BPU reiterates no garden waste fees in 2025

There are no immediate plans for any changes to the Municipal Utilities Board’s landfill. Nothing concrete has been decided for 2026 either.

City Utilities Board officials spoke with City Council members this week about yard waste and several other BPU-related items.

BPU Executive Director David Leathers briefly discussed areas of the budget that BPU board members have been working on, in the areas of district heating, solid waste, wastewater and water. Leathers said they are working hard to not have to increase district heating rates aside from increased consumption, and no rate increases are planned for solid waste. Leathers also briefly touched on some concerns that have been addressed in the community regarding the changes to yard waste stickers.

“Just to be clear, nothing will change in 2025 when it comes to the green waste sticker,” Leathers said. “We are planning a one-year vignette in 2025 and will continue to review whether we need to do something different with the green waste site. We are also looking at the recycling program. We don’t anticipate any changes in 2025, but as we get to the end-of-life point of the orange bins and this whole system, staff are rightly wondering if there is anything different we should be considering for the recycling program.

For wastewater and water, Leathers said it is not yet known whether rates are expected to increase, but it is anticipated that water rates will need to increase and there will be a process to follow over the course of for the next month or so. Wastewater saw an increase in January 2024 and Leathers said they believe there won’t be a need for an increase for 2025, but it’s not set in stone yet.

For electricity, Leathers said nothing has really started yet and they don’t have the ability to set rates and have to go to the Public Service Commission to do that. Starting in 2025, there will be no changes, but Leathers said there is a lot going on at the state level that could affect electricity rates, adding that it is not related to this what the BPU would do for electricity rates. There hasn’t been a base rate increase since March 2016, so if a base rate were to increase, he said it’s not expected to happen until at least 2026.

Leathers also updated the council on the city’s microgrid project, which continues to progress. He said they were selected to negotiate the project about a year ago through a grant from the Department of Energy and the contract negotiation process was complete. Project management, community benefits and outreach plans are being developed, along with other administrative and organizational work underway to prepare to move forward with the project. Leathers said the overall project will take four to five years to complete, but they plan to begin work in a year or two. The installation of electric vehicle chargers in the city will be included in the project towards the end of the project, in approximately three or four years.

“It’s a great project for the community,” Leathers said. “We are very excited.”

Leathers then discussed the district heating retrofit project that the BPU has been working on, particularly over the past six months, in terms of communication and outreach and knowledge to the community. Leathers also discussed the feasibility of the project in the future, grants for design work and potential interest in a residential component.

The BPU received a grant for water main replacement work a few years ago and the first phase of that project took place on Washington Street, with the second phase of the project nearing completion over the summer , covering a few more streets. Another project on the city’s west side is Sewer Shed Number Seven, where Leathers said he received a grant to do survey work on the sewer system in that area.

“We have had a lot of problems at Hallock, opposite Ellis, in the Hallock area and we are working there with house inspections to look for any potential illegal connections where rainwater is being discharged directly into the water system. sewers, called influx,” Cuirs said. “We are also looking for infiltrations. I know the engineering company did flow monitoring as part of building a model for this entire sewer shed.

Some home inspections were done and found some things needed to be changed, which was approved, and Leathers said that while they haven’t done many, about 10 to 15 have been done so far. here.

Oct. 16 was the BPU’s report date for the inventory of major service lines, and Leathers said they have reached about 95 percent of all areas of the water system for which they are responsible. The report is completed and submitted and now Leathers said a letter from the Department of Health should be received soon, and in the meantime the BPU will continue to try to verify to get to 100%.

“The good news is we have investigated all the water mains in our part of the system and all the service lines that go to the homes…and no lead-lined systems have been reported,” Leathers said.

The fuel system operated by the BPU was also brought up following a question from council. Leathers said discussions about different options were ongoing and it was something the BPU was looking to move away from, but investigations were still ongoing and moves forward were being considered.