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OCN > 2412 > Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District, Nov. 11 – Board considers rate increase

Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District, Nov. 11 – Board considers rate increase

By James Howald

At its November meeting, the Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District (WWSD) board opened two public hearings: the first on the proposed 2025 budget and the second on proposed rate increases. The board awarded a construction contract for a water storage tank near the Southern Water Treatment Facility and heard operational reports.

2025 budget and rates

Board President Brian Bush opened a public hearing on the proposed 2025 budget. The board voted to keep the hearing open until its next meeting on Dec. 16, at which time it will vote on the budget. The board meeting regularly scheduled for Dec. 12 will be delayed until Dec. 16 to accommodate the requirements for posting proposed rate increases.

District Manager Jessie Shaffer told the board that the budget before the board had very few changes from the version it considered at a budget workshop on Oct. 23. He said he had grouped rehabilitation and repair costs and maintenance costs together as the board had suggested. The budget assumes a 5% increase across the board on residential base fees and volumetric rates, Shaffer said. He estimated the increases would cost the typical residential customer an average of $4 per month. The average increase, which covers both water and sewer costs, would be less than $4 in the winter months when water usage decreases and more than $4 a month in the summer months when irrigation is at its highest rate.

Shaffer asked the board to consider increasing the base fee for supplemental water from its current rate of $29,000 per acre-foot to $34,500 per acre-foot. In most cases, requests for supplemental water come from developers whose projects will require more than the standard allotment of 0.5 acre-foot of water for each acre of land they wish to develop.

The board opened a second public hearing specifically on rates and also voted to keep it open until Dec. 16.

The board is required to publish rate increases 30 days in advance of the date those increases will take effect. The proposed “not-to-exceed” rates for 2025 are published in two attachments on WWSD’s web page and include the following increases for residential users:

  • The water base fee for a residence with a three-fourths-inch tap—the most common configuration in the district—will increase from $11.01 per month to $11.56.
  • For the first 6,000 gallons of water used in a month, the residential volume charge will increase from $6.98 per 1,000 gallons to $7.33.
  • For water usage between 6,001 and 25,000 gallons used in a month, the residential volume charge will increase from $11.27 per 1,000 gallons to $11.83.
  • For water usage over 25,000 gallons, the residential volume charge will increase from $18.39 per 1,000 gallons to $19.31.
  • The sewer base fee for a residence will increase from $35.69 to $37.47 per month.
  • The sewer volume charge will remain unchanged at no charge for the first 6,000 gallons of wastewater generated in a month and will increase from $4.65 to $4.88 per 1,000 gallons of wastewater above 6,000 gallons.
  • The Renewable Water Investment Fee will remain unchanged. It is currently $40 per month for residences with three-fourths-inch taps.

For new residential construction:

  • The water tap fee for a three-fourths-inch tap will take a big jump from $37,235 to $40,959.
  • The sewer tap fee will remain unchanged at $10,388 for the first 25 fixture units.

A complete list of all proposed water fees and charges can be found here: https://www.woodmoorwater.com/images/docs/Rate_Increases/2025/2025_Rate_Increase_Attachment_A.pdf.

A complete list of all proposed sewer fees and charges can be found here: https://www.woodmoorwater.com/images/docs/Rate_Increases/2025/2025_Rate_Increase_Attachment_B.pdf.

Water tank construction contract awarded

Richard Hood, a project manager with JVA Consulting Engineers Inc., gave the board an update on the plan to build a second water storage tank in the southern portion of the WWSD service area and asked the board to award a contract for its construction.

The new tank will provide redundancy so the existing tank can be taken offline and recoated, he said, and will be made of prestressed concrete so it will not require coating and will be cheaper to maintain over the long term than the existing steel tank. The new tank will require minor soil grading and site piping improvements. Hood said he expected substantial completion of the tank by August of 2025.

Hood recommended the construction contract be awarded to Preload, a company that specializes in prestressed concrete tanks. Hood said his company had worked with Preload on a water storage tank project in Pueblo that went well. He advised the board to accept Preload’s $2 million bid to construct the tank.

Board President Brian Bush asked if the bid included a contingency. Shaffer said the 2025 budget contained a $100,000 contingency for the project, and the board voted unanimously to accept Preload’s bid.

Operational reports

In his operational report, Operations Superintendent Dan LaFontaine addressed the question, asked by board Treasurer Roy Martinez at the October meeting, of how much the district spends on preventive maintenance. LaFontaine said the district has never tracked preventive maintenance spending directly but is developing an asset management system that will provide the data needed to track that spending. LaFontaine said he had worked with Office Manager Cory Lynch and they had estimated about 19% of the district’s $236,000 general water maintenance budget was spent on preventive maintenance. On the wastewater side, the percentage was higher, LaFontaine said, at about 53% of the district’s $89,000 general wastewater maintenance budget.

LaFontaine explained that sometimes doing preventive maintenance on a fixed schedule wastes money because equipment is replaced before it fails. He said the district focuses on redundancy instead, which saves money by allowing equipment to be fixed only when it fails.

In her engineer’s report, District Engineer Cydney Saelens told the board that contractors made significant progress on the water transmission line being built to convey water from Well 21, the district’s newest well, to the Central Water Treatment plant. She said the contractor had been given until Nov. 25, an additional five days, to complete the work.

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The next meeting is on Dec. 16 at 1 p.m. The December meeting was delayed to meet posting requirements. Meetings are usually held on the second Monday of each month at 1 p.m. at the district office at 1845 Woodmoor Drive. Please see www.woodmoorwater.com or call 719-488-2525 to verify meeting times and locations.

James Howald can be reached at jameshowald@ocn.me.

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