Iola officials will take a “macro” look at the city’s electric rates and meter fees, as demands increase for such things as city recreation programs and amenities like the new splash park.
Tuesday’s City Council meeting began with a discussion about whether the city should increase its fees and rates for the 559 customers who live outside Iola’s city limits.
While the city carries a fuel cost adjustment with its monthly bills to be able to afford the cost of the energy itself, it relies on meter fees and base rates to fund the equipment and labor to keep the electric department in business.
Those fees and base rates haven’t been increased since 2018, City Administrator Matt Rehder noted.
But since then, the cost of utility poles have increased anywhere from 63% to 76%. Meter fee costs have risen from 171% to 383% over the past eight years as well.
“So we’ve been eating a lot of costs in house for that,” Rehder said.
On top of that, the city relies on electric fund transfers to support other portions of the budget, including the Recreation Department.
In fact, the city used another $173,000 in electric reserves to help finish construction of a splash park.
“One of the things I noticed about Iola is we don’t automatically raise rates every year, even though the cost of living goes up,” Mayor Steve French said. “Unfortunately, when you wait eight or nine years to get caught up to where we should be, you’re looking at a big percentage increase.
“It’s been great we’ve been able to carry the extra expenses and pay our bills, but we have to do our due diligence if we’re going to continue to have splash parks added to our rec program,” he continued.”Nobody wants to talk taxes. Nobody wants to talk about rate increases, but realistically, if we’re going to exist as a city and provide good infrastructure and programs, we’re gonna have to look at some rate increases.”
Councilman Mark Peters suggested Rehder look at rate adjustments for all the city’s electric customers, not just those outside city limits.
He noted out-of-town customers support Iola in the form of sales taxes, and through the aforementioned utility sales, but have no representation.
French and Councilwoman Joelle Shallah, however, were quick to point out that out-of-town customers don’t carry the same burden as those inside the city limits, through property taxes.
Rehder agreed to take a step back and examine rates for all 4,000 electric customers.
“What you’re telling me is you want me to take a macro look,” Rehder said.
MARCIA DAVIS, community engagement director at Thrive Allen County, briefed the Council on a community conversation featuring a crowd of about 60 Iolans in early September.
