District questions city action on water rates
an Crumrine and Frances Smalley, representatives of Marion County Improvement District No. 2, Marion County Lake, met Monday with Marion city commissioners to discuss a proposed rate change.
The district has purchased water from the city since 1993. The rate has never increased above the original price of $1.60 per thousand gallons.
At their June 17 meeting, the city approved a 77-cent increase, to match the 48 percent increase in operational costs since 1993.
Administrator Dennis Nichols said the increase was due to higher labor costs, increased water testing and other oversight requirements, and higher costs of chemical treatment. Chemical costs rose from $11,000 annually to $23,000 this year, he said.
Also, the increase does not include bond and interest costs or improvements to the buildings, since the contract between city and improvement district does not allow those costs to be passed along.
Commissioner Jim Crofoot said the original price was set without extensive research, and the city failed to determine if it was enough to cover actual costs.
"We just took a price that (the engineers) said would be good," he said.
Smalley asked if the city intended to maintain a limit of 750,000 gallons per month on the district. Costs can be re-negotiated for amounts higher than that.
"I don't think we'll have a problem in that regard unless it requires us to increase the plant size," Nichols said.
Currently the district uses between 500,000 and 600,000 gallons monthly. The new clear well, and successful efforts to clean the line from Marion Reservoir to the city water plant, provides plenty of capacity, officials said.
Crumrine and Smalley asked if the district could be notified earlier when such increases are contemplated. The change is to take effect Oct. 1 but the district has to reissue its rate ordinance and take other steps to comply with the increase, they said. Also, they weren't pleased they had to read a newspaper to find out about the increase.
Commissioners said the district could delay its change a month if needed. Nichols said he tried to be respectful of the commission's role. For him to tell the improvement district that a rate change was likely, before it had been presented to commissioners, was presumptuous, he said.
But commissioners said the improvement district's questions could have been answered if they had at least been told the issue would be discussed at the June 17 meeting.
Condemnation ordinance
Commissioners decided to make no changes in an ordnance that requires five residents to sign a petition before the city begins proceeds to declare a property a hazard.
Mayor Eloise Mueller said she had brought several matters to the city's attention, at the request of individuals. However, these individuals did not submit a petition.
Nichols said the five-person petition demonstrates public support for a condemnation proceeding.
"The word of only one individual or commissioner has less support and can become a public relations issue unless there is excellent grounds for considering a condemnation," he said.
"I just hope people realize they can do this," Mueller said.
Commissioner Larry McLain said people could contact building inspector Kermit Dirksen first. If the property didn't show an imminent need for action, he could provide the person with a petition form and let them proceed from there.
In other reports:
Mary Jeffrey, Marty Fredrickson, and Dan Baldwin were appointed to the city library board.
Commissioners asked Baldwin to pursue legal action against the owners of property at 117 South Billings, regarding a zoning violation.
Warrants totaling $36,623 were approved to pay bills.
