UTILITY RATES

The Utility Operating Funds are self-supporting funds. This means that the fees collected on your utility bill pay for the costs of providing utilities; tax revenues are not collected to provide these services. The utility services on your bill can include the following: water, sewer, storm sewer, and recycling.

There are many factors considered when setting utility rates. Operating revenues should cover:

• Operating expenses (wages and benefits, supplies, and other services and charges)

• Depreciation (ensures the City is planning for the maintenance and replacement of existing infrastructure)

• Debt service on utility projects

As expenses and the costs to provide utility services increase, the rates must also increase to offset the expenses. The following rate increases were approved for 2025:

Recycling: The City contracts with Republic Services to provide recycling. The monthly fee will increase $0.30. This will cover the increase in the cost of services provided by Republic.

Water: Customers will see a 15% rate increase for water services in 2025. The increase is mainly due to increases in operating expenses, as defined above.

Sewer: A 5% rate increase was approved for sewer services in 2025. Like water services, operating expenses for sewer services are increasing. Additionally, the Metropolitan Council for Environment Services (MCES) owns and operates the wastewater treatment plant. The municipal charges paid to MCES are the largest portion of the sewer operating budget (60%), and the City experienced an 4.2% increase in those charges from MCES. If MCES did not own and operate the wastewater treatment plan, the City would be responsible for building a new one which is very costly.

Storm Sewer: a 5% rate increase on the storm sewer basic charge was approved. The increase is mainly due to increases in operating expenses, as defined above.

A monthly storm water basic charge to cover fixed costs is $1.90 per parcel.

A monthly storm water utility fee based on land use is as follows:

A monthly basic charge per meter to cover fixed costs are as follows:

The annual charge for State mandated water testing fees per connection is $9.72 per year.  A monthly equivalent is .81 cents per connection.  This charge is in addition to the monthly basic charge.

A tiered monthly water (“commodity”) charge is as follows:

The City utilizes Advanced Metering Infrastructure technology (AMI). AMI allows the City to automatically collect consumption data from water meters and transfer that data to a central database for billing and analysis. Customers who chose not to use this technology will be charged $75 per billing cycle; this fee will cover the additional costs to obtain the manual meter reading and update the utility billing software.

Water Turn On/Shut Off Fee. Customers who request to have their water turned on or shut off during the year will be charged a $75 fee if completed during regular business hours and $100 if completed after hours. Water turn on and shut off requests will be completed at the discretion of the Public Works Director. 

1. Residential property owners will have their sewer consumption set at their winter usage known as “winter averaging.”

2. For residential property owners with no winter water usage, the winter average would be based on the lesser of the City's residential average water consumption of 5,000 gallons or the average water consumption from the months directly before departure and after a return.

3. New residential property owners would have their winter average set at the City’s residential average water consumption of 5,000 gallons per monthly billing cycle until they are able to establish a winter average amount.  For 2025, new owners would have their sewer capped at $45.90 per billing cycle.