MANSFIELD — Mansfield city engineer Bob Bianchi said he fears a hypothetical day 10 years in the future when the city can’t deliver safe water to homes and businesses.
If that were to happen, he said the city wouldn’t be able to afford water line replacements at its current water-rate structure.
Bianchi told Mansfield’s public utilities committee Tuesday the city needs to bring in more funding to maintain its water system and residential service.
After City Council approved annual rate increases starting in 2021, Bianchi said he realized “rates were just too low and weren’t consistent with other communities.”
Bianchi and Public Works Director Dave Remy answered questions from City Council members about the proposed elimination of the lowest usage tier and the addition of monthly “readiness-to-serve” charges to residential water bills.
Readiness-to-serve charges are based on meter size and ensure customers can have water access immediately, Remy said. These fixed costs would be charged regardless of how much water a resident uses.
“Let’s say you have a snowbird family that wants to go to Florida for three months but they don’t want to have their water shut off or terminated — it’s the ability to have water immediately,” Remy said.
Mansfield residents are currently billed at a rate of $0.003829 for the first 3,000 gallons of monthly water use and a higher rate for the next 34,500 gallons of monthly water use. If the new ordinance passes, all residents will be charged the higher rate for their total water use each month.
Remy said the Mansfield’s Public Works Department is still working to manage the installation of 950 new residential water meters for accurate readings of water usage.
Though residents who haven’t already scheduled installation of the new meters were supposed to have their service shut off, Remy said he learned some residents have damaged curb boxes or have other methods to skirt meter readings.
Once new meters are installed, the Public Works Department is working with the Aclara app so people can monitor their own water use day-by-day instead of waiting until they get a monthly bill.
Remy said he is also looking for a data analyst to assist with utility debt collection and monitoring water meters on a daily basis. Once this position is filled, Remy said the city can be proactive in customer service and debt collection.
Mansfield’s minimum monthly water bill is currently $3.80. With the elimination of the lowest usage tier and addition of a readiness to serve charge, Bianchi said the minimum monthly bill would rise to $15.73, generating an estimated $3.2 million in additional revenue each year.
Second Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier said residents on fixed incomes would be most affected by water-bill increases if they pass. Though Bianchi said those situations made the decision to propose rate increases difficult, he found the increase would bring Mansfield’s annual cost of water up to just below the state average.
“That’s why we looked at how Mansfield compares to other communities and made sure we’re not out of place,” Bianchi said. “It’s not something we want to do, it’s something we have to do.
“The worst thing that could happen is for something bad to ruin our system 10 years from now. We knew that we had a funding issue, something bad happens and we approach council and they say ‘why wasn’t this ever taken care of years ago?’”
Council members will read and discuss the proposed water-rate increases at least two more times before voting on the issue Dec. 6.
