August 26, 2024: District Update (budget hearing follow up)

Hello Coolin Sewer Members:

We had quite a large turnout at our annual budget hearing on Friday. Thank you to everyone who showed up to learn more about the District. To keep everyone up to date, the Board will be calling a special meeting on Wednesday, August 28th at 5pm, to be held at the District Shop. The purpose of this special meeting is to review all public comment forms or emails that have been submitted to the District. The meeting is open to the public, however there will not be any public comment (or questions) taken at this meeting, it will be a working meeting to review feedback from the community. The next regular board meeting is on September 4th, 2024, at the Civic Center at 4pm. At this regular meeting the Board will discuss and decide if another hearing regarding rates is to be scheduled. The overall consensus at the budget hearing seemed to be that a 5% increase was not enough to get the District back on track financially. It was heard that if any increase is to happen, that the community would appreciate a phase approach over the next few years, as well as ample notice. The District Engineers are planning to provide to the District a spreadsheet that shows what those phases would look like, hopefully this week. No decisions have been made regarding an increase beyond 5%. Per State code 63-1311A, the District is required to have a special rate increase hearing if the increase is in excess of 5%. A decision on whether a rate increase hearing is going to happen or not will be decided on 9.4.24.

Hearing minutes will be available after approval at the 9.4.24 meeting.