Whitefish utility rate plan would tap snowbirds

A proposal to establish a year-round monthly base rate for all city utility users will be considered during a public hearing tonight at the Whitefish City Council meeting.

The plan is to have every city utility user pay for water, sewer and garbage availability, or the base rate of $47, even if there is no use.

It would affect those customers who temporarily turn their water off or do not occupy the residence - including the city's 212 "snowbird" households where homeowners go south for the winter months.

Under the current rate structure, any customer may turn off their city utilities, not be billed and pay a $25 fee to turn it back on. But ultimately, other ratepayers pick up this cost and subsidize those who turn their water off, City Manager Chuck Stearns said in his council report.

A year-round base fee for all accounts, active or not, would be more equitable, he said.

Of the city's 212 snowbird households, 17 are on the senior rate, billed only 25 percent of the base rate.

The year-round base rate also would affect any rental property that has no tenants for a period of time.

Stearns said the city staff met with most property management firms about the proposed change.

"The firms were not enthusiastic, but all seemed to accept the fairness of charging the fee," he said.

While it's difficult to estimate how much money the year-round base rate would generate, the city calculated that if snowbirds are gone for seven months per year and are assumed to be on the lowest rates, it would generate $66,000 a year, of which $16,000 would go to Montana Waste Systems, the city's contracted garbage company.

A second public hearing involves a proposed resolution approving a five-year contract with Montana Waste Systems, doing business as North Valley Refuse, for garbage collection and disposal, and establishing a garbage collection fee schedule that increases 3 percent annually beginning in October 2012.

A third public hearing would establish updated rules and regulations for the city's water, sewer and garbage utilities.

In other business, the council will consider a recommendation from the city staff to reject all bids for a solar thermal hot water project at the Emergency Services Center and redesign and readvertise the project.

Part of the city's grant appropriation for the Emergency Services Center included $250,000 for the solar project. Two bids came in more than double that, and a third bid from Inland Industrial & rigging for $295,406 came in as a photocopy and cannot by law be accepted.

The engineer's estimate was $230,000, so the city is investigating why the other two bids, $640,000 from Swank Enterprises and $565,000 from Meredith Construction, came in so high.

The meeting begins at 7:10 p.m. at Whitefish City Hall. A work session on tax increment revenue and projects precedes the meeting at 5 p.m., also at City Hall.