LMWA Members,

It’s been a very busy year for LMWA. We’ve made some significant progress in some areas and also encountered some challenges. The volunteer water board has been actively working through the challenges and taking action to ensure the long-term health and reliability of the system that delivers water to your homes. The purpose of this notice is to inform you of changes to billing and summer watering restrictions.

Billing Rate Changes – What is changing and why?

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A number of things are creating pressure to increase income and create a more equitable rate structure based on water usage (the latter being a long-standing feedback item). While Lark Meadows members have been fortunate to have water rates of $70 - $80 per month for the last 30 plus years, our cost structure and maintenance backlog will no longer allow us to keep this low flat rate. The pressure for more income is coming from several sources.

Operator Change

First, due to the recent death of our small, independent state certified water system operator, we’ve had to shop around and hire a new operations provider. As a result, our annual charge for this service will rise from $3,000 (the going rate back in the 90’s when we hired them) to $13,200 (the current rate based on bids we received).

The bad news here is clearly that we’ll be losing the low-cost service we’ve had for years and we’ll have a new expense. There is good news that offsets the bad. We did pay off the loan we took out in 2013 to drill the new south well. That will save us about $5000/year. Also, with this new operator we’ll have a much more professional service company to maintain the system and interact with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. An added benefit is that the water board members will no longer have to haul chlorine to the well house, make repairs to the system and compile and submit state-mandated reports that are the responsibility of the licensed water operator – all things that happened in the last year.

 

Reducing Volunteer Workload

 

Following this line of thought on reducing the load on neighborhood volunteers, we’re also going to hire someone to do the billing and collections for LMWA. The current effort has grown quite a bit (including the awkward task of having to approach neighbors who have gotten far behind on their payments) and, with the new usage-based billing described below, it will become more labor intensive.

 

Maintenance and Upgrades

 

In addition, we have a growing list of maintenance items that need to be addressed to keep our
system operating reliably. Some of these must be done to keep the service running effectively to
meet the current demand (e.g. deep well pump replacement) while others are part of expected
upkeep that we’ve delayed while we paid off our new-well loan from 2013 (e.g. general pump
house repairs), while yet others are items that have been on our list for years now (e.g. variable
frequency motor droves, system infrastructure upgrades). Now, after lots of discussion,
gathering estimates and prioritization, we feel it is time to get started in earnest on these items.

 

Fair Costs Distribution and Incentive to Reduce Consumption

 

Finally, there has long been input from association members that our flat-rate billing system is
unfair to those who use less water, allows others to use large volumes of water and provides no
incentive for members to moderate usage. Lowering overall usage will reduce wear and tear on
everything including the aquifer, the deep wells, the well house infrastructure and the
distribution system that carries water to the homes in the neighborhood. It will also reduce
sediment and turbidity which will allow delivery of clearer, less cloudy water to each home.

 

The new rate structure will

• Distribute non-usage-based costs evenly among all members
• Prorate usage-related costs across members based on consumption
• Conform to current industry practices of other water districts
• Build cash flow and reserves to allow for maintenance and upgrades
• Motivate all users to moderate their usage in order to preserve the water resource,
improve the quality of the water delivered, increase reliability and reduce wear and tear
on the system.

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The New Rates

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Now that the background has been shared, here is the bottom line. The LMWA water board met
and reviewed the details related to all of the items above. Based on our analysis and a lengthy
discussion, and with unanimous consensus, we are making the following changes. The changes
will go into effect starting with the bill for May usage and will be reevaluated annually.

 

Monthly ready-to-serve fee:

This charge will increase from $80 to $100. This fee includes the first 20,000 gallons of
use for each household for each month. For some of you this will be the only charge.

 

Monthly usage surcharge:

There will be an additional charge of $7/1,000 gallons over 20,000 in a month. This is
similar to the current models by other water districts in the area. Each meter will be read
once per month and, if the usage is over 20,999 gallons, a surcharge bill will be
generated and sent. This serves several purposes. It distributes the costs more fairly
among water association members, it provides an incentive to use less water and it
generates income that can be used for much needed repairs and upgrades. In cases where
a water leak in your home occurs, please contact the board to discuss repairs/surcharge
reduction.

We’re aware that rate increases are not popular. We want you to know that we don’t take it lightly. A
great deal of effort has gone into getting new meters set, reading them each month and sending
information to each member’s email address to create awareness of how their usage compares to that of
others in LMWA. Quite a bit of research was done to compare rate structures of surrounding
communities and municipalities, get bids from certified operators and gather input from association
members. With these changes all of us will benefit from a reliable well maintained and up to date water
system – something critical to our daily lives and our property values. If you have thoughts to share
with us, please let us know and join us for the upcoming water association meeting.

Phil, Lyn, Andre’ and the Directors of the Lark Meadows Water Association