Initial water/sewer service to cost $7,000ILWACO – The Ilwaco City Council on Monday reconsidered its proposal to raise sewer and water hookup fees to a total of $15,000 to help balance the city’s 2005 budget.

At the council’s Dec. 13 meeting, two ordinances raising total connection fees to $15,000 were discussed but not voted on: Ordinance 696 proposed a charge of $5,000 for connection of a “building or service” to the city’s water system. Current connection fee is $1,385; Ordinance 697 proposed a charge of $10,000 for connection of a residential unit to the city’s sewer system. The current connection fee is $3,500.

Between that meeting and Monday, two additional budget workshops were held, and Mayor Ed Leonard said he had received “extensive comments” on the hookup fee increases.

Noting that the city’s 2005 budget must be approved by the end of the year, Councilwoman Victoria Stoppiello proposed raising the fees to $2,000 for water connection and to $5,000 for sewer connection, with an automatic 3-percent “escalator” each year for the next five years.

Stoppiello noted that at one of the budget workshops, Pacific County Commissioner and Ilwaco developer Jon Kaino estimated the hookup rates if an annual escalator had been in place for the past 10 years. Kaino, Councilwoman Shirley Burt and Leonard each calculated that present combined fees would be around the currently proposed total of $7,000.

“Water connection fees haven’t been increased in 10 years; sewer connection fees were raised in 1998. We’re all in a guessing game on this,” Stoppiello said at the meeting Monday. “The main thing is that we made projections of revenues to keep the budget balanced in the water and sewer funds. We have to pay back our loans. I’m really upset and disturbed about the city’s financial condition. I don’t want the town to go bankrupt.”

Stoppiello also suggested scheduling quarterly budget workshops so the council can keep current on the city’s financial state.

Burt agreed with Stoppiello. “We raise water and sewer rates by 3 percent each year,” she said. “We should do the same for hookup fees. I try to be fair to everybody.”

And Councilman David Jensen commented that the fees are “intended for system expansion. Hookup fees should be a way to build up funds for future expansion.”

The council, with Councilman Doug Hubbard voting “no” on each ordinance, approved raising water hookup fees to $2,000 and sewer hookup fees to $5,000, effective Feb. 1, with fees to be collected not later than the issuance of a building permit.

Hubbard said “the public’s perception that the developers are responsible for the sewer plant expansion is not correct. It wasn’t done because of them. It’s not fair to the developers.” Earlier in the meeting, Hubbard said increases in rates are associated with inflation, but hookups are not. He also pointed out that the city “can create a budget shortfall by low and unrealistic projections of growth.”

The council then approved the 2005 budget, including changes to the draft version and with a stipulation that the council conduct quarterly meetings for reviews of the document.

Ilwaco’s struggle over the budget has transpired in relation to an ongoing lawsuit between the city and Seaview Sewer District, its longtime partner in developing water treatment infrastructure. A contract between the city and the sewer district says that Seaview will pay for half of Ilwaco sewer plant expansion costs in return for 50 percent of the sewer capacity created.

Seaview wants some extra sewer capacity – though not necessarily all it is entitled to under the contract – primarily to extend service to customers in the Sandridge Road area, but Ilwaco has been unwilling to part with any of the additional 1,000 “equivalent residential units” created by the most recent plant expansion. As a result, the sewer district hasn’t parted with its approximately $800,000 in joint costs.

The lawsuit continues to play out in court, with no immediate end in sight.