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The October 28 Tri-City Regional Sanitary District (TRSD) Board meeting included a presentation on the status of a rate study and the swearing in of a new board member.
Tom Beckley, vice president of the consulting firm Raftelis, came to IBEW Hall to give the presentation. He said there were, in general, three types of property within the district - single family residential, commercial, and vacant land – and three components to the study: ad valorem tax, assessments and monthly user charges.
“There's not a single formula we can use to determine how much each property should pay in assessment. It's really a decision the board is ultimately going to have to make,” Beckley said.
He added that Raftelis intends to hold a workshop with the TRSD Board in early 2025, “to go through the options on how we can structure that assessment, because we need to develop a methodology. There’s a decision to be made [by the Board] on how to assess commercial and vacant properties.”
As far as user charges, Beckley said that “a lot of firming up” of operations and maintenance costs remained. “The challenge for both the assessment and the monthly user charges is balancing complexity and fairness, equity among the different customers in the district. There are about 1,000 properties in Phase 1. You don’t want to just take the costs, divide by 1,000 and say everybody pays the same. That wouldn’t be fair; that wouldn’t be equitable.”
Beckley pointed out that assessments will not go out for two more years and the board will not need to approve them until everything is finalized.
The new TRSD board member, Steve Williams, was appointed to fill a vacancy left by the August 26 resignation of Charlotte Asrarynezami. Introducing himself to the board, Williams he lived in Little Acres and his septic system was more than 20 years old. “You’ll have a hard time convincing me that these wastewater collection systems are not failing. It’s my opinion that we need this infrastructure in place and that’s why I’m throwing my hat in the ring to sit in the vacant seat until the interim seat is up for election again.”
Williams has been employed by Gila County Public Works for nearly 20 years, and said there could be potential conflicts because his job includes approval of grading, drainage, and right-of-way permits. “We do have people who can take my place whenever something comes up that will conflict with my job,” he told the board, adding that he had informed Public Works Director Homero Vela of his intentions and secured Vela’s approval.
According to the TRSD financial report, Gila County reported $493,160.40 in the district’s account.
Another item discussed and approved was a letter from the TRSD Board to district residents.
The board authorized a $300,000 payment to wastewater treatment plant manufacturer Cloacina, which is fabricating the TRSD water reclamation facility. The payment will come from the ad valorem tax fund.
Also approved was the final form of an easement from Arizona Eastern Railway, along with a payment of $105,200.
“We're getting a bunch of easement property from the railroad, up and down the railroad line. This was actually previously approved in substantially this form, but it is ready for signature,” said Project Manager Mike Krebs, of PACE Engineering.
Krebs said the railroad had originally planned to charge approximately $20,000 annually for the easement “for as long as the District would be in existence.” He said Arizona Eastern ultimately agreed to a one-time payment, initially asking for $260,000. “We pushed back on that and got them down to $105,200, which is a lot of money but nowhere near what it would have been,” he said.
