01241994 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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29 Regular Meeting January 24, 1994 Page 3 Beaty stated there was room toward the back that could be expanded. Mr. Moore asked about a portable dais. Mr. Beaty stated the dais was included in the plans. Mayor Morris asked about a theater stage. Ms. Hughson stated the theater would require a lot more money. Mr. Beaty stated a theater would cost an additional $300,000. Mr. Dave Fleming, SWT Performing Arts, stated a theater built for all needs would cost approximately two million. Mr. Cox asked if the center could be used for large meetings. Mr. Beaty stated there were several areas in the facilities that could be used for large meetings. Mr. Hart asked if the fee for the building was a conservative estimate of activities. Mr. Cobb stated $7.50 was 1/2 the cost of other facilities fee located in the community. Mr. Mooney asked if the aquatics was a $41,000 losing factor and if it was caused from the pool. Mr. Cobb stated that was a high figure due to the employment of the aquatics program. Discussion ensued. Mr. Beaty stated the entire center would require five acres and cost $5.3 million dollars. The Council stated the decision should be made by the voters and directed Mr. Gilley to put the issue on the ballot in May. Mayor Morris asked if the Task Force would educate the public on the issue and the Task Force agreed to do so. The Council thanked the Task Force for the job they did on the center. Mr. Cobb also stated the task force did a wortderful job and he appreciated their hard work. . Mayor Morris introduced a discussion regarding water conservation rates and direction to staff. Lewis McLain, Fiscal Planning Consultant, stated he had been given direction from the Council in two areas of adjustments to analyze: (1) the reduction in revenues to customers with large meters and larger amounts of gallonage computed into their bills and (2) the level of dollars involved if the bills for the Residential class of customers remained the same instead of being lowered under the general assumptions outlined in Alternative D of the previous rate analysis. He stated the City had Lour alternatives how to generate the same number of overall dollars in revenue by first looking at the revenue the City uses at this time. One alternative would be to charge a minimum bill of $6.89 and then charge a volume rate of $1.85 for each 1,000 gallons of usage over the given 2,000 gallons. He stated every customer, large and small, had basically the same minimum billing even though each customer put a large demand on the water system by virtue of having larger meters. He stated a couple of rate alternatives would be to make the minimum bill greater for the larger size meters and put them all into the relationship of a standard residential meter defined as a 3/4 inch meter. He stated a 2" meter was the same as 6.4 standard residential meters; therefore, charging a higher minimum cost for each of the larger meters would supply a larger amount of water, regardless if the water was used or not. He stated they also looked at a conservation rate, defined as an inverted rate, which means the more gallons used the higher the cost per 1,000 gallons. Discussion ensued. He stated another alternative would be to raise the mimimum bill based on the meter size but stops at the size of the 2" meter, which is the equivalent of 6.4 times the current billing. Mr. McClain stated this would make the billing a 2" meter maximum, reach a compromise, and be the recovery of capital cost of all the meters. He stated the second issue was the inverted rate structure. He stated most of the problems of comsumption occurred during irrigation months by the residential class. He suggested an alternative would be to charge an additional amount during the irrigational months. He suggested an inverted rate during the irrigational months and a uniform rate for the remainder of the year. Discussion ensued. Mayor Morris directed Mr. McClain to bring to the Council examples of Alternative C with a 2" cap on the meter and an inverted rate that levels off. Randall Morris asked the Council when the rate structure would be set. Mr. Gilley stated once the structure is set, it would then