By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Five residents living just outside the Hays city limits have declining levels in their private water wells and have requested water service from the city for domestic use only.
The properties are on East 27th Street east of Canterbury Drive and would require a new water line to be placed. To do so would be an exemption to the city’s moratorium on new water service outside of city limits.
City commissioners can approve an exception to the policy, according to Assistant City Manager Jacob Wood.
“We’re talking about extending a waterline from Canterbury Drive over to a waterline that comes out by NCK Tech,” Wood explained. “This would be a two-inch waterline at a cost of about $50,000. If we did a regular 8-inch line, it would be close to $200,000 to put in.”
The property owners would pay the entire cost of the water line infrastructure
In June 2013, the city commission placed a moratorium on water service outside the city limits because of drought conditions. The moratorium has remained in effect since then.
The policy says there must be a benefit to the city in order to extend water service.
Wood outlined three benefits during Thursday’s city commission work session.
“First of all, it services some customers that are in need of water,” Wood said.
“Second, it will provide a loop in the waterline. We have a dead-end line at NCK Tech. If we loop those lines, that will increase the water quality and cause less work for our staff. Another thing that it does, if we provide water in this area, it prevents rural water (Trego Co. Rural Water Dist. #2) from coming in. Rural water, anytime it encroaches on the city, it can cause future problems if there is any kind of future development (of 27th east to Commerce Parkway),” he explained.
If the request is approved, the new water users must adhere to water conservation measures instituted within the Hays city limits. Hays Mayor Shaun Musil questioned how the city can ensure the customers are complying.
“They’ll be metered,” answered Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty. “We can tell if anything out of the ordinary is going on. Again, they’ve assured us this is for domestic use.
“We know what an average domestic use is and what an average non-domestic household use is. We can determine that.”
The new customers would pay a higher “outside city limits” rate–2.5 times more–than water customers inside the city limits. The city currently has 51 customers outside the city limits.
The property owners have told the city they have no interest in annexation and they must sign a pre-annexation agreement.
“If somebody came along in the vacant area and said we want to build three-acre lot homes, it’s probably not something we want to provide water to (due to the expense)…This area was built up before the city even had zoning codes and development regulations. It has been there for awhile. The city has kind of encroached on it, as opposed to development that’s built right next to us that’s not something we would desire,” Dougherty said.
The three commissioners at the work session said they were in favor of staff’s recommendation to approve the waterline extension. The request will be voted on at the May 11 meeting.
Commissioners Lance Jones and Henry Schwaller were absent from Thursday’s work session.