On Dec. 18, the city of Durango staff is asking City Council to approve yet another increase to our water and sewer rates.
I hope that Council has learned from the defeat of their tax increase proposal. Approval of the water and sewer increases will indicate that they still don’t get it.
Citizens are tapped out and want to know that Council has stopped increasing our cost of living unnecessarily. If Council passes this increase, families who water their yards can expect to regularly pay up to $11.75 per unit of water used. This compares to Montrose’s highest rate of $2.95, Grand Junction at $4.03, Bayfield at $5, Golden at $5.26, and Denver at $5.50.
Because of exorbitant rates in previous years, the water fund has over $15 million stashed away, a portion of which should be refunded to the citizens.
Similar to the questionable transfer of lodgers tax revenues to other funds, the city plans to transfer $700,000 from the water fund to other funds in 2019.
Rates are as high as they are because of obsolete studies that predicted we would need an expensive second water treatment plant by now. We do not need a second plant to meet our current demands. Further, the studies advised that a voter-approved debt be the financing source.
If and when the new plant is approved by the voters, a rate increase would logically be needed for debt payments. Charging users now for this second plant makes no sense.
John Simpson
Durango
