Action delayed on Ammon rate hike

By EMMA BREYSSE ebreysse@postregister.com

After hearing two hours of public concerns, the Ammon City Council unanimously voted to delay action on proposed water rate increases that had tempers high and residents waiting in long lines to speak at Thursday's council meeting.

"I think there is no question that we have a lot to think about," said Mayor Pro Tem Dana Kirkham after the evening's public hearing. "We've heard a lot tonight."

On the table for public comment was a proposal to raise Ammon's water rates by 50 percent or more to pay for a $15 million 2007 bond to improve the city's water systems.

Nearly every resident who spoke said they were upset by the proposal. Some took the council to task for what they viewed as a broken promise on the city's part. At the time the bond was proposed and voted on, city residents were told that they would see an incremental increase amounting to $10 per resident over the four years until the bond came due. The first million-dollar payment on the bond is due to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality in October.

"We were supposed to be paying the $10 increase we were promised," Lorna Erickson said. "I am really not happy."

The current council members were not in office when the bond was passed, and none was able to explain why the incremental increase was never implemented.

Perhaps the most hotly debated question of the evening was whether installing water meters, allowing the city to bill based on usage, would allow for the increases to be more equitably applied.

"That's a terrible idea," Erickson said. "I am absolutely against meters."

On the opposite side of the meter argument, which at one point nearly degenerated into a chamberwide shouting match, were residents like Erickson's neighbor Elaine McGary, who is a fixed-income senior.

"I know for us we haven't had an increase in our income since 1990 and everything else keeps going up," she said. "We're living from hand to mouth as it is, and we are very careful of our water (usage)."

Council members Brian Powell, Dana Kirkham and Russell Slack said at various points that meters are the only way to achieve equity, rather than charging everyone the same regardless of the amount of water they use.

No matter where speakers fell on the metering issue, all were concerned about the sheer magnitude of the water rate increases.

"I think for water, you've reached a window," said Mel Richardson, who is also a former Ammon mayor. "I think people are saying, 'We're paying more than we can afford to pay.' "

Although the proposal left some room to decrease the numbers presented, there are not many other options to pay back the bond, Kirkham said.

"In essence it's D-Day," she said. "It's time to pay the piper."

Emma Breysse can be reached at 542-6766. Comment on this story on Post Talk at www.postregister.com/posttalk/.