The Patagonia Town Council unanimously approved a resolution on March 12 that raises the base monthly water and sewer rates by 17%, effective in 30 days. The resolution includes additional rate increases each year for the next five years through 2030. This marks the first hike for water and sewer rates since 2016.
Before passing the measure, the council convened a public hearing. Town Manager Ron Robinson presented the rationale for arriving at this plan. “The situation in the Water and Waste Water Departments is that over the last nine years, we have dealt with about 29% inflation, we underpay our employees and we have done over $2 million in projects,” he said.
Robinson explained that the Town must balance its water and waste water accounts before they can apply for more grants to deal with our aging systems.
“Even though [recent projects] have been reimbursable grants, in our audit they go against our cash on hand, so we ended up this month over $1 million in negative cash on hand,” he said.
Council member Steve Finch noted that Patagonia rates are still lower than the state average.
No one from the public spoke for or against the increase.
The rate increases for water and sewer incremental increases are as follows: 2025+17%, 2026+22%, 2027+17%, 2028=0%, 2029+4%, 2030+4%.
The yearly increases rather than a one-time increase were adopted because, as Robinson put it, “This is a better fit for the community.” The rate increases will insure that there is sufficient revenue to cover costs of operations and build reserves for infrastructure emergencies.