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Committee approves taking on 56 water customers; moves to eliminate deposits and send fee changes to full board
Summary
McMinnville’s water & wastewater committee agreed to pursue buying 56 services from Warren County Utility after a compromised creek crossing, voted to end holding customer deposits and forwarded proposed service-fee/code changes to the full board for ordinance amendment.
McMinnville’s water and wastewater committee voted to pursue purchasing 56 customer services from Warren County Utility after the district reported a compromised water-line crossing that would be costly to repair.
Staff told the committee the utility asked the city to buy the services at $1,000 per service (about $56,000 plus meters) so the city could serve those customers via an existing master meter near Bonner’s Factory. Samantha (city staff) was asked to model revenues; staff estimated roughly $26,000 a year from the 56 customers if the transfer proceeds.
The committee also considered a long-running issue with unclaimed customer deposits. Staff said the city holds roughly $600,000 in current deposit balances and has paid unclaimed funds to the state as required. To reduce administrative burden and realize revenue earlier, staff proposed eliminating deposits for new customers and increasing the new-service fee (the proposal discussed raising the fee to $100). The committee discussed the tradeoffs — better immediate cash flow and less administrative cost versus potential hardship for low-income customers — and asked staff to apply existing deposit balances to current accounts in a staged approach.
Recognizing different policy elements separately, the committee split the business into two votes. It approved doing away with deposits (motion carried) and agreed any change to the city code governing service and shutoff fees would be forwarded as a recommendation to the full board for ordinance amendment. Separately, the committee directed staff to ensure billing and collection language in the code matches enforcement practice before changes take effect.
The committee did not set an effective date for any fee increase; committee members emphasized customer notice and the need to preserve collection options for delinquent accounts. The recommendation to the full board will return as an ordinance to amend code language and the service-fee schedule.
