Sewer rate hike voted in

Customers will see two more bill raises 

It’s official: The first of two additional sewer rate increases for Polson ratepayers will become effective July 1.

Customers will not see the rate hike in their bill until the end of August, according to Polson City Finance Officer Cindy Dooley, who reviewed the decision before the vote at the Polson City Commission’s June 20 regular meeting.

The commission voted unanimously for the rate increase.

Previously, the commissioners created a step-up rate increase to accommodate the city’s sewer ratepayers paying for a federally mandated sewer system upgrade.

Dooley told the commissioners that the increase was not only more accommodating to its customers, but also necessary to continue with the outside loan process. 

Sewer rates rose about $40 per household in 2015 to pay for the first phase of the mandatory sewer project. 

At the June 6 public hearing for the second rate increase, Polson Mayor Heather Knutson explained that once the project was finished, ratepayers would probably not be relieved of the raised rates, which will then cover projected costs of maintenance and operations of the plant. In addition, city leaders have to pay off a $14.3 million loan over the course of 30 years.

City leaders developed the three-tier rate hike system in 2014, after the commission was forced to ask Polson ratepayers for what they believed would be a 300-percent increase to their monthly bills. The increases will pay for the design and construction of a new water treatment system, which must be replaced by 2018 to meet federal Environmental Protection Agency requirements.

“Our current lagoon system, which was build over 50 years ago, is not keeping up with current demands and EPA-mandated effluent requirements,” Knutson said in January 2015. “We have been out of compliance on a regular basis since January 2014.”

Though the commission considered the idea of repairing the current lagoon system, the city determined in March 2013 that the current system was beyond repair.

City leaders were able to save money on the new system by altering the original plan, which had been estimated at $18.9 million. The modified sewer system is expected to cost $14.8 million.

“With the $4 million savings, we will see less of a rate increase,” City Manager Mark Shrives said in 2015. “We will still be doing another increase, and we will now be going back and doing those calculations.”

City officials knew for up to 15 years that the 50-year-old lagoons would have to be replaced, yet rates stayed flat for at least 10 years.

The current plant should handle the addition of about 2,000 residents by 2034.

The third and final rate increase of approximately $9 will be presented to sewer customers near the completion of the sewer system replacement around spring 2018, Shrives said.