PRIEST RIVER — City Council members approved the fiscal year 2020 budget Monday night in the amount of $6,526,721.

The budget includes 4 percent utility rate increases, which also led to a reduction in the amount of water residents are allowed before overage charges go into effect.

“One of the people who spoke at the meeting last week asked us to go back and sharpen our pencils and see what we could do, and we’ve done that,” said Mayor Jim Martin.

The rate increases initially proposed at last week’s public hearing were 4 percent for water and 6.3 percent for sewer. After hearing testimony from about a dozen residents, however, council members ultimately approved a 4-percent increase in both utilities — $1.13 for water and $1.34 for sewer. Water and sewer bond payments are increasing by $1.70 as well.

Between water, sewer and bond payments, residents with no overage charges currently pay $100.60 per month. When the city’s 2020 budget goes into effect on October 1, the total bill will be $104.77.

In addition, residents are currently allowed 12,000 gallons of water before overage charges apply. Starting in October, the amount of gallons allowed will be 10,000.

“The reason we did that there is a small percentage of users who use over 10,000 gallons and, being one of them … I think it is fair for me to have to pay more because I use more water,” Martin said.

Martin said the goal is to ultimately go to a usage-based system as was the plan with the meter replacement project. The biggest challenge, he said, is working out the logistics of how much to charge as a base rate, as well as the per gallon amount to ensure the city maintains a balanced budget.

Martin said the increases in fees are to cover rising costs, such as power to run the facilities. Council members looked at another option of a 2-percent increase in water and 4-percent increase in sewer as well. However, Martin said if unexpected repairs were needed in the water system, the funds would not be there.

“If we have another water line break in the middle of Highway 2 that cost us tens of thousands of dollars to fix, we don’t have the money for that,” Martin said. “If we need to replace that six-inch line on Highway 2 that is getting bad, that we keep patching … there is no money for capital improvements in this budget.”

There is a $23,000 capital fund in the water budget for the meter replacement program, Martin added, though the majority of the budget covers maintenance and operations at the plants.

Council members Candy Turner and Greg Edwards said they were not comfortable with only a 2-percent increase in water for fear that the city’s aging system will need repairs in the coming year.

In addition to the rate increases, another change to the water services is an increase in after hours and weekend emergency and seasonal shutoff. The current rate for both emergency and seasonal shutoff at any hour of the day is $25. Council approved an increase to $75 for after hours and weekend shutoff, though it will remain at $25 during regular business hours.

Per the general fee schedule, the business registration fee was raised from $10 to $20. Proposed increases to building and zoning permit applications died for lack of a motion, as Martin said it would not be fair to charge people who have all of their paperwork in order an additional $250 on top of the current $500 fee. Martin said the permit application fees will return during next year’s budget process after staff works out a system to possibly charge a base fee with an hourly rate.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.