Basin council discusses changes to water tap fees

Mayor CJ Duncan opened the discussion about water tap fees at the Basin Town Council’s Sept. 26 meeting, explaining, “There was some discussion in Basin and it came about because the water district bills for EDU’s [Equivalent Dwelling Unit]. If we have an active tap that is being used or not, we’re billed an EDU rate. In 2017-18, we started having some discussion about how you would officially abandon a tap, so that the customer would not be continually billed for the active tap that’s not being used.” 

He referred to the second page of information provided to the council members that talked about connection fees, reconnection fees and disconnection of a service for non-payment. Duncan read, “The account becomes due in full. There will be a $25 reconnect fee during normal working hours. After hours, the fee will be $100.” He clarified, “That’s just for someone who got shut off for non-payment.” 

Duncan then read from section E: “The water tap fee for a new service or relocation of an existing service will be $1,200 regardless of the tap size. There will be full construction charges for materials.” He continued there has been some discussion as to the $1,200 cost and what ‘full construction charges’ mean. 

Section G states that, “If the owner requests a disconnect from the purified system by having the curb stop and/or service tap permanently removed, there will be a $250 charge to have that service done in advance. Plus, material and labor costs to disconnect such tap. All active or inactive service charges will cease at that time.” 

Duncan asked, “How should we go about permanently disconnecting it? [A lot] of towns will fill the tap with sand or they will buy a mechanical locking curb stop cap, [that] saves you from having to dig up your street to remove the curb stop, the cork stop, fill the street, then put it all back together. In [Section] G, [it’s] at the cost of the requestor.” 

He continued that the town would like to streamline the process so that it describes the cost without any room for discussion. “At times, some of us think that the $1,200 fee should cover all the construction charges. But if you read it,
I personally don’t think that’s the way it reads. I don’t have a problem with making the change.”

Councilman Carl Olson stated, “It says ‘an existing service will be $1,200 regardless of tap size. There will be full construction charges for materials,’ which means there is no labor charge.” Olson noted that this is why he wanted to raise the labor charge because the charge was originally $250, plus materials. However, the cost to the town for labor is greater than $250, leading to the increase to $1,200. 

“Then, all of a sudden, in the other deal it says, ‘plus all costs.’ The ‘all costs’ is what is different. This one says, ‘construction cost for all materials,’ that’s good. When it says ‘all costs,’ like the one we had the other night, that’s bad, because you are charging $1,200 when we’re doing electrical at $150. Raw water is $125. Sewer taps are $150, plus all charges. That’s what all three of them say, then this one jumps to $1,200, plus all charges. In this one, it says ‘materials.’” 

Olson went on to make the point that material costs are volatile, which is why material charges should be separated from labor charges. Labor charges may be reviewed as needed. As written, the policy says, “for new or relocation of existing.” 

Olson suggested that that the $1,200 be reduced to $400 and the wording changed to say, ‘plus all construction costs.’ This way the labor and materials would be covered in construction costs. 

Duncan agreed and added that there has been some confusion on what is considered active vs inactive, concluding, “If it has never been permanently deactivated then you would still consider if active.” 

Olson stated many would still be paying
EDU fees. 

Town Administrator Deaun Tigner noted, “They will still be paying. Some of them we don’t even have services for. They are not in our system so as far as we’re concerned, they are not active. They would have to pay the new tap fee.” Duncan noted that if the fee for the EDU has never been paid and there is no record of the tap, then it should be considered new.” 

Councilman Chuck Hopkin pointed out that on the raw water taps policy is a tap fee, plus all construction costs including labor. Olson said he believes that 50-60% of the water taps in the town are in water due to the water table, which means labor will cost more. He estimates the labor costs now are roughly $60 an hour for the man hours alone. 

Tigner said she believes that the last taps that were put in were only charged $25 per hour. She thought the charge had been moved to $50 an hour. Olson believed the meter pits were costing $800-$900, but Town Foreman Mike Dellos said they are $1,100-$1,300. 

Dellos further reported that his crew recently put foam in the curb stop for a deactivated tap. The foam may be pulled out when the tap is reactivated. 

Tigner added that as far as the office staff goes, they don’t care how the tap is made inactive — i.e. sand, lock or foam. What they do care about is knowing when a tap is made active or inactive. For instance, if foam was taken out, and the work was not put on a work order or done after hours, the office wouldn’t know. Tigner said she would like to ensure all departments are working together and treating the customers equitably.

Dellos told the council, “We probably need to figure out those prices. I’ve given prices to Deaun. I write them out. Kinda what we are working on. I charge $50 for the Mini X. Do you want to charge $75? Do you want to charge $100? Those are things I don’t know, so I put a number in there and try to do it as cheap as I can for the customer, but also that might not fit what you guys want. How much do we charge per man? How much do we charge for the dump truck sitting there?” 

He added that the charge for the Mini X does not include labor. Sometimes the Mini X is not used while the crew is working on a project, so Dellos charges for only the hours the Mini X is used in addition to labor for the number of man hours a job takes. Depending on the job, the cost can be higher or lower. 

Town Attorney Kent Richins will work on a policy to reflect a fee schedule. 

In other business:

• The Third Street Water Project was awarded to Wilson Brothers Construction for $735,720. The town was awarded $768,432 in ARPA funds for the project.