Ark Valley News - Bel Aire to study water and sewer rates

Bel Aire to study water and sewer rates
By Taylor Messick
Last Updated: July 18, 2019

On July 16, the Bel Aire City Council approved a bid of $30,000 from PEC for a utility rate study. The firm will be looking at the city's water and sewer rates.

The city's last rate study was in 2012. The item was discussed during the council's last budget workshop and $30,000 was budgeted. The city received four bids for the job. The other three bids were Baker Tilly for $28,500, Gov Rates for $27,800 and Ranson Financial for $14,500.

Finance director Ted Henry reviewed the proposals with city engineer Anne Stephens and the Bel Aire Utility Advisory Committee. Henry said the parties unanimously agreed that the most expensive option would be worthwhile.

"There's really two types of companies that do these studies," said Henry. "There's more-or-less the bean counters, people like me, finance people. And then there's people like PEC who have engineers in their office. They know construction costs and they have more of a holistic approach … the UAC really picked up on that through their proposal. That's really something I'm looking at because I can do the bean counting on my own. I get a little lost when we start talking five years out, population growth and a lot of what's needed and what's going to be done."

Henry said he will be involved throughout the process. PEC originally bid $31,600 for the project but agreed to come down to an amount not to exceed $30,000 to fit within the city's budget. All members of the council were present and PEC's bid was unanimously approved.

On July 10, the council held a special meeting prior to its council workshops and stayed in executive session for periods of 30, 20, 20 and 15 minutes.