After months of delay, the Flagler Beach City Commission last week approved a series of rate increases for water, sewer, garbage and stormwater. Water, sewer and garbage-collection rates will increase 3.5 percent. The monthly stormwater fee will increase 37.2 percent. Further increases may be slated for coming years.
Combined, a typical household with consumption of 5,000 gallons a month will see the monthly utility bill go from $192.55 to $204.26, an increase or $11.71, or $140.52 for the year.
A household that consumes 5,000 gallons of water a month currently pays $86.47 in base and consumption water charges, and $65.42 for sewer, a combined bill of $151.89. The rate increase will bring that to $89.51 for water and $67.72 for sewer, a total of $157.23, an increase of $5.34 per month, or $64 per year.
The garbage-collection rate will go from $26.08 to $27.03 (including the recycling fee), a monthly increase of 92 cents, or $11.04 a year.
The stormwater-rate increase in actual dollars will equal the water and sewer rate increase. The stormwater rate will go from $14.58 a month to $20 a month, or by $5.42 a month, an annual increase of $65.
The increases are considerably lower than those Palm Coast are contemplating. Customers in Palm Coast may see annual increases to their water and sewer bills alone of nearly $500 a year by 2028, while the city is contemplating borrowing nearly half a billion dollars to address extensive water and sewer capital improvements. (See: “Palm Coast Plans to Sharply Raise Water-Sewer Rates and Borrow $456 Million to Finance Needs, Dwarfing Previous Debt.”)
Households will discover additional fees they’re no familiar with. “We never charged anybody to pick up a mattress before. Now all of a sudden we are,” Commissioner Rick Belhumeur said. “Nobody knows about it.”
Any household dumping appliances such as stoves, fridges and ovens, mattresses or furniture (whether it’s side tables, love seats, sofas or dressers) must pay for the specialized pick-up ahead of time. The fee will be $50 for any single appliance, $100 for a small pile of furniture, $200 for a larger pile, or for more than two large items of furniture.
The city conducted a study on needed improvements in the city’s stormwater infrastructure. Commissioners were still a bit hesitant about increases separated from an accessible list of ongoing or upcoming projects that clearly show residents and businesses what the stormwater revenue is going toward.
“If we’re going to have the citizens get a big increase,” Cooley said, “we need to be able to tell them: here’s what’s done, here’s where we’re going, here’s exactly what we’re going to do, and if there are things in the study that aren’t viable, we need to be able to say we’re not going to tackle them.”
City Manager Dale Martin described the stormwater work list as “low-hanging fruit,” such as software upgrades, cleaning existing outfalls, installation of 19 backflow preventers, installation of 120 new manholes with 50 more to go, with a new list in preparation, ahead of the budget season. Cooley wants the list tied to completion dates to give residents a clear idea of what’s getting done, and Commissioner James Sherman wants it published on the city’s website. As of today, the list was not readily accessible on the web, and searching the stormwater page did not produce it beyond a January 2024 overall capital improvements list.
“This got bounced around a little bit,” City Commissioner Eric Cooley said, describing the numerous times the rate increase was discussed since last fall. Back then, the city would approve its budget by September, but then bring forward any utility rate increases, upsetting the budget cycle. That will change., From here on, commissioners will combine budget and utility rate discussions in their summer workshops. That will be preceded with a utility-rate discussion in March or April.
“It’s a great approach and it solves a lot of things,” Cooley said. “That way staff is going to be able to come to the commission and say: here’s what we believe i’s going to cost to run this department.”
“I don’t see it as being that different. We went through all that at budget time,” Commissioner Jane Mealy said. “We’ve gone over this a number of times.”
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