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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

City readies for rate increases

Increased costs prompting planned utility rate hikes

Argen Duncan El Defensor Chieftain Reporter, aduncan@dchieftain.com

The City of Socorro is one step closer to raising water, wastewater and residential trash rates starting Nov. 1.

At the City Council meeting Monday, Sept. 15, at City Hall, the council approved publication of the ordinance increasing the prices. The city must hold a public hearing on the matter, and it will take another six to eight weeks before the ordinance could pass, Mayor Ravi Bhasker said Tuesday.

The city is raising fees to compensate for increased expenses due to federal arsenic limits for drinking water and the state permit process for landfills. It must decrease arsenic levels in two wells and meet certain requirements for operating a landfill.

According to the ordinance, in November, monthly residential trash rates will increase to $12.75 for the first bin and $6 for each additional bin. For water, rates are increasing to about 20 cents per 100 gallons for residential, commercial and industrial users.

Fees for 100 gallons of wastewater serviced are increasing to about 24 cents for residential users, 27 cents for commercial users and 35 cents for industrial users, according to the ordinance.

Beginning July 1, 2009, the trash rate is to go up another dollar for the first container, while the water and wastewater fees will see a raise of another penny per unit. The rates will increase again by the same amounts on July 1, 2010.

Additional garbage containers would still cost $6.

The council could pass a resolution to reduce or eliminate those rates on the second or third increase, but they must do so by the day before fees go up.

In other business:

  • Councilor Mary Ann Chavez-Lopez brought a draft of the proposed police oversight committee ordinance to the councilors for input. If the councilors liked the ordinance, it would be published and opened for public comment.

    "It's just a draft," said City Clerk Pat Salome.

    The draft is public record, but it is not up for adoption at this time.

  • The council approved a subdivision plat of the city's industrial park on U.S. 60. Councilor Donald Monette, chairman of the industrial park committee, said the plat would let the city know exactly what part of the property an approved business would use.

  • The council approved application for a Community Development Block Grant to continue flood control work in the Cuba Road area.

  • Mayor Ravi Bhasker said he had asked Police Chief Lawrence Romero to have officers concentrate on traffic violations at least one day a week.

  • Bhasker said the Plaza has become a gathering place for people who are drunk, and asked police to check the area once or twice a day to combat the problem.

    "It's a public space; it's a public place," he said.

    However, Bhasker continued, if people are drunk and causing problems, officers need to ask them to leave, take them home or arrest them. He doesn't want people in jail since city must then pay for them.

    Romero said the Plaza had seen an increase in drunken people this summer.

  • Bhasker said Ezell Aluminum Fabrication was leaving a lease of city property in Lemitar. Glen Ezell had been a good customer and the city was sorry to see him go, Bhasker said.

    Socorro County Chamber of Commerce Director Terry Tadano said Ezell had to close because people were using less expensive businesses due to economic conditions.

  • The council approved hiring engineering company CDM to develop plans for arsenic removal. Salome said the hiring was pending a negotiated agreement between the company and the city. The agreement would come back to the council, he said.

  • The council approved a payment for the completion of a lift station to connect the New Mexico Fire Fighters Training Academy to the city sewer system. The project cost about $1,800 less than budgeted. Utilities Director Jay Santillanes said the city is getting a price to possibly have the same contractor demolish the old water treatment plant at the academy before closing the project.


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