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Council reviews Orleans Street design, water/sewer rate needs and staff benefits proposals
Summary
Council reviewed Orleans Street project phasing and design costs across funds, discussed applying for SRF funding, and staff recommended a minimum 5% increase in water and sewer rates. Council also discussed staffing tradeoffs and potential family insurance contributions to improve recruitment.
Council members reviewed the design and funding plan for Orleans Street and related water and sewer work and discussed utility rates and personnel benefits during the special budget meeting. City staff and consultants explained that Orleans design costs would be allocated across funds (general fund design roughly $56,000; sewer design about $415,000; water design about $207,550) as part of a multi‑year project with a total project scale near $9,000,000.
An engineer advising the council said the city will apply to the state revolving funding process and that design and construction could be phased to maximize grant eligibility. "Total amounts for that project is, you know, close to $9,000,000," a consultant said when summarizing estimated project costs. Staff recommended budgeting a minimum 5% increase in both water and sewer rates for 2025 to improve fund capacity and eligibility for grant mixes.
Why it matters: the Orleans Street work is a large multi‑fund infrastructure project that will require external financing and affect utility rate structure; preliminary rate action in the 2025 budget will influence the city’s debt capacity and SRF funding competitiveness.
Personnel discussion: council also reviewed salary and benefits. The draft budget includes a 6% overall compensation pool (3% COLA based on June CPI plus up to 3% merit), and staff proposed moving toward partial family insurance contributions to improve hiring competitiveness (options discussed: 25%, 50% or higher shares). Tammy Chambley presented a supplemental life‑insurance option that would provide a $50,000 baseline plan for employees for an estimated $250 per month total cost for the current FTE roster.
Next steps: staff will continue SRF application work for Orleans, prepare updated rate modeling for water and sewer, and return a benefits cost spreadsheet (25%/50% family contribution scenarios) for council to consider at the next finance committee meeting.
