Read the city’s utility rate presentation at http://tinyurl.com/pdn-utility
PORT ANGELES — Residents and business owners could pay an average of about $92 more annually in their 2013 utility bills for electricity, garbage collection and stormwater treatment under a proposal the Utility Advisory Committee has forwarded to the City Council.
Although the committee has sent the plan to the council, it will not vote on its final recommendation until the committee’s Oct. 9 meeting.
But the public will get a chance to sound off earlier.
The City Council will hold a two-part public hearing on the proposed increases starting Oct. 2 and continuing Oct. 16.
The council could take final action Oct. 16.
Mayor Cherie Kidd and City Council members Sissi Bruch, Dan Di Guilio and Brooke Nelson sit on the advisory committee.
The overall average utility bill would increase 3.4 percent annually under the proposal, said Larry Dunbar, city director of power management and telecommunications systems.
Not including taxes, the increases would total $7.39 a month for all three utilities for those with every-other-week garbage pickup — or $88.68 a year — and $7.69 a month for those who get more expensive weekly pickup service, or $92.28 a year.
Electricity users now pay an average of $94.40 a month for electric power — including a base charge of $15.75 that will not change.
The average rate is based on about 1,300 kilowatt hours of usage a month from the city-owned utility.
The actual rate for individual ratepayers may be more or less, depending upon usage.
Customers now pay 6.05 cents per kilowatt hour, Dunbar said.
The cost per kilowatt hour would increase to 6.28 cents per kilowatt hour.
If the new rates are approved, electricity users would pay an average of $98, including the base charge, Dunbar said, adding that the electricity portion of the utility bill is typically less than half of the charges for all city utilities.
That compares with the approximately $119 that Clallam County Public Utility District customers are paying monthly for electricity in 2012 and the monthly state average of $127, according to an electric rate survey that accompanied a public works report on the rate changes.
[The comparison and other data can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/pdn-utility.]
The survey uses 1,500 kilowatt hours as a base measurement for electricity usage commonly used by electric utilities who participate in industrywide surveys of electrical costs, Dunbar said.
Here’s the breakdown of monthly-increase options for 2013 that the committee forwarded to the council at the Utility Advisory Committee’s monthly meeting Tuesday:
■ Electric rates, an average $3.59 monthly increase, up 3.8 percent, for an average bill of about $99.65.
■ Weekly garbage and recyclables pickup, a $1.10 increase, up 6.4 percent to a bill of $28.94 a month.
■ Every-other-week garbage and recyclables pickup, an 80-cent increase, up 8.2 percent to $21.37 a month.
■ Stormwater treatment, a $3 increase, up 50 percent, in 2013, with plans for a second increase in 2014 to $12.
■ Transfer station charges also would increase 7.2 percent more per ton for collection companies and self-haulers.
Self-haulers would pay $141.93 a ton, while collection companies would pay $116.10 a ton.
There would be no increases in utility taxes, or hikes in water and wastewater charges, which saw increases from 2008-2012.
“We don’t gain any pleasure going forward to the council and asking for rate increases,” agency Director Glenn Cutler said Wednesday.
Factors in requesting the increases include wage increases and retirement and electrical system costs, Cutler said.
Port Angeles electric rates increased 2.3 percent in 2011 and 6.5 percent in 2012.
Without increases in 2013, the city electric utility fund will be $620,000 in the red, Dunbar said.
The agency also must write off $288,493 in charges owed by the failed Peninsula Plywood mill.
The Marine Drive plant shut down in December owing the Port of Port Angeles, city of Port Angeles and state Department of Labor and Industries $2.4 million, Dunbar said.
The proposed rate increase “balances revenue and expenses and takes us just slightly above where we should be on working cash,” he said.
Customer growth — meaning the city’s population — also is expected to increase in 2013, Dunbar said.
The city contracts for garbage pickup.
Collection rates increased 1.5 percent in 2009 and did not increase in 2010-2012.
Challenges faced by the program include declining disposal tonnage and an increase in the lower-cost, every-other-week collections, Dunbar said.
The solid waste transfer station has seen a decline of 3.8 percent in tonnage and has $750,000 annually in debt service payments until 2026, Dunbar said.
Transfer station charges have increased every year since 2008, including 10.5 percent in 2009.
There has been no customer growth in 2012 but operational, long-haul and disposal fees have increased, Dunbar said.
Fees would increase from $6 to $9 in 2013 and to $12 in 2014.
The stormwater fee has not seen any increases since 2008, the city said.
Every dollar of rate increase generates about $120,000 in revenue, city Engineering Manager Kathryn Neal said.
No increase was proposed in wastewater fees.
Those fees, which increased 2008-2012, help fund the recently initiated $41.7 million combined sewer overflow project, which is intended to prevent storm water and raw sewage from being dumped into Port Angeles Harbor.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
