Ad
BELEN—The city of Belen will implement a new water and sewer rate increase for residents, business and those outside the city limits who are hooked up to city utilities.
The rate increase, according to the city’s engineer firm Molzen Corbin, is necessary to ensure “adequate levels of service.”
Jonah Ruybalid, with Molzen Corbin, said the city’s administration asked the firm to complete a utilities rates and impact study, which was presented to the city council at the June 3 meeting.
Ruybalid said the study considered operating the system “in the black” and reduce operating losses, build the fund for future repairs and build stronger reserves to “match” funding from federal and state programs.
“Unfortunately, no scenario accomplishes the city’s goals while preventing the shock of large increases in rates over the near future,” Ruybalid said.
After the engineers presented their study, the council unanimously accepted the recommendation to increase water rates by 4.5 percent every year, with a heavier increase on users outside the city limits at 5 percent.
The sewer rates will increase by 4.2 percent every year for those averaging more than 2,000 gallons in the winter time.
Belen Mayor Robert Noblin did say following the meeting the annual 3 percent increase in July will be absorbed in the soon-to-be considered ordinance, which will establish the new rate increase. The city council is scheduled to vote on the water and sewer rate increase at the Monday, July 15, meeting.
Ruybalid told the council the cost of providing utilities has risen “significantly” across the country, and with planning improvements in the Hub City, the increases are necessary. The city is planning for about $5 million in water improvements and $14 million to its wastewater treatment plant.
With the 4-6 percent water rate increase, the city is expected to receive $240,518 annually from residential users, $100,191 from commercial users and $15,321 from industrial users.
Ad
The sewer rate hike is expected to bring in $425,414 from residential customers, and $65,066 from commercial users.
Currently, both residential and commercial customers inside the city limits pay $30.40 per month for the base rate of 0-3,000 gallons, compared to residents and businesses outside the city limits who pay $64.35 per month for the base rate of 0-3,000 gallons.
“There are a lot of reasons why you guys will need to increase your rates,” said Julie Brown with Molzen Corbin. “A few factors is replacement costs are increasing, climate impacts in New Mexico and paying personnel to continue to run the facility.”
She said a usual household of four people will use an average of 6,000 gallons of water per month, but many residents in Belen are using less than 4,000 gallons.
Jerry Paz, with Molzen Corbin, told the council these utilities are a vital service for city residents and businesses.
“Water is needed to live,” Paz said. “All of those other bills are needed for quality of life, but one bill that doesn’t go away is water because it’s necessary for human life.”
Belen City Councilor Frank Ortega said while he understands there are concerns of the low-income community, but the city must be responsible in making sure the 65 miles of infrastructure in the city functions for the residents.
“I know the hardships because we’re a low-income community,” Ortega said, “but we need to maintain our drinking water and wastewater plants. If we had bad drinking water, we’ll hear about it.”
Councilor Rudy Espinoza agreed, saying while he would love to give residents a break on the utility bills, the increase in water and sewer rates are necessary.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Espinoza said. “I would love to see those numbers go down ... but we should be smart about those things. It’s something we have to live with. I don’t want to get to a point where we can’t turn our water on.”
“These are hard decisions,” Councilor Steve Holdman said. “It might make us unpopular, but the fact is we need to do this.”
Noblin agreed with the council, saying while it was interesting to see the comparative water and sewer rates of other cities in New Mexico, it wasn’t relevant to Belen.
“It does feel good that we’re not as expensive as some cities, but these are our needs,” Noblin said. “We have to meet and continue to accept growth and provide basic services.
