FLAGLER BEACH, Fla. – Nicki Sheets has lived in Flagler Beach for the past eight years. Lately, she's been paying around $100 a month for her utilities bill.
"I think it's more than I should be paying. It wasn't that much a couple years ago," Sheets said.
Sheets might be paying even more after city commissioners passed a proposed 12.5% increase on water and sewer rates. The city said the increase is for operating and improving a decades-old wastewater treatment plant and to boost a dwindling utilities reserve fund.
"Might make it a little easier to take a higher price," Sheets said.
If passed, residents could pay an extra $6.91 a month on their base fees. The city said it gets help from grants and the government but not enough to pay for current and future projects.
"You can't ignore what you have to do when it comes to maintaining a utility environment. You have the plants, you have the pipes, you also have your lift stations. All that has to be maintained. Then, after you get everything up to a level where it's just maintenance, you have to start looking at what are we going to do next? Whether people like it or not, there's going to be growth in the area," city manager Larry Newsom said.
In November, residents and businesses saw their water and sewer bills go up by 25% but city officials said overall, water and sewer rates stayed relatively low.
"If we would have been making increases, say 10%, we'd actually have $3 million in reserves. Right now, our reserves are for utilities -- not general fund, to be very clear -- they're hurting," Newsom said. "My job is as a city manager is to get all of our reserves up to a standard and get the plants up to a standard and then we can actually start doing very minimal increases."