GRAND RAPIDS – Local residents can expect their future water bills to go up higher than originally
planned.
At council’s meeting on Sept.14, members gave a first reading to an ordinance establishing an increase in
water rates over the next three years, passing along Bowling Green’s wholesale rate increases. The
city’s Board of Public Utilities adopted a three-year plan to increase its wholesale water rates by 15
percent on Jan. 1, 2010, 8.5 percent on Jan. 1, 2011 and 8.5 percent again on Jan. 1, 2012.
But at Monday’s meeting, the second reading of the water rate increase was amended to include a new
capacity charge from Bowling Green.
Village Administrator Chad Hoffman explained after the meeting the city has added a $1,824 per month
capacity charge, effective Jan. 1, 2010; $2,624 per month, beginning Jan. 1, 2011; and $3,520/mo. on
Jan. 1, 2012.
"That’s just capacity charge. No water," he said, adding news of the charge was a shock. The
increase will go onto residents’ monthly base charge for water.
"The thing really knocking our socks off is the capacity charge. It is based on the size of the
meter you have. We have a 10-inch meter coming into the village. We will probably look at a smaller
meter."
Kevin Maynard, Bowling Green’s director of utilities, explained by phone on Tuesday the issue is
"all about getting rate parity between people inside and outside the city limits."
He said the Board of Public Utilities recently enacted across-the-board retail and wholesale increases,
and the capacity charge is part of the adjustment.
All of the city’s water customers with larger than a 3/4-inch meter, including schools, churches,
residents and businesses, have a capacity charge. "The only ones who didn’t were wholesale
customers," Maynard said.
Also, residents living in Bowling Green pay income taxes, and 40 percent of the funding of the Sewer and
Water Capital Improvement Fund comes from those income taxes. The fund pays for all the expansions at
the water treatment plant.
"Wholesale customers have not been paying their fair share," said Maynard, noting if they’re
paying the water rates, they’re really not paying the costs of the expansions. The capacity charge is an
attempt for wholesale customers to make an equivalent contribution to the capital improvement fund as
persons living in the city limits.
Wholesale customers include the villages of Tontogany, Haskins, Grand Rapids and Weston, the latter town
buying Bowling Green water through the Northwestern Water and Sewer District.
"To make it easier for folks, we’re phasing it in," the utilities director said. The current
phase-in plan is for three years.
But in talking to the city’s wholesale buyers, Maynard said it’s his plan to discuss with the Board of
Public Utilities phasing it in over a longer period of time.
"The idea wasn’t to knock anyone’s socks off," he said. Based on the response he’s had to the
new charges, he will request the board consider stretching it over more years. "What I’ve told all
the wholesale customers, ‘you’re going through the same thing we are.’ We’re very willing to work this
out and make it less of an impact. We’re glad to work with the neighboring communities." He said
the board just wanted more parity with the funding of the Sewer and Water Capital Improvement Fund.
