Utility Rate Increases Proposed

July 1 starts a new budget year for the City. In order to balance the budget, the City Council will be considering various fee and rate increases, as well as adding new fees, at its June 8th meeting. These rates and fees touch a number of city services.

The City plans to introduce Utility Billing On-Line in July. Utility customers will be able to view their bills and consumption over the internet, and may choose to pay their bill over the internet. The option to pay a utility bill on-line with a VISA or MasterCard will cost $1.25 per transaction. This proposed new fee for this new service is to maintain the web link so that the payment is immediately credited to the customer, and also to secure and encrypt the data for both the customer’s protection and the City’s protection.

Other new fees the Council will consider adding are library late fees. These fees are being added to be consistent with other libraries in the County, and also to enable the Library to continue to provide the same level of service in the next budget year as this year. The fees will be at the standard county rate, 15 cents per day for books and $1 per day for DVDs. These fees are projected to raise $15,000 in revenue, the amount the Library budget is increasing to maintain services for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2009.

Other fees the City charges will be increasing approximately 3%. These fees cover a wide range of items, from park facility rentals to various permits to copies of documents and maps. Fees charged for Parks, Engineering, Police, Fire, Library, City Recorder and Administrative Services all go to the General Fund and help the City balance its budget and maintain services. Fees for Water, Sewer, and Light and Power go to those respective funds and are designed to recover the cost of materials and providing the service covered by those fees.

The Council will also be considering utility rate increases. The water rate is proposed to increase by 6% on July 1. The Water Fund is facing large capital infrastructure requirements, including improvements to the jointly owned Joint Water Commission water treatment plant (from which Forest Grove receives its summer water), increasing in-town water storage, and ensuring water pipelines are free of leaks and corrosion. The proposed 6% increase will add about $1.34 to the average residential customer’s monthly water bill.

The monthly surface water management fee is proposed to increase by $0.50 as of July 1, 2009. This fee is charged by both Clean Water Services and Forest Grove. Currently, the combined fee is $4.50. Clean Water Services is proposing to increase its portion by $0.25, and similarly Forest Grove is proposing to increase its portion by $0.25, bringing the total monthly combined charge per equivalent service unit to $5.00. This fee pays for activities that decrease pollution that enters local streams and that prevent localized flooding on city streets, such as the leaf-pick up program and street sweeping. More stringent environmental regulations have increased the costs of these activities.

The monthly sewer fee is proposed to increase approximately 5.5% on July 1, 2009. This fee, like the surface water management fee, is charged by both Clean Water Services and Forest Grove, and the charges are combined on your monthly utility bill. Clean Water Services is increasing their charge by 5.5%, while Forest Grove’s surcharge of $3.15 will not change. The average residential monthly sewer bill will increase about $1.70. This increase is necessary because the cost of meeting federal water quality requirements has increased, along with the costs for power and chemicals used at the wastewater treatment plants.

Even with the above utility rate increases, Forest Grove will continue to be one of the lower cost cities in the Metro area for utility services provided to its residents. Given the current economic conditions, the City is working hard to try to minimize rate increases and maintain a high quality of services.

The Forest Grove City Council will be convening on June 8, 2009, at 7:00 pm, in the Community Auditorium to consider these various fees and rates. The public is encouraged to attend and provide feedback to the City Council at that meeting.