The Argos Town Council members opened a public hearing during their last meeting to take comments on two ordinances.
“This is a public hearing concerning, it’s really specifically Ordinance 2024-03, an ordinance fixing the schedule of rates and charges to be collected by the town from owners of properties served by the waterworks,” said Town Attorney Derek Jones. He added that there is another ordinance that goes along with Ordinance 2024-03, which is Ordinance 2024-04. “That’s basically a re-write for some changes to Town Code Chapter 54 concerning a water system.”
He said that anytime there’s anything that affects the water rates, there has to be a public hearing.
“It was kind of an iffy thing because we’re not changing the water rates in terms of what a resident would see on their bill from month to month. But there are some service charges, some other miscellaneous fees that have been adjusted that are contained within the ordinance. So, we just thought it would be best to be above board, on the safe side of things, to have this public hearing,” Jones said. A notice was printed in the April 21 edition of The Pilot News that advertised the date and time of the public hearing.
One Argos resident asked what firm had input in developing the ordinances. Clerk-Treasurer Lisa Mullaney replied that it was Baker Tilly.
“It started at Baker Tilly and what they did, they kind of compiled all of the various ordinances that we have and compared those to not only the rate ordinance as it existed, well even now, and what was contained in Chapter 54 in looking for inconsistencies and things like that. There were also new statutes that have been adopted along the way since we’ve implemented both the Code Chapter 54 and any other ordinances that would have affected the rates. So, they’re the ones that took the first look at this and they kind of highlighted certain sections that needed to be changed, deleted, or what have you. But from there on out, then it was basically myself, Jaime, and Lisa. We did the cutting and the pasting, and the moving things around and modifying things to kind of suit the town,” Jones said.
He explained that one of the things that was modified. “For example, there’s no statute that says what a rate has to be for somebody that wants to come have a truck filled or a tank filled. And so those things are kind of within the discretion of the town and I think some of the older rates were getting pretty lax, pretty cheap, and so those have been adjusted. Other things like service calls were kind of behind the times as well. So, it’s really just kind of to refresh things, bring things up to speed and make things more current and to make sure that both the rate ordinance and the usage ordinance mesh so that when one referred to the other you were reading the same thing and it made sense.”
The resident then asked how the Town was compensating Baker Tilly. Jones replied that he thought the company charged hourly, but he wasn’t certain. Mullaney did confirm that the work was charged per hour and that it would be paid from the Utility Department.
Council Member Robert Byers wanted confirmation that these ordinances would not change day to day rates.
“It will not affect the day to day usage rates,” Jones said. However, Jones said that there may be some changes using the example of having the service turned on after hours. “That may be a different amount to be paid instead of what we’re used to right now.”
Council Vice President Ed Barcus asked if the System Development Charge was new. Utility Superintendent Jaime Lindstrom replied that it was new.
“That’s something we’ve been talking about for over a year,” Lindstrom said.
“So, if I built a new home and I’m looking up the tap fees and whatever the materials and then this system development charge, based upon the size of my meter,” Barcus asked.
“Correct,” Lindstrom replied.
“If you look at right now, today, the current Chapter 54, it’s got some weird section in there that talks about airports and the number of barber chairs and things like that and some kind of a fee that should be assessed. The town’s just never done that. And so, again, it’s really just outdated and it’s nothing that was ever utilized and I think it’s very difficult to implement. So, this is something that is far more efficient. It’s uniform across the board and I think it’s something that the town’s going to utilize,” Jones said.
“There’s some fees that we should’ve been doing all along that have never been done,” Lindstrom added.
Byers asked again to make sure that there wasn’t going to be a change to the monthly bill and that the ordinances were mostly related to new construction.
Jones replied that there wasn’t going to be a change to the regular monthly water rates.
“What it basically is,” Lindstrom said about the System Development Charge. “It’s kind of a buy in to the system. People that have lived here paid into it. We did the water tower, we did new mains. They’re buying into that instead of just paying a minimum.”
Without any other discussion, the public hearing was closed.
During the Attorney Report, the two ordinances were brought up for approval.
Barcus motioned to suspend the rules and pass Ordinance 2024-3 Water Rate Ordinance on all three readings. The motion was not unanimous, Byers voted not in favor, so that motion was not passed. Barcus motioned to approve that ordinance on First Reading. That motion was approved. Ordinance 2024-4 Water Usage Ordinance was passed on First Reading as well.
Both ordinances will be up for second and third readings during the next meeting.
