Laserfiche WebLink
Mr. Culver commented St. Paul Water has indicated there is a clear downward trend <br />of overall water usage and a positive trend of people taking measure to conserve <br />water. They have a very fixed cost for water and it is very cheap. They need to <br />consider what they are going to doing with the extra money generated if they are <br />going to charge more than it costs to deliver the water. Currently, the money goes <br />back into water infrastructure. This includes operating costs, the cost of the water <br />from St. Paul, and the cost of infrastructure. <br />Chair Cihacek inquired how fast the current infrastructure is being replaced. <br />Mr. Freihammer responded they replace between one and one and half miles of <br />water main each year. They also recently put a lot of money into the booster station <br />and will continue to do so in the future. With new meters and a new tower, a lot <br />has already been invested. <br />Member Wozniak stated it appears there are a lot of opportunities to spend some <br />extra money. They could also educate homeowners on rain gardens and plantings <br />that are not water intensive. He does not like the rates as they are, and they should <br />branch out like Edina or St. Louis Park has. A higher rate should be created for top <br />end users. <br />Member Misra agreed with Member Wozniak and noted there are cities that use <br />ground water and put entire wells on line in the summer that they do not use in the <br />winter. It appears they have people determined to use large volumes of water and <br />it seems reasonable to put a cost on it. <br />Member Wozniak stated he is running a siphon in his house to keep his water line <br />from freezing and it will not get fixed until 2023 when his road is replaced. This <br />extra money can be used to step up the timeline for issues like his or they could <br />replace water mains before they break. <br />Chair Cihacek commented they may want to consider raising the summer rates five <br />or 10 cents and see what the financial impact looks like, both for the consumer and <br />for the resources it produces. <br />Member Seigler commented he does not see a problem if water usage is going down <br />and the amount of people using excess water is going down. It seems they are <br />penalizing people who are using more water than they have authorized them to use. <br />There could be a good reason why people are using more than 30,000 gallons and <br />it seems they are just arbitrarily raising the fees. <br />Chair Cihacek inquired about raising just the summer rates. <br />Member Seigler stated the usage is going down and there is no problem. He <br />suggested they wait and see what happens two years from now. <br />Page 4 of 16 <br />