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Council adopts FY26 water, sewer and stormwater appropriations and $18.6M CIP bond order; some councilors pressed for smaller, more frequent rate increases
Summary
Council approved capital bonding and enterprise budget resolves that included sewer and stormwater rate increases; staff said sewer residential bills would rise about $99 annually and stormwater from $60 to $76 per year; some councilors urged smoother, more frequent rate adjustments rather than multi-year jumps.
The Lewiston City Council approved several fiscal items affecting utility payers on Tuesday, including adoption of the FY2026 Capital Improvement Bond Issue Order and the water, sewer and stormwater budgets.
Council adopted the FY2026 public-improvement bond order authorizing issuance of $18,608,628 for the Capital Improvement Program. During discussion staff said the initial request had been approximately $21.9 million and had been reduced to roughly $18.6 million. The bond order passed by a 6-1 roll-call vote.
On enterprise budgets, Public Works Director Kevin Gagne and Deputy Director Erica Kidd presented proposed rate adjustments driven by multi-year operating costs and treatment-plant expenses. Staff told the council that the proposed sewer rate change would increase an average residential customer from about $489 to $588 per year (roughly $99 annually, billed quarterly). The proposed stormwater fee would increase from $60 to $76 per year (about $4.00 per quarter under the proposal). Staff said the last comparable rate increases had been implemented in 2018 for these utilities, and rising treatment and operating costs prompted the current changes.
Several councilors said they supported the need to fund the utilities but urged spreading increases over shorter intervals to reduce the impact of steep single-year jumps. Councilor Chittum and others suggested more frequent, smaller adjustments rather than a larger step after multiple years without increases. Public Works staff noted regulatory drivers (treatment-plant requirements and CSO storage work) and said the city seeks to keep rates competitive versus other utilities while ensuring system sustainability.
Ending: Both the capital bond order and enterprise-budget resolves were adopted by the council; staff said they would proceed with implementation and provide continued updates on capital projects and enterprise fund performance.
