Rapid City committee discusses discounted sewer rate for Rapid Valley accounts as part of regional wastewater agreement
Loading...
Summary
The Rapid City Public Works Committee heard staff explain a proposed cost-sharing arrangement that would discount sewer charges for Rapid Valley Sanitary District customers because the district bills and maintains its own collection system; the committee subsequently approved the related agenda item after discussion.
The Rapid City Public Works Committee discussed a proposed cost-sharing approach with Rapid Valley Sanitary District on Tuesday, focusing on a discounted sewer rate for Rapid Valley customers tied to a regional wastewater financing agreement.
The committee’s interim public works director and finance staff said the discount reflects work the sanitary district already performs. Daniel Ainsley, interim public works director, said Rapid Valley “does the actual work of billing those 4,400 accounts” and maintains the collection lines that the city would otherwise serve, so "it did seem appropriate to discount it by that same 30%."
The committee heard that the state—identified in the discussion as “DANR”—is providing the majority of financing for upgrades at the city’s water reclamation facility through grants and a low-interest loan. Staff said the state requested equitable cost sharing among customers as part of its participation. Ainsley told the committee that Rapid Valley’s accounts do not come through the city billing system, and that roughly 30 percent of Rapid City’s wastewater costs relate to billing and collection; staff proposed discounting Rapid Valley accounts by that percentage to reflect those avoided costs.
Staff also told the committee Rapid Valley agreed that, if future surcharges are applied to pay for reclamation-facility infrastructure, the sanitary district would participate in those charges, though that commitment was described as not being part of the current agreement.
After discussion, the committee approved the consent agenda item tied to this matter (item 7). The transcript records a motion and second and the chair calling for the ayes; the item was recorded as passing.
Committee members who spoke during the discussion thanked staff for the work on negotiations and asked staff to place the explanation into the public record. The committee did not debate alternative discount formulas during the recorded discussion; staff described the 30 percent figure as a calculation tied to the city’s avoided billing and collection effort rather than an arbitrary percentage.
Officials said a final report on the facility and the financing will be presented to the City Council when complete.
Less-critical details: staff emphasized the state’s role in funding the reclamation project and said the city will present a final report to council committees when the annual compliance and operational reports are complete.
