Commercial Sewer Rates Drop But Hookup Fee To Rise In May, Funds To Be Used For Work At Treatment Plant

Commercial sewer users will pay a lower monthly rate while new sewer hookups will cost more, the City Council decided Tuesday.

The 2,000 businesses in Coeur d’Alene are charged for sewage based on their water consumption. After May, they will pay $2.22 per 1,000 gallons of water used instead of $2.54.

The change “had to be made, otherwise commercial was subsidizing residential rates,” City Finance Director John Austin said.

The monthly sewage disposal fee for most of the 8,000 homeowners, meanwhile, will stay the same. Mayor Al Hassell cast a tie-breaking vote to defeat a proposal to increase the monthly fee from $16.28 a month to $19.30.

Councilmen Chris Copstead, Ron Edinger and Kevin Packard also opposed the increase.

About 600 of the 1,600 people in the lowusage category - who paid between $2.11 and $6.07 a month - will end up paying more. The council eliminated the variable charge for people who used barely any sewage and will charge all of them $6.70 a month.

Simultaneously, the council decided that after May 1, people will have to pay $1,422 to connect to the city’s sewage treatment system, an increase of about $250. The additional money will be used for work at the sewage treatment plant.

The council also:

Approved, in concept, a playground project in City Park proposed by the Panhandle Kiwanis Club. Kiwanis has offered to raise the estimated $100,000 needed for the equipment and the new playground. The council will approve the actual design.

Decided to ask Coeur d’Alene Honda to get voluntary support among its Seltice Way neighbors for a taxing district to extend sewer lines to the area. Coeur d’Alene Honda had asked the Council to be responsible for forming the Local Improvement District.

, DataTimes