Raising water rates irks some SB residents

SAN BENITO — Danny Linan says he will reduce the amount of water he uses if city officials raise water and sewer rates again to help pay off a new $17 million water plant and other upgrades.

Officials are considering raising water and sewer rates for the next five years to cut a $1.8 million deficit in the city’s utility department.

A consultant Tuesday recommended that officials raise most residential rates by 1 to 3 percent a year through October 2014.

“We hardly use the water and they’re charging us too much,” Linan said outside the Wal-Mart store about his water and sewer bill that runs about $100 a month.

“It’s hard to pay for it so I’m going to start cutting down,” Linan, an interpreter for the hearing impaired, said. “I just use it to wash clothes and take a shower and once in a while I use it for my lawn.”

Since 2004, the city has increased its monthly base water and sewer rate from $42.22 to the current fee of $55.21 to pay $32 million in water and sewer improvements that included a $17.7 million water plant, a $13 million sewer plant, a $1.6 million water tower and other water and sewer improvements.

Lourdes Gamboa, a homemaker, said she has trouble paying her water bill even though she’s using as little water as she can.

“It’s been real high already — I can’t cut it down,” Gamboa said Thursday outside Wal-Mart. “But there are a lot of people who find it hard to pay because they live on (public) assistance.”

Juanita Huerta blamed the tough economic times for difficulty paying the city’s rising water bills.

“Now that the economy is harder, it’s not fair,” she said. “There are a lot of poor people who can’t afford it.”

Officials say the city’s current water and sewer rate schedule fails to adequately bill some customers for services.

While the rate schedule heavily charges customers who use small amounts of water, it charges less to customers such as businesses that use more water, they said.

City Manager Manuel Lara blamed the city’s shortfall on water rate increases and wet
summers that reduced residents’ water use.

But Jeff Snowden, a consultant for Capex Consulting Group in Frisco, said minimal rate increases, such as those proposed Tuesday, won’t affect most residents’ water use.

The city’s daily water consumption has dropped from 4 million gallons to 3 million gallons in recent years, Lara said.

The consultants’ study projected that the rate increases would generate $6.6 million in 2011, while the utility department would have operating expenses of $3.8 million.

Revenues would also go toward an annual $2.19 million debt payment. The city faces a $1.7 million debt payment in February.

Managers at apartment complexes and mobile home parks also objected to a proposal to charge their businesses for water used by individual units.

The city could collect an estimated $243,000 in revenue if it charges apartment complexes and mobile home parks for water used by individual apartments and mobile homes, city records show.

San Benito would become the first city in the Rio Grande Valley to charge apartment complexes and mobile home parks for water used by individual units.

Bonnie Dominguez, manager of Fun N Sun RV Resort, warned officials that a new water charge could lead residents to leave one of Texas’ largest mobile home parks.

“The last thing we like to do is pass it down to residents,” Dominguez told city commissioners at a Tuesday hearing. “People come to the Valley because we do our best to keep costs of living down. This proposal would put a big financial strain on our corporation.”

Claire Rowe, manager of the Heather Apartments, warned the water charge would drive up rents and force some residents from apartments.

“You’re going to penalize the poorest people,” Rowe told officials.