City of Beacon Special Announcement
Beacon City Hall
by Shawn Maxwell
On Tuesday August 7, 2012 from 12pm – 8pm at the Beacon City Hall there will be a special election concerning the management of the sewer and water for the City of Beacon.
The City Council and Mayor have spent more than a year evaluating options to provide the necessary sewer and water services to the City. After all considerations and careful evaluation the Council has determined the direction of the City should be to partner with Mahaska Rural Water System, Inc. This decision is not final until the results of the special election which affords all registered voters an opportunity to formally make this decision by way of their vote.
Outlined below are some answers to commonly asked questions intended to provide information to the residents. This correspondence is written in an impartial manner to simply provide the facts.
- Will the water being provided change? No, Mahaska Rural Water System, Inc. will purchase water from Oskaloosa Municipal Water Dept. so the water and the water lines will remain as they are today.
- Will the price of water increase by switching to rural water? No, the water will continue to be purchased through Oskaloosa Municipal Water System, Inc. That being said, if Oskaloosa Water increases the rate, the residents will be passed along the rate increase. This would be no different with Oskaloosa Water as it would be with rural water.
- Will our billing cycle change? Yes, Mahaska Rural Water System, Inc. will bill on a monthly cycle for water instead of a quarterly cycle that Beacon currently has. It essentially means that a 3 month bill will be divided by 3 and sent monthly. It does not mean that the 3 month bill will now be the monthly bill
- Will rural water take over the water and sewer savings? Yes, Mahaska Rural Water System, Inc. would assume all income along with all debt just as the City budgets and expenses today.
The final question that may come to mind would be what are the benefits to switching to Mahaska Rural Water?
- Mahaska Rural Water System, Inc. has the ability to perform all services and needs related to sewer and water.
- DNR regulations continue to be a concern as they become more stringent. Mahaska Rural Water System, Inc. has resources to obtain non-payable grants that help Cities maintain compliance.
- Through consolidated efforts within their organization, Mahaska Rural Water can mitigate rate increases that the City is currently unable to do.
- In a partnership with Mahaska Rural Water System, Inc., there are opportunities to have new water lines installed to use Rural Water. This would allow for better control of costs. As a side note, Mahaska Rural Water has won the best tasting water in Iowa award in 2004, 2007, 2009, and 2011.
For more details on either Mahaska Rural Water System, Inc. or the Oskaloosa Municipal Water dept., please view the following websites respectively.
http://www.oskaloosawater.org/
Beacon Agenda and Minutes regularly posted at Thomas Sanitation, Post Office and City Hall
