By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

“There’s no way around it. Substantial adjustments are going to have to be made.”

Those adjustments referred to by Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty are hikes in sewer rates as the city plans a $30 million rebuild of the wastewater treatment plant as well as replacement of aging sewer lines. The upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant are mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), and must be in place by Jan. 1, 2018.

Following a presentation July 16 by Patty Kettles of Springsted, Inc., commissioners asked for “other options to achieve the same thing.” Springsted had recommended the monthly sewer base and volumetric user rates should be increased 17 percent August 1, 2015, 15.5 percent annually during 2016-2020, and 12 percent in 2021.

“The governing body, understandably so, thought those were pretty high adjustments,” said Dougherty.

After another round of research, city staff will present four options at Thursday’s work session. According to Dougherty, staff is recommending Option 2 with the monthly sewer base and volumetric user rates increasing 15 percent September 1, 2015, another 15 percent annually during 2016-2020, and finally, another 12 percent hike in 2021.

“One of the things we wanted to do was maintain a minimum balance in our projections of $500,000 in the sewer fund and not go below that,” Dougherty explained. “That required a few years of fairly steep increases followed by a few years of less steep increases.”

The city talked it over with its financial advisor, and then Hays Finance Director Kim Rupp and Dougherty talked it over.

“We’re a little more comfortable now about letting it go below that $500,000 knowing that we do have discretionary monies available if it dips down. We can supplement that on a one-time basis,” Dougherty said.  “So we made a small modification to lower the first couple years of rate increases. We think we provided a little more palatable option for the governing body. It’s still, cumulatively, a very steep rate increase, but it’s a little more palatable than what we presented before.

“We also have some other (new) options if they want to consider them. Some of them we don’t think are viable, but they wanted to see options so we’re showing them options.”

Other agenda items for the Aug. 6 city commission work session include continued discussion of the 2016 budget. Dougherty said the only thing likely to have any change is funding for outside agencies.

“The outside agencies allocations are left at the 2015 levels but some of them have asked for differing amounts in the 2016 budget. So commissioners will be asked to pick a number to include in the budget,” Dougherty said.

The public hearing for the 2016 budget will be held during the Thursday, Aug. 13, Hays City Commission regular meeting.

The agenda for the Aug. 6 work session is available here. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in Hays City Hall, 1507 Main.