Jasper Utility Board: Water rate hike approved

The Jasper Utility Service Board approved a recommended 17 percent increase in water rates at Monday’s meeting.

The recommendation will be considered by the Jasper Common Council at Wednesday’s meeting at city hall. If passed, the rate hike will appear on customers’ July bills to be paid in August.

According to the committee that met with Umbaugh and Associates, the 17 percent increase is needed due to several factors including the loss of the city’s largest water customer, the Jasper Power Plant, which when it was operating used up to 350,000 gallons a day. Along with this loss, the utility also saw a decrease in usage during the economic downturn beginning in 2008.

Adding to these losses, the city also took on two mandated projects; the Beaver Lake Dam improvement project mandated by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the $1.45 million addition of ultraviolet cleaning equipment to the Jasper Water Plant mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The city also completed the Third Avenue water main replacement project and plans on replacing water mains on U.S. 231 if or when the state decides to resurface it. Although a date hasn’t been set those road repairs, the rumor is that it could happen in the next five years.

A water rate study completed by Umbaugh and Associates actually recommended up to a 28 percent increase in water rates to cover the increases.

To lower that amount, the water committee is recommending that two loans — $1.45 million for the UV project and about $500,000 for the Beaver Lake Dam and Third Avenue water main projects — be extended from 5-year payment schedules to 10-year payment schedules.

In addition to extending those loans, the utility plans on splitting the estimated $350,000 cost of the project to raise the Beaver Lake water level between the Jasper Park and Recreation Department and the landowners around the lake. The utility commitment would be about $175,000.

This would only occur if the city moves forward on the project which has not been decided yet.

The 17 percent increase is expected to add about $6.07 to the average homeowners’ monthly water bill.

Utility Service Board Chair Rick Stradtner pointed out that the rate increase was not due to the biomass litigation. The biomass litigation was paid through the electrical utility funds.

Wage determination lawsuit update 

The utility service board also discussed the impact of a recent decision by the state to repeal the wage determination law. The senate and house of representatives have approved the bill and the governor has indicated he will sign it into law. If signed into law, the repeal would likely take affect in July.

The repeal would impact a recent lawsuit the city is facing. In March, the Jasper Storm Water Board convened a wage determination hearing to consider wages for the storm sewer replacement project on Worrell Drive between 13th and 15th streets (That story can be read here). A wage hearing held in January was contested by the Southern Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council. They filed an injunction to block that decision.

In response a second hearing was held in March to appease the trades council’s objections to the January decision. The wage determination committee again chose the rates recommended by the Association of Builder and Contractors, a non-union trades group.

The city had thought with the new hearing, the trades council would drop the injunction, but they have not done so. According to City Attorney Renee Kabrick, a pre-trial meeting was held between council for the plaintiffs and the city and the city is waiting on the union’s response, which is expected in the next week.

Kabrick did state the city could wait till the law is repealed in July to begin the work on the storm water project but City Engineer Chad Hurm has indicated this could push the project out of the construction season this year.

The board also took the following actions.

• Hopf Equipment for a Bobcat 3600 $17,350 with a trade-in of $2,100 for a net quote of $15,250.
• Hopf Outdoor Power for a Polaris Brutis 4×4 for $16,076.95 with a trade-in of $2,500 for a net $13,576.95.
• Hopf Outdoor Power for a Kubota RTX 1900 for $14,441.48 with a trade-in of $2,500 for a net $11,941.48.

–Approved Electric Distribution Department advertising to hire a substation technician.

–Approved the purchase of a Radio Detection Locater for $7,995 from CNS Solutions.

–Approved the purchase of a new SUV for the Electric Distribution GMC Terrain from Bob Luegers for $19,957 after trade-in.

–Heard an update on the UV project at the Water Plant from Derick Wiggins with Midwestern Engineers. The project is moving along well now as the weather has let up some. The state has mandated the project has to be completed by the end of September. The project is on track to be completed by mid-July.

–Utilities office manager Ashley Kiefer reported the utilities billing office had issues with the department’s server. According to Kieffner, utility billing calculations came to a “screeching halt” but the department was able to complete the calculations with help from Eck Mundy and technology consultant Brian Scott. She advised the board the department will have to move the server replacement up in importance. She said a request for proposal are being prepared to be sent out soon and they could be on track to have a new server installed by June.

–Utility Services Manager Bud Hauersperger informed the board the waste water plant depreciation fund had only been receiving 50 percent of the recommended allotments but with the plant’s age, they would begin to pay 100 percent of that amount into the depreciation fund. Money is saved in the fund, to be used when it is time for the plant, which was built in 1990, has to be replaced.

–Heard the optic fiber project to the city departments is about 95 percent complete. The fiber is installed for all the municipal departments except the Gas & Water building on 2nd Avenue due to the flooding that has occurred. Requests for proposals for the phone system have been sent out and bids will be open April 28 with the award by May. The phone system is expected to be completed by July.