MANSFIELD — Mansfield City Council approved a $35 million bond issue for the water treatment plant Tuesday night, though members vowed to revisit the water-rate hikes that they also approved to fund the work.
Several legislators expressed concerns the series of annual rate hikes, the first of which takes effect Jan. 1, will occur while the city is still in the early stages of a $17 million city-wide water meter replacement program.
That program is aimed at more accurately measuring water usage and is expected to increase city water revenues when it’s completed.
The water-meter project, approved by council in May 2019, has been slowed due to technical issues and also the COVID-19 pandemic. Only about 2,000 meters had been replaced as of Tuesday. The project isn’t expected to be completed until April or May 2021.
Fourth Ward Councilman Alomar Davenport cast the only vote against the increases, though he did join council in later unanimously approving the bond issue.
It’s the first water-rate increase since 2004 and comes after the state EPA-ordered improvements to a treatment plant Public Works Director Dave Remy has said is in “dire” condition.
Davenport, who said he was torn because he recognizes the need for the ordered improvements at the water treatment plant yet his constituents oppose raising rates before they know the impact of the meter-replacement program.
“The people of the 4th Ward want to pay for what they use,” Davenport said, adding many of his constituents are on low or fixed incomes. “But they cannot support this legislation because the water-meter project is so far behind (schedule) and we don’t know what that will entail and what it will do to revenues.
“In a perfect world, we would wait until the meters are done,” Davenport said. “I understand we cannot wait, but our constituents should not feel the pain of us not being having had the foresight in the past (to take action).”
The rate-hike legislation, which also calls for the city to begin measuring water and sewer by gallon instead of cubic feet, calls for biennial reviews by council. However, Jean Taddie, who represents the 6th Ward, said it should be done sooner and more often once the meter-replacement program is complete.
Finance committee chairman Jon Van Harlingen, who represents the 3rd Ward and who has previously expressed frustration work at the treatment plant has not been done sooner, promised the water and sewer rates would be reviewed at least each year during the budget-planning process.
The water-rate increases will also fund a systematic replacement of water lines throughout the city over the next decade, according to city engineer Bob Bianchi, who told council some of the city’s water lines are more than a century old and too small to meet modern needs, including the city’s fire hydrants.
Council also approved a contract with K.E. McCartney & Associates of Mansfield to continue with the engineering and construction administration services in connection with the water treatment plant. The city hired the engineering firm in 2019 to develop a capital improvement plan for the water treatment plant.
Bianchi said the additional work done by the firm would be paid from funds generated by the bond, which will likely be a 40-year bond that will cost the city about $1.7 million annually.
The annual increases will continue until 2026. The city administration has lowered the first announced rate of increase for the lowest level of usage, hikes that would be about 3 percent the first year and total about 19 percent from the current rates through 2026.
