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The District has three sources of
revenue: The water rate
pays for the cost of getting the water from the ground, into the
distribution system and delivered to you. This includes 11
wells, 9 storage reservoirs and 200 miles of pipe. The ready to serve
charge pays for the cost of overhead expenses (such as
office and maintenance facilities, wages and benefits, vehicles
and equipment and supplies to maintain the system), incurred
regardless of the quantity of water used; this is what it costs
to "keep the doors open and the water flowing."
The
water availability assessment
helps pay the costs incurred by the District to make water
available throughout the District. These are capital costs
or operation and maintenance expenses of the District expended
in serving water, among other purposes, for domestic consumption
and property related purposes.
The ready to serve charge, water rate and water availability assessment have not increased since 1995.
In fact, the ready to serve charge was reduced in the summer of
2003. District staff was reduced from 26 regular and 7 temporary employees to the current staff of
24 regular employees. This, along with other economies and some welcome offsetting grant funds received through the auspices of Congressman Jerry Lewis, has allowed us to continue the replacement of leaking, aging pipe, complete the construction of the Fluoride Removal Water Treatment Facility, and
begin construction of two additional storage reservoirs to ensure a stable water supply into the future. This has been done without incurring any further debt. Currently our debt principal is
$4.1M with annual payments of just over $632K.
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