Water Rates to Jump 8% in Marana, Arizona in March, 2009 (AZStarNet)

Mar.14, 2009 in Water Rates

(March 5, 2009, AZStarNet)

Customers of the Marana water utility will begin paying more for their water on March 27.

The Town Council on Feb. 24 approved an 8 percent increase in rates for the Marana Water Department, which serves about 5,000 customers.

It is the first water-rate increase for the town in more than 10 years, said Brad DeSpain, town utilities director.

The average residential customer, who uses 7,000 gallons of water a month, will see a $29.05 water bill after the change, compared with $26.90 currently.

A commercial customer with a 2-inch meter will have a monthly bill of $186.68 for using 50,000 gallons of water, compared with $172.85 under the current rate.

Without the rate increase, in 2010 the town’s cost to provide water service would exceed the amount of revenue the service generates, Dorothy O’Brien, assistant utilities director, told the council at a Jan. 27 special presentation on water rates.

Additionally, the water utility needs the increase because it needs to become independent of the town general fund, which currently covers many of the administrative costs of running the utility, she said.

In a recent interview that included DeSpain, O’Brien and Town Manager Gilbert Davidson, Davidson said there are about 18,000 total water connections in Marana, about 8,400 of which are served by Tucson Water.

The town hopes to eventually take over those water customers from Tucson, Davidson said.

“We really are starting to look at the whole system as a large entity that we need to have money put aside for,” he said.

DeSpain noted that some Marana water infrastructure is more than 50 years old, while some is just a few months old.

The majority of it was built about 30 years ago, he said.

The Water Department needs not only to be able to cover its own costs through its rates, but also to be able to put money toward servicing the aging infra-structure, he said.

The rate increase is likely to be the first of several, according to the information presented this past Tuesday and in two council sessions on the topic last month.

At the Jan. 27 meeting, the council was presented with four options for handling town water rates: Increase rates by 8 percent now, with consecutive 4 percent increases each January through 2012; don’t do anything to the rates; delay the rate increase until January; or don’t acquire any additional water accounts.

The town Utilities Commis-sion has recommended the first option, with annual 4 percent increases from January 2010 through January 2013, DeSpain told the council Tuesday.

That means that in January 2013, residents using an average of 7,000 gallons per month will be paying $33.99, compared with the current $26.90.

Former Marana Councilman David Morales addressed the council during the public hearing part of the discussion. He said he’s bothered by the fact that commercial customers are not included in the tiered rate system, which charges lower rates per 1,000 gallons for people who use less water.

“We all put a strain on the line. We all put a strain to the pumps,” he said.

The new ordinance passed unanimously.

? A version of this article was published Saturday in the Star. Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at 618-1921 or sshelton@azstarnet.com.

(Original Article Here)

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