Longview City Council Passes Water and Sewer Rate Increases—Classic Hits 100.7 KLOG News

The Longview city council has approved rate increases for both water and sewer services, moving forward with infrastructure investments aimed at maintaining safe drinking water and reducing long-term costs.

In last night’s meeting, the council voted to go with city staff’s recommendation and increase water rates by 4% and sewer rates by 5%, with just Mayor Erik Halvorson in opposition and the rest of the council voting in favor of both proposals. With these increases, the cost per month for the average ratepayer will go up $1.57 for water and $3.91 for sewer.

City staff said the two increases adjust for inflationary costs while also dedicating 0.5% of the water increase for capital investment and 1.5% of the sewer increase to stabilize the need to draw from the reserve fund and get ahead on continued planned capital investments.

With the sewer increase, there was a 4% option presented to the council as well, but they felt that fixing the pipes now would help with long-term costs, especially with the aging, leaky pipes that have been allowing rainwater infiltration during winter months, increasing flow volumes and treatment costs. Council members agreed that this was an important infrastructure investment. They also pointed out that the 1% difference only costs the average ratepayer about 78 cents more per month.

One other recommendation that did not pass came from Mayor Erik Halvorson. He wanted to push back the water and sewer rate hikes to December; he said he would have rather seen them get on the same schedule as garbage and other rate increases to help landlords and others know yearly costs all at once. Other members agreed that was a good idea but argued the water and sewer rate increases couldn’t wait that long.