Increased city water rates approved in Colfax

An increase to the city’s water rates was approved by the Colfax City Council during its regular monthly meeting Monday. The increase will be used to support an upcoming water project for the city.

“The base rate of water will change from $23.10 to $24.26 per month. The usage will change from $4.62 to $4.86 per 1000 gallons,” Colfax City Clerk Nancy Earles said.

The water project will seek to improve on problem areas throughout the city including a water main that broke several times throughout the winter along with valve and force main repairs.

“The reason we are having it is we are doing a major water project it’s going to be over a million dollars,” Earles said.

The project would also expand to additional areas throughout the city that are in need of attention.

“The money is going to replace that main plus there is a couple of other little areas we are doing,” Earles said.

The improvements to the city’s water system and fixing the problem areas could improve the system by eliminating the water main breaks and improving the water circulation in town among other benefits.

“This will give us better water flow ... and there again it helps increase the firefighter potential for some parts of town that we didn’t have it before,” public works director Bob Rhone said.

The council also made adjustments to the city’s firework code, most notably reducing the fine charged and putting in place the ability to give a citation to the homeowner where the firework is discharged instead of identifying the person who set it off.

“Before they used to have to see who was shooting off fireworks. If they are a block away and they see it coming from this house it doesn’t matter who shot it off it’s going to be the homeowner that gets fined,” Earles said.

Councilman Brad Magg brought a new proposal for wage increases for non-union city workers for fiscal year 2019-2020 during the meeting. A motion was made and approved to set a two percent increase for union works and a four percent increase for non-union employees.

“I think we have learned recently how short supplied trained city staff are and a lot of cities are paying much bigger wages than we are,” Magg said.

The initial resolution called for a two percent increase per union negotiations and three percent increase for non-union employees.

In other business:

• Two narcotic lock boxes were approved for purchase for the Colfax ambulances.

• It was approved to advertise for bids on city vehicles including the 2014 Ford Explorer, a Gator and a 2007 Dodge Ram.

• Signage for Quarry Spring Park was approved for $821. “These signs are mostly no parking, speed limit, no swimming the kinds of signs for safety,” David Mast Mayor of Colfax said.

• The first reading on an ordinance giving the city clerk and city treasurer duties to a single person was approved.

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com