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Boynton Beach approves fee schedule and preliminary utility rates; utilities staff warn of costly infrastructure upgrades
Summary
The commission approved the FY25—26 fee schedule (minor increases to golf and sanitation rates) and adopted preliminary water/wastewater/stormwater/reuse rates (R25-231) by a 4—to—1 vote to fund aging infrastructure and a needed water-treatment-plant replacement.
The Boynton Beach City Commission on Sept. 18 approved minor changes to the city's annual fee schedule and adopted preliminary utility rates to address infrastructure needs.
Fee schedule highlights: Deputy Finance Director Anthony Davinson described modest adjustments: family golf-course preseason membership up $1,000, individual premium season membership up $1,500, and sanitation increases roughly $1.50 for residential service. The recreation department established refundable security deposits for pavilion rentals.
Utility rates and infrastructure: Utilities Director Poonam Kalkat presented a multifaceted rate package supported by a rate consultant, stressing the need to invest in aging infrastructure — notably a future water-treatment-plant replacement and field infrastructure such as lift stations. Staff said emergency repairs cost significantly more than planned investments and referenced a recent pipe break at the east plant that prompted a precautionary boil-water advisory and targeted flushing; subsequent sampling returned acceptable results.
Commission action: The commission approved the proposed resolution to set preliminary water, wastewater, stormwater and reuse rates (R25-231) through FY28-29 on a 4-1 vote after staff fielded questions about the incident, sampling and communication improvements. The fee-schedule resolution (R25-243) was approved unanimously.
Infrastructure projects mentioned elsewhere on the agenda included a planned Leisureville water-main replacement (pipe bursting) of roughly 3,000 linear feet expected to start in October; staff estimated the project cost near $1,000,000 including contingency.
Quotes: "If you don't invest in the infrastructure, we are starting to see more failures and we just don't want to get to a point where we are having more failures than we can fix in time," Utilities Director Poonam Kalkat said.
Where it stands: Rate adoption is preliminary and includes multi-year projections; staff emphasized affordability programs and payment plans for customers with financial hardship.
