COUNCIL TO RAISE WATER, TRASH RATES IN NEW BUDGET

It's not because you watered the lawn more often this summer or used the garden hose to fill up the kiddie pool once too often, or even that you took more trash to the curb for pickup.

Your city water and solid waste bills will just be a little higher at the end of the summer.

The City Council is set to approve a combined rate increase of 4.3 percent for water and residential solid waste collection fees.

Water fees will increase by 2 percent. That means the average monthly water bill will go up 31 cents.

Solid waste collection fees will increase by 2.3 percent, which means a 30-cent hike in monthly bills.

The increases won't take effect until after July 1.

The increased rates are part of the annual operating budget for 1999-2000 for the city, which is slated for first reading approval at tonight's council meeting. The budget will get final approval later this month.

The council meets at 7:30 at City Hall, 401 Independence. A public hearing on the budget will be held before the meeting begins.

The rate increases are about the only difference in this year's budget from last year's, said Mayor Al Spradling III.

An employee pay plan, which has been a three-year undertaking, will be completed in the 1999-2000 budget.

Nearly a third of the city's employees are at the top of their pay scale, which creates both good and bad problems for the city. Few employees leave, so few positions are open, but it also means that capital improvement projects are a little behind.

The average worker can expect to see a 6 percent pay increase, with both a step move and a pay raise. Nearly 75 percent of the city's operating budget is used for payroll.

"Because the pay plan was a priority it means that other capital improvements aren't being done," Spradling said.

Some street work is being completed, but that comes out of the city's Transportation Trust Fund program.

The city plans a 2.5 to 3 percent growth increase each year, which usually comes through sales taxes and property assessments. But expenses also go up, Spradling said.

That means the city has to plan its improvement projects and payroll expenses much like a household budget.

The budget maintains the same property tax levy, with the 1999-2000 rate to be set in August.