City presents water and sewer risks, proposes PERs and rate studies in preliminary budget hearing

City staff told the Columbia Falls City Council during a preliminary budget public hearing that the city’s water and sewer enterprises are operating at comparatively low rates but face aging infrastructure, flat revenues since 2018 and near-term costs that will require planning and likely rate adjustments. A city finance presenter said certified tax values show roughly $3.3 million of new growth this year and that the city will calculate mill levies in coming weeks. “The city’s water for the public is a low-cost, high-quality system. We do no treatment of our water,” the presenter said, adding the system benefits from raw-source quality but has aging transmission infrastructure that may require replacement in the next decade. Staff said a second storage tank or added redundancy on the main transmission line near the reservoir will likely be an $8 million–$10 million project in the coming decade; the city plans…