There was much discussion by Kimberley City Council at budget time last year around how to continue to provide service but also put some money away for looming infrastructure upgrades.
Last spring Council approved a ten-year water, sewer infrastructure and fleet plan. The plan indicated a need to increase funding of water infrastructure $369,491 and sewer infrastructure $118,890 in 2015 with a 3.5 per cent inflationary factor going forward.
A new water and sewer parcel tax will be introduced in 2015 to provide sustained funding to replace Kimberley’s aging utility infrastructure. This $107.59 parcel tax will be added to the yearly property tax statement in 2015. It will rise slightly each year to $119.97 in 2018.
In addition, residential utility rates will rise. Those increases will be going into effect on January 1, 2015.
Residential utility rates will be going up by $25.05 per quarter. Increasing costs for electricity, natural gas, gasoline, diesel fuel, wages and maintenance are reflected in this increase. These additional funds will be directly applied to operational costs in departments servicing water, sewer and garbage collection (currently paid from property taxes).
New rates are now $186.45 per quarter for properties with garbage pickup. That breaks down to $67.46 for sewer, $104.59 for water and $14.40 for garbage (which has not increased since 1991).
If you are on the monthly prepayment plan, the monthly amount will now be $62.15 ($57.35 for strata properties without garbage collection).