With looming infrastructure needs and rising costs, water, sewer and garbage rates are going up for Astorians.
At a meeting Monday night, the Astoria City Council approved a 6% increase to water and sewer rates.
The average residential user could see an increase of around $10 per month, though City Manager Scott Spence noted that this calculation assumes higher water use than they typically see from ratepayers.
Spence said the increases were necessary in part to meet collective bargaining agreements and inflationary costs for materials and supplies and to fund upcoming capital projects, including a $10 million wastewater treatment facility under construction now and $3.6 million project to replace three new lift stations. That last project is set to begin next year. A roughly $2.2 million slow sand filter project to purify drinking water is going to bid now.
Spence said that, overall, the city has more than $1 billion worth of outstanding capital improvement projects and deferred maintenance it will need to tackle in the future.
“So we have a lot to do to get our backbone infrastructure essentially up to standards to make sure we provide essential services and continuity of operations for our residents and businesses,” Spence said.
City Councilor Andy Davis added that the additional money the city will raise through the water and sewer increases won’t come close to filling the gap.
“We’re really trying to knock the edge off of this, but we’re a long way from sort of being whole in terms of our budget,” he said.
Mayor Sean Fitzpatrick said it wasn’t an easy decision during the budget process.
“But we didn’t really see that we had an option and felt that this would be the best thing for the city in the long term,” he said.
Solid waste collections and disposal rates are also going up.
Astoria maintains franchise and license agreements with Recology. On Monday, the Astoria City Council approved a 2.1% increase for collections and a 7.3% increase for the Astoria Transfer Station.
Residential customers will see an increase to their curbside pick-up bill of 70 cents to $1.17 a month, depending on the size of carts they have. Commercial customers will see an increase of around $5 a month.
Recology also proposed a 7.3% increase for the Astoria Transfer Station, which serves the entire North Coast. The company has added another full-time employee and additional equipment at the station.
For the type of customer Recology typically sees at the transfer station — someone hauling in 102-104 pounds of garbage — this means an increase of just over $2. For yard debris, it could be an increase of just over $4.
Recology sends yard debris to Trails End in Warrenton, which recently raised their rates. Dan Blue, who represented Recology at the Monday meeting, said Recology negotiated with the company and the rate increase is intended to match what Trails End now charges.
Recology also noted that the Astoria Transfer Station is more than 30 years old and is in need of upgrades and improvements. Representatives said there could be an impact on the disposal rates in the future as they look to improve the facility.
Davis was concerned about the volatility of the rate setting, but said it seemed understandable and fell within the parameters of the city’s agreements with Recology.
“Just on the back of also raising water and sewer rates, this is not great,” he said. “Not crazy about doing this.”
City Councilor Vance Lump agreed.
“It’s just an unfortunate reality I suppose,” he said, “but it doesn’t feel good.”