Greeley will raise water and sewer rates this year. Plus, the city officially has its first Black city manager
By Trenton Sperry
The Greeley City Council voted Tuesday to sell more than $100 million in water and sewer bonds to fund improvements and expansions for both systems, setting up residents and ratepayers for higher costs in the new year.
Water rates will increase 6% this year and are projected to increase 4% every year until 2031. Sewer rates will increase 18% this year and are projected to increase 9% in 2023. Sewer rates will increase by 8.5% in 2024, 7% in 2025, 5% in 2026, 4% in 2027, 3.5% in 2028, and 3% every year from 2029-31.
In February, Greeley will issue up to $77.5 million in water revenue bonds and $25.5 million in sewer revenue bonds (Greeley’s sewer system is operated by an enterprise). The water bonds are expected to increase the city’s annual debt by $3.4 million to $5 million, and the sewer bonds are expected to increase it by $1.4 million to $2.8 million. The bonds are set to last 30 years.
Those increases should mean an additional $10 per month for a single family in Greeley. Erik Dial, Greeley’s utility finance and business manager, said the average bill for a single family was $100.30 in 2021, and with rate increases this year will land at about $110.22 ($1.54 increase for stormwater, $4.22 increase for sewer, and $4.16 increase for water).
The new rates will put Greeley on the higher end of water bill costs for single families in Colorado, though Dial noted the city still sits lower than some nearby municipalities like Firestone, Milliken, Windsor, Evans, and Erie. Dial also noted Greeley’s sewer costs have historically been much lower than other cities in Colorado, and he said part of the relatively large increases this year have to do with catching up a bit. Greeley’s average sewer bill costs will now be higher than Denver’s, though rates will still sit behind those in Johnstown, Firestone, Fort Collins, Loveland, Milliken, Boulder, Evans, and a number of others.
Altogether, the bonds are intended to fund:
The Terry Ranch Project ($36.5 million – though 80% of this is funded from seller contribution)
Upgrades to the wastewater treatment and reclamation facility ($35 million ongoing project)
Rehabilitation of the Boyd Water Treatment Plant ($10.3 million)
Installation of new smart water meters for customers ($8.3 million)
Ongoing purchases of water rights ($8 million per year)
Expansion of the city’s non-potable water system, primarily for irrigation ($5 million per year)
Dial said the costs associated with the upgrades to the wastewater treatment facility are due to new environmental regulations, and thus simply weren’t avoidable. He said there is a second phase for those upgrades in 2023, which will cost $31 million.
John Karner, Greeley’s director of finance, said municipalities often use debt to fund projects for a few reasons:
Long-lived assets (25-100 years) can be expensive, and there’s often not enough general fund revenue in a single year to cover their costs. The costs are spread across multiple years through debt financing to lower their impact.
Construction inflation is higher than debt interest, so it’s often actually cheaper to fund by debt over the long term than it is to pay the increasing costs of materials over time. Plus, city utilities often have strong credit ratings to get better terms for their financing.
Because the funds pay for the expansion of current systems, as new customers come into the fold, those new customers immediately start to help pay back the debt. In other words, it’s not just current ratepayers getting stuck with the bill to help expand the system to new customers.
New debts are generally issued every two to four years, with expiring bonds paid off immediately. In other words, the city basically gets to refinance any debt it has from decades ago at potentially lower costs to ratepayers when the bonds expire.
Johnny Olson (Ward III) urged city staff to get the message out to ratepayers ahead of time that their bills will increase, citing the tough financial times amid inflation and supply-chain woes. Dial said the city recently issued a press release about the rate changes, put up some YouTube videos about them, wrote some letters to the editor for the local newspaper, and will include a note in ratepayers’ monthly bills. He said the first time ratepayers will notice the increase will be in late February or early March.
Mayor John Gates made clear that the rate increases are not simply due to moving forward on the Terry Ranch Project, which is expected to cost the city about $193 million overall, and which will increase Greeley’s water storage by 1.2 million acre-feet upon completion. The project drew pushback from a citizens’ group when it was announced, but voters overwhelmingly gave it the go-ahead in November.
Other things the council did Tuesday:
Voted unanimously on a resolution appointing Raymond C. Lee III as Greeley’s city manager. Lee loses his interim title and becomes Greeley’s first Black city manager. The details of his contract negotiated with the council are expected to become public during the council’s regular meeting Jan. 18.
Gave the OK to a new intergovernmental agreement with the Colorado Department of Transportation for reimbursement of maintenance costs for state roads in Greeley. Under the new agreement, CDOT will reimburse Greeley $1,450 per lane mile for snow removal, pothole repair, minor patching, crack seal work, and fence and guardrail repair on U.S. 85 Business and U.S. 34 Business, as well as stormwater maintenance for three retention ponds at 71st Avenue. The reimbursement is doubled from the previous agreement of $725 per lane mile. The city anticipates receiving about $129,000 per year from the agreement.
Deb DeBoutez (Ward II) raised concerns about the closure of the Good Samaritan Society - Bonell Community facility, 706 23rd St. in Greeley, noting about 160 elderly folks were about to suddenly lose their housing with just a couple months to find a new place to live. Gates echoed the concerns, and Lee said the city is in the first stages of finding ways to help. Lee said the city received the notice of the closure but did not receive a list of names, so the city is working to acquire that so it can offer some help.
Voted the city’s website, greeleygov.com, as the primary posting location for the council’s meeting agendas. DeBoutez said she would like the city to post the agendas in a more accessible way for people who don’t have easy access to the Internet, so the city made its secondary location outside the Council Chambers at the City Center, 1001 11th Ave. Lee said staff are looking into kiosks that can show the agendas on a rolling screen for people to see in the lobby of the building. He said there’s also a possibility of TV screens in the lobby doing the same thing.
Appointed Deputy City Attorney Stacey Aurzada as the interim city clerk. Anissa Hollingshead announced she has resigned her position as city clerk to take up the same job for the city of Fort Collins. According to city documents, “It’s anticipated that a national recruitment to fill the position of city clerk will commence in late January.”
Gave the final OK to selling the city-owned McWilliams Farm north of Greeley to 3T LLC. The city paid $4,890 per acre for the 133-acre property in 2016, mostly in order to buy up the water rights, but also to ensure the longtime farm stayed in agricultural hands. Greeley has officially sold the land but not the water rights, and it received $6,000 per acre for a total of $800,000. It plans to lease some of the water rights to the new owners for use in farming.
Approved a resolution opting into an intergovernmental agreement with the Colorado Department of Human Services to join the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, which is funded through a federal program. The effort will help low-income households keep their water on during times of financial hardship, with the city getting reimbursed from the state for some overdue bills. The amount of money available for the city isn’t yet known.
Appointed Barry Eastman to the Citizen Budget Advisory Committee, and reappointed Jesse Quinby and John Shull to the same. Appointed Louisa Anderson to the Greeley Art Commission. Appointed Fatima Groom to the Human Relations Committee.
Honored former Councilman Richard “Dick” Boettcher Sr., who represented Ward II from 1973-77. Boettcher was a University of Northern Colorado alumnus and World War II veteran who held a number of posts in Greeley and Weld County. He died Nov. 27. His obituary is here: www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/greeley-co/richard-boettcher-10462687
Reauthorized the Construction Trades Advisory & Appeals Board, the Greeley Art Commission, the Greeley/Weld Housing Authority, and the Union Colony Civic Center Advisory Board for the next three years. Every city board and commission comes up for reauthorization every three years to determine if it’s still needed. There’s never been a board or commission that failed to be reauthorized since this provision was added to the city charter in 2001.