People who get their drinking water, reused irrigation water and sewer services from Melbourne Utilities can expect some kind of increase in their rates by 2021 – but not until then, city officials have agreed.
And it won’t put off any capital improvements to the water and sewer systems, city Public Works-Utilities Director Ralph Reigelsperger says.
“We have a pretty healthy capital plan,” he said last week. “If we needed to do more, we wouldn’t have deferred the rate increases.”
In a 7-0 vote Oct. 8, the City Council approved, for the fifth year in a row, continuing the current monthly charges. They include the following tables.
Melbourne users, including 914 homes on the barrier island, pay:
- For water, $8 for basic service, plus $4.57 per 1,000 gallons.
- For sewer, $11.83 for basic sewer and $6.85 per 1,000 gallons.
- For reuse irrigation water, $13.70 for the first half-acre, plus $54.80 per acre beyond that.
In addition, the city also serves about 170,000 people in Satellite Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, Indialantic and Melbourne Beach on the county’s barrier island, as well as West Melbourne and Palm Shores on the mainland. They pay:
- For water, $8.80 for basic service plus $5.01 per 1,000 gallons.
- For sewer, $14.78 basic and $8.56 per 1,000 gallons.
City Finance Director Jeff Towne said some major projects are scheduled for 2021, though, and will mean rate increases at that time. He said his staff is still calculating what those increases will be.
For the coming year, under the current rates, Reigelsperger said his larger plans include work on a third water main across the Pineda Crossing to serve barrier island customers.
The city already has two aging water mains to the barrier island, he said, and a third will help if one of the other needs to be closed for work. The new main is estimated to cost about $10.5 million to $11 million.
“And there is no general fund (property tax) money going into this project,” Reigelsperger said.
The money would come from the existing water-sewer fund, he said, and a revolving loan from the state.
In fact, Towne is looking farther ahead for a second state loan for a new deep-injection well to take the concentrated brine that’s left after the city’s reverse-osmosis plant filters drinking water from the Floridan Aquifer. That project is estimated to cost $10.6 million from this year to 2023 for permitting, engineering and construction.
