The Board of Directors approved an increase in the water share assessment charge effective January 1, 2020. The increase from $22 per share per year to $27 per share per year was approved at the October 2019 Board of Directors meeting.
Your water bill is broken down into three basic parts: meter charge, water charge, and assessment. The meter charge covers the fixed costs associated with water delivery. Fixed charges include labor, insurance, repairs, and other costs not directly affected by amount of water delivery. Water charge is the cost of water delivered to you and includes primarily energy and the cost of imported water.
The assessment is for the replacement of major assets including wells, pipeline, reservoirs, pumps, vehicles, building, and other fixed assets. The assessment has not been increased since 2012, when it was raised from $20 per share per year to $22 per share per year. The new assessment amount of $27 per share per year, is approximately $0.83 per share per billing period increase in the assessment.
The Board asked Mark Iverson, the General Manger, to prepare an asset replacement plan. The purpose of the plan is to forecast when assets will need to be replaced, estimate the replacement cost, and to develop a financial plan for the replacement. The asset replacement plan, which includes the projected date for asset replacement and estimated replacement cost can be found in the WHWC website, under Shareholder Information. WHWC has over $100M in total assets.
WHWC currently has no debt, and one of our goals moving forward is to have enough funds available to replace assets when needed without having to assume debt. We have developed a plan to do this. An increase in the assessments combined with investment of the assessment funds into secure long-term investments, will meet this requirement.
We welcome your comments and questions. You can call, email, or stop by the office. We are open Monday through Friday 8 AM – 4 PM.