WP Council talks utility rate increases, false alarm fees

The West Plains City Council discussed raising utility rates, TIF changes, and false alarm fees at their monthly meeting on October 21. The meeting started with a public hearing for the fiscal year 2025 budget. Written comments were received, but no one from the public spoke during the meeting. A presumably joke name was written in to address the council. “Charles Dickens” was not present to talk about panhandling. The Victorian writer Charles Dickens often wrote about the poor and destitute.

 

The council heard eight bills during their meeting, beginning with the second reading for Bill 4778. This bill terminated the tax increment financing (TIF) #3 and the sales tax collected will now go to the city and county, where applicable. This is expected to increase city revenues by roughly $90,000 and will include a one-time deposit of approximately $644,000 in general, capitol and transportation taxes combined. The following bill, 4779, set the budget for the remaining #2 TIF for the 2025 fiscal year, with expenditures totaling $609,870.

 

The next four bills discussed, Bills 4780 to 4783, dealt with utility rates, electric, water, sewer, and sanitation rates, respectively. Electric rates will increase the most, up by seven percent. This increase is to help pay for the rebuild of an electric generation unit. The project will cost around $3,000,000, according to City Administrator Sam Anselm and will help prevent peak usage rates. Water rates and sanitation rates are set to increase by three percent and sewer rates are set to increase by four percent. The sewer rate increase will help to chip away at improvements needed by the city that could cost over $40,000,000, according to Anselm. The city administrator told the council there are projects coming up for sewage treatment and storage next year. The projects will deal with overflows during high weather events that could have been prevented. The administrator said that the city will release information to the public on rate increases following the second reading of these bills. Bill 4784 was the first reading for the amended fiscal year 2025 budget and included a $14,000 increase concerning personnel pay at the Civic Center and Fire Department.

 

A new 'fine' could be on the horizon for people and businesses that have multiple false and invalid security alarm calls to the police department. Bill 4785 would place a $100 administrative fee, not actually a 'fine', for the fourth and subsequent false alarm by any alarm system within a 30-day period and for the thirteenth and subsequent false alarms by any alarm system within a twelve-month period.

 

Police Chief Stephen Monticelli addressed the council on this topic, giving information on how many of these violations have occurred over the last three years. Between August 2021 and July 2022, there were 437 false alarms and 52 would-be violations. In 2022 to 2023, there were 444 false alarms and 27 would-be violations, and 2023 to 2024 there were 330 false alarms and 11 would-be violations. He was questioned by the council if this would cover the costs. “I'm not real concerned with the cost as much as the accountability of the people who own the alarms. The cost comes when people know 'hey, I've had three this month, I'm gonna get a $100 tag', they're going to fix their system,” Monticelli replied. Council approved this, and the other bills heard during the meeting, unanimously.