By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Del Rio’s water and sewer rates have gone up, but city council members in January
will consider several suggestions from the city manager that might help soften the blow of those
higher rates.
City Manager Shawna Burkhart presented the list of suggestions to city council during their
meeting on Dec. 16, the same meeting at which the council formally approved the higher water
and wastewater rates.
Before beginning her presentation, Burkhart reminded city council members they have discussed
water and wastewater issues, projects and rates in nine different meetings since September 2024.
The city manager went over the four top priority water and wastewater projects supported by the
higher rates. These projects are the new municipal water well, the East Springs containment wall,
the water treatment plant membranes and the northside sewer trunk line.
Burkhart then launched into a series of suggestions she said she would like the council to
consider after approving the new water and wastewater rates.
Burkhart told the council, “First is affordability. That is the number one thing that was discussed
in all of the town hall meetings, so I would put forward before you a consideration to do an
elderly discount, offering an increase in the (current) elderly discount for water and sewer from 5
percent to 8 percent.”
Burkhart said raising the discount for the city’s senior citizens by 3 percent would cost the city
about $91,000 a year.
“Please note that this $91,000 would be reoccurring, so it is into perpetuity, because I doubt once
you increase a discount, you’re ever going to decrease a discount,” she said.
The city manager’s second suggestion was increasing the toll to cross the city’s international
bridge, either by 25 cents or by 50 cents.
“This action generates approximately $470,000 annually or $235,000 semi-annually for a 25-
cent increase or $940,000 annually or $470,000 semi-annually for a 50-cent increase. This action
would need to be a permanent application of funds due to the fact that this is a 30-year loan, and we would need to make sure that are covering our 30-year loan. You can’t do a transfer from an enterprise fund to an enterprise fund, but you can transfer the toll money to the general fund. and
the general fund take less of a transfer from utilities,” Burkhart said.
Burkhart’s third suggestion was revisiting the utility rate study within the next year.
Burkhart said, “The approximate cost is $35,000 to this year’s budget because we would have to
work with the rate analyst, whoever we choose. We most likely would have to go out for bids,
but whoever we choose, we would work with them, the rate analyst and with the citizens that
have shown interest and desire to be a part of that process.”
The city manager said her next suggestion dealt with “increasing confidence and trust of the
public, including the state of Texas.”
Burkhart told the council, “We can choose to restrict sewer debt and create an ordinance to
restrict the sewer revenue derived from the utility rate increase dedicated to paying debt. I’ll
pause here and say this is not the total amount of the monies coming in, but it would only be that
that pays for the debt, and we can set that aside so that it only goes toward the Silver Lake sewer
line replacement, as concerns have been mentioned (about) whether we are going to spend the
money on the right projects.”
She added the council can adopt the five-year rate study and its recommendations for higher
rates to secure upcoming debt.
Burkhart told the council, “Finally, we need to issue sewer debt on the city’s own debt capacity
and interest rate. The sewer debt is anticipated to be $23 million, based on the total construction.
It’s much larger than that, but we have funding all the way up through (sewer line replacement
to) Owens Drive.”
Burkhart said the city can initiate $13 million in debt issuance for the sewer project and noted the
city qualifies for a low-interest loan for 49 percent of the project through the Environmental
Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA).
Burkhart closed her presentation by saying, “Just two more thoughts: Please note that the
upcoming debt issuance for the three water projects and the one sewer project will be issued over
several years. This is not a one-time issuance; this is over several years. Why do we do that? So
as to not pay principal and interest payments until the proceeds are needed.”
Following the presentation, Burkhart fielded a range of questions from members of the council.
Later in the meeting, as council prepared to vote on the water and wastewater rates, Burkhart
asked council members to let her know which, if any, of the suggestions they would like to see
enacted, and those will be brought back before the council as ordinances.
The council eventually approved the five-year rate study, increasing the water and wastewater
rates. Burkhart’s suggestions will come back before the council for additional discussion and
possible action in January.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
