DAEDF Signs Contract with PEC to Help Identify Long Term Water Solution for Area

November 24, 2015

By Charlene Belew The Duncan Banner

DAEDF’s Lyle Roggow, left, signs a contract with PEC as Jacob Bachelor watches.

On Friday, Lyle Roggow, president of Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation, signed a contract hiring Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC) to once again survey Duncan and the water it provides its citizens.

Duncan’s Water Committee, though allocated $100,000 to hire a hydrology firm, spent their money “judiciously” while working with PEC on a comprehensive water plan for Duncan. Through the study, members of the committee realized funding for water infrastructure updates and upgrades, nearing projects necessary for the future of Duncan and inevitable drought was an inherit need for the City of Duncan.

Following a presentation of findings via the work between PEC and DWAC to City Council on Thursday, Nov. 12, members of the board asked council if they were ready to dig in a little deeper. They were.

The $23,800 contract, paid for by remaining monies allocated to the committee, signed by Roggow Friday will put PEC to work in the beginning of January. The study has an extensive scope, ranging from reviewing historical and projected growth and water usage of a four year period, to examining revenue currently generated with the existing water rate structure.

Jacob Bachelor, DWAC member, said the in-depth study on water rates and other funding options for Duncan is all a matter of developing a long-term plan.

“To me, it’s like a business,” Bachelor said. “If your business is suffering, specifically your infrastructure – that’s the city’s primary job is to establish and maintain infrastructure for water ... If you don’t have enough money to do that and you’ve got streets with problems, major waterline breaks weekly, sometimes daily, and a shortage of supply water in drought conditions like we were facing in February or March, it takes money to solve those things.”

But that’s the very goal of working with PEC, according to Bachelor and his fellow committee members – to find appropriate revenue.

“We’re looking at a long-term plan to have adequate and quality water – enough quality and enough quantity of water to get us through any period of drought,” Bachelor said. “That’s a long-term plan. It’s going to take infrastructure improvements and additions and that costs money.”

According to Bachelor, there’s a few options on the table. These range from raising water base  rates to taking out loans for big ticket projects. PEC will examine the different options and come back to the table with what’s viable. At this point in the game, though, water committee members are already recommending an immediate addition of $2 to $2.50 for meter charges.

Roggow said one of the other most important things the study will examine is knowing the cost of producing and delivering the water.

“We also need to know what our costs, Duncan’s costs, of delivery of water are...” Roggow said. “You need to know what your cost to manufacture the product is and to deliver the product in the end. That’s the reason those numbers are so critical and you also have to have the ability to reinvest and fix problems throughout the system too.”

Roggow said other matters play into the cost of Duncan’s water, such as appropriate chemicals and EPA regulations.

“We truly want to make sure people get a good quality product, and the other things you have to take into account of delivery of water is the chemical costs continue to escalate (and) the EPA issues continue to hamper a community because they keep asking for you to raise the bar...” Roggow said.  “You need to know are we charging the right dollar amount for whatever that commodity is.”

Bachelor agreed with Roggow and said the multi-faceted study will require PEC to look at projects necessary to the future of the community and their debt service costs while also taking into account operation and maintenance expenditures and additional cushion should an emergency arise.

“If we budget for exactly what our groceries cost and our mortgage payment on our house and we say, ‘perfect,’ what are we going to do when the car breaks down? You have to have that cushion,” Bachelor said.

Compared to surrounding municipalities, Duncan’s water rates are cheaper, and while increases aren’t certain at this point, only digging deep into the study will reveal what is and could be a feasible rate for Duncan.

The biggest problem, though, is taking into consideration a percentage of Duncan’s population lives on fixed income. Mike Kiester, DWAC member, said with a monopoly on water in Duncan, the committee’s job, along with Duncan City Council’s job, is to control that monopoly and make sure prices are fair but feasible.

“ I believe that this is one of the basic functions of the city and that we need to provide minimum amount of water for a household ... at a fair cost that reflects the cost of that water,” Kiester said. “I don’t think we should give it for less than. One of the problems we’re going to have is there are people that live on fixed incomes that are going to have a raise and that’s (hard to deal with) ... A basic city function is also a basic thing a person has to look after too. That comes before soda pop, so on and so forth. If there are indeed hardship cases, then perhaps there are some mechanisms that we address those cases.”

Laura Goldring, who serves as a liaison between DWAC and the public, said the goal of looking at and potentially implementing raises is not to hurt those facing hardship, but holding back on increases also isn’t possible.

“The water committee does want to have a solution for people who are on fixed incomes because they acknowledge this is a committee, that this could be a hardship for some people and with times the way they are, we don’t want to create more hardship for people,” she said.

Much like the water comprehensive plan presented to Duncan City Council, though, certain items in the study are pending on information from Duncan’s 2013 and 2014 audits.

Jim Frieda said Friday the 2013 audit should be completed by mid-January, but doesn’t anticipate the 2014 audit will reach completion until the end of the first quarter.