Why is the City increasing utility rates?
The answer to this is significantly more complicated than it might appear at first glance. In short, rate increases are needed to continue funding the water, wastewater and trash collection (or refuse) utility services the City provides.
Rate payers no doubt know that utility rate increases in varying degrees have been implemented by the City every year since 2016. This was done after a rate study completed by an independent consultant indicated increases were necessary over several years to meet the production costs of the City’s utility operations.
Over the past several years, the bulk of those increases have been applied to wastewater, both for its operations and capital. This is primarily due to extensive requirements issued by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, which include upgrades to the City’s wastewater infrastructure and an expansion of the Chickasaw Waste Water Treatment Plant. For context, this expansion will be the most expensive project ever undertaken by the City, to date upwards of $100 million.
A new rate study is currently underway and is expected to be presented to the City Council during its meeting on June 1. The results of the study will include recommendations for the next five years, beginning in Fiscal Year 2026-27. Based on preliminary information provided by the consultant regarding the upcoming fiscal year, FY 2026-27, fairly significant increases are needed — now on the water side — in an effort to begin recovering costs after flat water rates over the past five years.
Please consider watching the above video for a deeper dive into this issue, and watch City Beat for updates to this issue.
BDA: Working on it
What is the City doing about the pending sale of several Bartlesville grocery stores, and what’s going on with the Reasor’s store that is rumored to be coming to Bartlesville?
The Community Development Department has no permit applications on file relating to either of these questions, so we turned to the Bartlesville Development Authority, the economic development arm of the City, for more information. BDA President Chris Batchelder offered the following response:
“The BDA is aware of the fact that Homeland has listed all four of their Bartlesville locations, including the United location, for sale and we are actively working to make prospective buyers aware of these excellent locations.
“There are also active negotiations taking place with several interested parties on the site of the Good Shepherd Presbyterian church and hopefully an announcement will be made soon on the future of that location.”