Flower Mound Leader
By: Molly McCullough
06/24/2005

Flower Mound officials are voicing their opinions about the increasing price the town is paying for water from the Upper Trinity Regional Water District.

Flower Mound officials said UTRWD staff members presented preliminary rate increase projections of 20 percent for the next two fiscal years beginning Oct. 1.
Officials said it translates into a $49,000 increase of what the town is already spending on a million gallons of water from Upper Trinity.
The current price for the same amount of water is $225,000, according to town officials. Each day, the town subscribes to 30 million gallons of water from the district.
Additionally, town officials are complaining about even more rate increases in the upcoming years to fund, what they believe, the construction of Lake Ralph Hall.
" It's naive to believe that a 20 percent increase in water rates is not connected to the investments that the district is making in Lake Ralph Hall," said Flower Mound Spokesman Michael Ryan. "It's a brazen move that is going to affect the water bills for residents and business in more than 20 communities throughout Denton County."
Upper Trinity's Executive Director Tom Taylor said the district's rate increases were not in response to their Lake Ralph Hall project, but rather the rising costs of providing water to their members.
Taylor said the district did not increase water rates between 1994 and 2002.
Taylor said after the district could no longer afford to keep those rates, the rates had to be adjusted to reflect the true cost of being a water provider.
" The actual rate increases have been very modest and over time, very much equal to the rate of inflation, which is 3 to 4 percent," Taylor said.
Taylor said the rates are a composition of two parts - a volume charge and a demand charge.
He said demand costs cover the district's fixed costs that remain the same every month.
Taylor also said the volume charge covers the districts varying costs, much like a resident's monthly utility bills.

Taylor said Town Manager Van James failed to report to Flower Mound residents that one of the two portions of the district's rates actually went down.
" It was a deliberate act of deceit that he [James] is reporting on the only part that is going up and he did not report the other costs are going down," Taylor said. "That is very unprofessional and misleading to the public."
Taylor said that James holds a senior position on the district's rate committee and helped conduct the water rate study in 2004, where the committee discovered the two portions of the rate charged were off balance.
Taylor said James urged the district to bring the two costs into balance where the volume cost is rising and the demand charge is decreasing.
Ryan said James has never voted for a rate increase while serving as the town's representative on the district's board of directors.
" The town has representation on the rate committee, but when you are one voice, you state your case and trust that the committee will make the best decision. Unfortunately that is not always the result," Ryan said.

"We've been questioning the validity of the rate increases all along and attempting to bring them to public light. More and more city councils across Denton County are starting to realize that their water rates are beginning to skyrocket and that those increases will eventually have to be passed on to their residents."
Moreover, Taylor said the district's increasing rates are not to be confused with the Lake Ralph Hall project.
" None of that is attributable to Lake Ralph Hall; that's a major flaw and misleading statement," Taylor said. "It's just flat wrong."
Taylor said the total cost of Lake Ralph Hall has triggered a less than 1 percent rate increase. Taylor said the rest of the rate increases go toward items such as the cost of business, growth of their customer municipalities, and the necessity of having to build new facilities.
Taylor said although bonds have been issued on the lake, the district will only be spending $100,000 per year on the debt service, which roughly totals around $6 million by 2010.
Taylor said the district has already spent around $1.5 million on the lake, as shown on their CIP projections.

"All we're doing in this period of time is planning and doing the necessary steps in planning," Taylor said.
Town officials believe the district has already spent $2 million and will spend an additional $112 million by 2015 on Lake Ralph Hall.
Ryan pointed to the district's capital improvement estimates, where it shows these estimates. Town officials estimate this means residents will see a phenomenal jump in their water bill over the next several years.
Yet again, Taylor disagreed.
Taylor estimates these rate increases will translate into less than $2 more per household per year in their water bills.