From The Douglas County News Press (Rhonda Moore):
On Oct. 26, Utilities Director Ron Redd proposed to increase water rates over a five-year period, beginning in 2011. Redd presented a plan to introduce a tiered approach that by 2015 will have a net affect of a 30 percent rate increase for residential customers. Over that period of time, commercial customers will experience a drop in their water bills of more than 2 percent, beginning with a 17 percent rate decrease in year one and continuing with annual rate increases through year five. The reason for the decrease to the commercial rates is an adjustment to the fixed costs associated with its customer base, Redd said…
If town council approves the rate increases at second and final reading, customers will begin seeing changes to their water bills beginning in January, 2011. The average residential customer will pay about $6.25 more per month for water, or a 5.88 percent increase. Those increases will continue through 2015, when residential customers will be paying about $32 more each month, or $384 per year, than they pay today. In the first year of the rate increases, commercial customers will save abouyt $50 each month, with a 17 percent decrease in their bills. The commercial rates will then undergo various rate increases over the next four years, resulting in a two-percent decrease from what they pay today.
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