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Letter: Public works director addresses water rate increase 

Editor’s note: Paso Robles Public Works Director Dick McKinley addresses a recent letter to the editor, “City should not be able to carry through with water rate increases” from Matt Frankiewich, a Paso Robles High School student.

Matt,

Thanks for taking the time to think about water, and to write this letter. It is nice to see a student interested in his community. When you talk about the prior rate increase, you should know that it was only half of the increase originally proposed – the first 5 years of a 10 year plan. The city council was not negligent 5 years ago, they raised the rates as much as they could under the circumstances. The rates were designed to take care of the infrastructure, and infrastructure maintenance happens every day. What the rates aren’t able to do is to fund needed large projects, like the replacement of the 90-year old 21st Street Reservoir, without seriously putting the Water Fund in jeopardy.

The people who fought against the water rates last time caused lengthy delays and cost the community millions of dollars. Those same people want to do the same thing again. The city council should move forward with the rate increase because it is the right thing to do, because they followed the state-mandated process fully, and because in the end, out of more than 10,000 customers, fewer than 700 opposed the rate increase. Further, the city council has a fiduciary obligation to protect the water system assets for the ratepayers, and that means to ensure that there are sufficient rates to do that. The council also approved the rates because they understand that the water rates in the community are very low. For example, what do you think is a fair price for a gallon of pure drinking water, delivered to your home 24 hours a day? 25 cents? 50 cents? A bottle of water is much less than a gallon and costs about $1 or more. The fact is that an average household water customer in Paso Robles, after the full 5 years of rate increases are in place, will pay less than 1 cent per gallon of water.

Dick McKinley
Public Works Director

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