

Twice during the 1990s city voters approved five-year, $350,000-per-year property tax levies for street maintenance. The latter of those levies, in May 1995, won by a margin of 57 percent to 43 percent.

Due to a change in state law, the street maintenance levy is no longer a separate part of property tax bills. However, the City Council has continued to set aside $350,000 per year in property taxes for street maintenance.

Doug Evans of Baker City told councilors that with gas prices andquot;going through the roof,andquot; this is a bad time to tack on a tax.

Evans pointed out that although councilors cited the lack of money to repair streets, they recently voted to spend about $660,000 to buy and remodel a building and move the police department there.

Curt Miller, from the Baker Truck Corral, said he is skeptical of the city’s estimate that a 2-cents-per-gallon tax would raise about $100,000 per year.

He said that based on fuel sales at the Truck Corral, which is among the bigger sellers in town, the tax would generate just $7,000 per year from the Truck Corral alone.