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By Garth Meyer
Gazette Reporter 

From $200 to $1,850:

Palouse eyes first water/sewer hookup increase since 1980

 

November 28, 2019



The City of Palouse will consider a major jump to its water and sewer hookup fees for new buildings after a report given Nov. 12 by the city council’s water and sewer committee.

Chairman Bill Slinkard briefed the rest of the council about a meeting a week earlier by the three-member committee, including Slinkard, councilman and mayor-elect Chris Cook and John Snyder.

The committee looked at rates and fee structures for water and sewer hookups for Garfield, Colfax, Pullman and Moscow, and calculated an average of the four.

From there, they proposed Palouse raise its rates from $200 for water service hookup to $1,825 and from $250 for sewer service hook-up to $1,825 also.

Palouse has not changed its rates since 1980.

Other towns, for reference, included Garfield charging $1,000 for hookup and Potlatch $3,500.

“This has been woefully neglected for the better part of 40 years,” said Kyle Dixon, Palouse city administrator. “While I appreciate their not raising rates to encourage development, our rates compared to other municipalities is frankly embarrassing.”

City Attorney Stephen Bishop will now begin work on a revised ordinance to go before the city council.

“The intent in raising (the rates) is to make sure of good funding for long-term needs; operating and debt-service — especially with the wastewater project coming,” said Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove, referring to Department of Ecology-required changes for wastewater disposal. “We probably let it slip too long to review it. You want to encourage and promote people to build and such... we just hadn’t reviewed it, that’s all.”

Author Bio

Garth Meyer, Former reporter

Author photo

Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.

 

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