Agenda - Council - 04/28/1992 - Laserfiche WebLink

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,CITY SEWER RATES Rates for the .surrounding communities vary significantly depending upon the rate structure. SeYera! cities bill sewer at flat rates ranging from $32 to $40 (on a quarterly basis) and ~om~ cities have a demand charge plus volume rates. The volume is determined $or iresidential by the metered water usage for a quarter that would generally riot in~:lude lawn sprinkling and other outside uses. Some of the cities use the previou~l OCiober through December and some use January through March water usage tO det[,ermine the volume based sewer charge for the next twelve months. Non- residential a~ccotints are charged for sewer based on actual water usage year-round. The City of;Ramseys current rate ~s a fiat rate $32.00 per quarter for residential and ~ r commercial aCcoU~nts - without regard to the usage or number of RECs. Ramsey's Cu~ren~ flat rate structure does not provide sufficient revenue to cover the charges from! Me!ropolitan Waste Control Commission. MWCC bills the City based upon the number !of l~nits of potential capacity (RECs) our hook ups represent. In other words, we ~re [charging $32.00 per quarter to each single family dwelling, the apartment hd~usei (for all 27 units), the car wash, and other commercial businesses while MWCC isibilling us at the potential capacity of sewage flow per residential equivalent..A~t sOCe point the City of Ramsey will be charged by MWCC based on the actual flow, [~ut Our volume currently is so low it cannot be metered. The number': of i RECs non-residential accounts are assigned does not necessarily correlate to [ihe[actual water and sewer usage. As an example, the Super Bowl is assigned 14:IRECs and if we were to charge the standard residential rate times the number of Rl~Cs, lwe would be billing the Super Bowl at the rate of $448 per quarter or an annual cllargd~ of $1,792. The water usage is a more accurate indicator of actual sewer usag~,!The' Super Bowl had total water usage of 74,000 gallons during 1991 or 18,500 gall0n~s p~r quarter; this compares to the average residential account at 17,520 gallons. Undler :the current rate structure, the actual sewer charge was $32.00 per quarter, under th~ MWCC structure (Recs times City's residential rates) it would have been $448 p~r qi~arter. While there is little question but there should be some charge for the capa'ctty ihat exists, the using the number of REC's times the City's residential rate will result i~ an excessive charge. For 1992 the~_Cit~'s billing from MWCC will total $44,400. In addition to this cost, the City will be subject to repair and future replacement costs and the costs for supervision,: staff[time for processing of expenditures, issuing billings and maintaining thc sewer uffiityi fund. While the total of these costs can best be estimated at the completion of:' a ~ull rate study, some recognition of these costs should be made at this time. If we ~ssU~e the City will incur expenditures for the sewer fund at the rate of 125% of MWCCI charges, the 1992 costs will be $55,500. Using first quarter water usage for thoan. nual residential base, and full year commercial water usage, 1992 sewer cost will [average $2.05/1000 gallons of water. This cost times the average residential fir~st qgarter usage would result in a flat rate of $35.92 per quarter. For non-residential act:ounts, a minimum charge equivalent to the flat rate for residential plus $2.05/1000 :g~allons for all usage over 17,520 gallons per quarter would provide a charge based Upor~ actual flow.