Lake View City Council talks about the need for utility rate increases

…Will be discussed in more depth at the December 6 meet



LAKE VIEW, IOWA – NOVEMBER 15, 2010

(City administrator’s instructions to the council)



1. With the 1% taken into account, the Water and Sewer funds will make just enough to cover expenses.
- There never seems to be enough funds generated to save any money for doing repairs or improvements.
2. One of the largest expenses is always salaries which always takes about a 3% increase.
3. City administrator still intends to budget as much this year as last year.
- This only changes if there is an anticipated increase.


4. When we do the sewer plant it is supposed to be coming out of the sewer fund.
5. If the council wanted to, it could rescind the ordinance that ties the increase to the CPI, and raise it far enough, (in theory) to make the $30K it needs for the sewer plant project.
- City administrator doesn’t recommend this.
6. When the council first set up the annual increases they tied it to the CPI, but at the time it was increasing 2-3% each year. 1% will not generate any excess in the funds for doing projects as was intended.
7. Can’t we set the base high enough to do this?
- Yes, but the public expects a certain thing to be happening now, and that would be a rule changer.
8. The sewer may have a lot of issues that will begin to happen soon.


9. The question is, do you want to do increases to electric, sewer, and garbage all at once; or do you want to space it out a little?
- Laney and Foval-North both express interest in keeping increases on the current schedule.
- Whatever action they take, it will apply for usage after January 18, 2010.

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