Utility rates increasing in Newport

The Newport City Council has adopted a resolution adopting a new fee schedule for city services. The new rates, which took effect July 1, include a sizable increase in the city’s water and sewer rates.

The city council voted on the resolution following a public hearing held during its June 17 meeting.

“This covers all fees where we have charges for services in the city,” City Manager Spencer Nebel said. “It consolidates all these fees into one resolution that’s reviewed annually.”

Nebel said the fee adjustments for the coming fiscal year took into account cost-of-living increases.

“The biggest single issue that is addressed is our water, sewer and storm water utility rates,” he said. These three rates are all consolidated into one monthly bill charged to users. The water rate and the sewer rates are both being increased by 15 percent, and the storm water, which is a small amount of the bill, is seeing a 25 percent increase.

“This year we have a significant increase in those rates because we are going to be proceeding with significant improvements in the wastewater treatment plant that will require the rates to cover those expenses,” Nebel said, “as well as catching up with things that we’ve had to do in the water plant (and) additional systems that we are putting into place.”

The average utility bill for a residential user has been $111.95 per month, Nebel said, and with the increase approved by the city council, the average bill for the next fiscal year (July 1 to June 30, 2025) will be $130.71 per month.

“Before this increase, we were kind of in the middle of the rates (with comparable cities),” said Nebel.

“This keeps us still below some of the higher rates that are there, but these rates are absolutely necessary in order to prevent sewage from entering the ocean and to make the improvements we need to make to the wastewater treatment plant and to assure a safe and invulnerable drinking water system for the city.”

There was no public testimony offered during the hearing on this issue, and after a short discussion, council members voted unanimously to approve the resolution raising the rates.