Amador County – The Sutter Creek City Council will host a public hearing Monday on a proposed wastewater rate increase for city and area customers. The hearing is required through Proposition 218 to have a rate increase by a public agency. The city announced the hearing in notices posted at the Sutter Creek Post Office, saying the “proposed rates are necessary to cover the current and estimated future costs of operating and maintaining the wastewater system and treatment facilities, as well as costs of wastewater disposal. The costs to be recovered include ongoing operation, debt service and replacement of facilities.” Bob Reed of The Reed Group, presented a rate study in mid-October and recommended the rate increase. The rates will affect city residents and also customers served by the city in the Martell area as well as Amador City. The current rates in Sutter Creek are $50 dollars and 5 cents per Equivalent Single Family Unit per month. That would increase by $22 dollars by July 2010. The proposed rate increase would change that to $60 dollars and 57 cents per family unit per month in January 2009, then up to $66 dollars and 27 cents per month in July 2009 and once more to $72 dollars and 57 cents in July 2010. Mayor Gary Wooten said rate changes, if approved, would be reflected on the next bill. He urged customers and city residents to come to the city council hearing Monday to comment on the issue. Reed said the “city has been using available reserves to pay for needed improvements to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant.”

The Amador Water Agency is expected to contribute about $750,000 dollars, or about 50 percent of “interim improvement costs.” The report assumes that developers of the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort “will pay costs associated with designing an expansion to the wastewater treatment plant,” to avoid the “debt financing of costs incurred to help provide the capacity needed by new development.” Causes for the current financial deficit in Sutter Creek’s wastewater fund were listed. Costs for materials, supplies and services (especially chemicals, lab supplies, engineering, utilities and sludge treatment) were $59,000 dollars in fiscal year 2007-2008. And personnel costs for collection and treatment were $34,000 dollars, or 8.5 percent higher that estimated. The city’s share of the Amador Regional Sanitation Authority wastewater disposal costs for last year was $294,000, “nearly three times the amount previously estimated.” The public hearing is set for 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Sutter Creek Community Center, 33 Church Street. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).