Town Staff Hard at Work Finalizing Sewer Rate Schedule, 2025 Town Budget

 During the December 4 Town of Lake City Board of Trustees meeting, Trustees and Mayor Dave Roberts reviewed and discussed the nearly finalized recommendations of Lake City’s sewer rate structure from the Rural Community Advocacy Corporation (RCAC), a non-profit organization that partners with underserved rural communities of less than 50,000 to assist with environmental infrastructure projects.
   For some time now, town staff has been considering increasing sewer rates and adopting a new sewer rate structure for a variety of reasons, due mainly, according to Town Manager Lex Mulhall, to the increased debt service incurred from the $3- million loan needed to renovate the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), which will require a payment of $187,402 per year for 20 years. In addition, operating costs have been steadily on the rise, with infrastructure that desperately needs to be updated, requiring capital reserves are adequately funded. The new rate structure proposed by RCAC is intended to justifiably and equitably distribute the cost of the new WWTP based on the strength of waste produced by users and its impact on the operation of the WWTP. 
   The rate schedule trustees were presented with at the December 4 meeting had preliminary numbers, explained Mulhall, with updated information to be presented at the special budget meeting December 11, and finalized numbers to be reviewed and hopefully ready to be approved at the next regular meeting December 18.
   The schedule, which will be published once finalized and can be viewed at Town office, breaks down sewer categories beginning with single family residential (SFR), through different categories of commercial and industrial accounts, delineating the 2024 rates, the RCAC recommended rates, projected 2025 sewer revenues and excess usage fees per 1000 gallons.
   The rate schedule also indicates different strengths of waste, which is a measure of the concentration of contaminants in wastewater. The most common way to measure wastewater strength is through biological oxygen demand (BOD), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN – the sum of ammonia and organic nitrogen), and the presence and quantity of Ammonia (NH3). Wastewater with higher BOD, TSS, NH3, and TKN levels requires more treatment. TKN is the limiting factor for the WWTP and according to RCAC, it costs the Town $32 to treat 1lb of TKN in the summer months when RV parks are operating……
  

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