A new fountain in Lake Harvey will greet people driving into St. Lucie West, but its cost won’t be added to coming rates. The water and sewer rates in St. Lucie West will be the same next year as this year. The last rate increase was in 2010.
“This year we’re still pushing off any rate increase in water, sewer or irrigation,” said Dennis Pickle, manager and utilities director.
The St. Lucie West Services District Board of Supervisors got its first look at the proposed fiscal year 2019-2020 budget on April 2. Pickle has told the board for a few years he didn’t foresee a likely need to raise rates until at least 2021, and his prediction is holding up.
The district is a hybrid governmental body responsible for water, sewage and stormwater management in St. Lucie West. It doesn’t have ad valorem taxing authority, but does set the rates for special assessments property owners pay along with their annual taxes. “We only have two assessments,” Pickle said.
One is a stormwater-management maintenance assessment. If the board adopts the budget as presented, that special assessment will be $106 — the same as this year.
“The other one is the water management bond issue that was put in by the original developer for construction of the stormwater system,” Pickle said.
That will be $194. Again. That assessment was $186 up to the 2017-2018 fiscal year. It went up because of 2018 tax-cut bill had language that increased the cost of paying off some government bonds. The bond will be paid off in a few years.
“That’s through 2025,” Pickle said.
Residents at the Cascades had a separate bond assessment on their property taxes, but it was paid off last fiscal year. Cascades property owners paid $180 each on that assessment.
Port St. Lucie has a city-wide stormwater assessment. The St. Lucie West Services District doesn’t have any say over that assessment, but does receive 75 percent plus $400,000 of what’s paid in its area.
As for rates, Services District customers will continue to pay a base rate of $53.16 a month. The largest portion is for sewer, $19.29. Irrigation is $18.45; water, $15.42. Additionally, the district charges $3.47 for 1,000 gallons of water and $3.86 for 1,000 gallons of sewage.
The total proposed budget for the next fiscal year is $19.7 million. That includes operations, maintenance, capital improvement and paying on debts. It doesn’t include upcoming construction of the new permanent office, about $1.1 million, which was set aside in this fiscal year’s budget.
But there is some new construction in the proposed budget. “We have funds in here for installing a fountain at Lake Harvey,” Pickle said of the stormwater treatment area at the intersection of St. Lucie West and Cashmere boulevards.
“We have in this budget a three-tier fountain that’ll send water 25 feet in the air.”
The district is working with the City of Port St. Lucie to make Lake Harvey into a passive-use park. The district’s charter doesn’t allow it to build or run recreational facilities. “We can’t spend money on the recreational side,” Pickle said. “That’s up to the city. But we can put in money for the fountain, because it’s helping water quality in Lake Harvey.”
The proposed budget will be presented to board again by late summer. It’ll have two hearings before final adoption. The new fiscal year starts in September. The board’s meetings are public.
