Starting July 1, residents and businesses will be charged higher rates for water and sewer services and trash pickup.
Moorage fees and other rates at the port and harbors also will go up.
The utility rate increases will be small, adding up to just under $10 a month for a residential account at the minimum level of water use and garbage pickup.
The borough assembly adopted the annual rate and fee schedule unanimously at its April 22 meeting.
The monthly base rate for residential or commercial metered water service will increase 10%, from $45.61 to $50.17. The charges for water above the base rate of 4,000 gallons per month also are going up by 10%.
The rates for unmetered water users will also go up by 10% on July 1, as will the rates for specific commercial categories such as bars, bed and breakfasts, cold storage plants and grocery stores.
Wrangell this spring started up its new $23 million water treatment plant, replacing a 26-year-old facility that had trouble keeping up with demand for clean water.
State and federal grants covered two-thirds of the project costs, with the borough — and ratepayers — responsible for paying back $6.5 million in long-term, low-interest federal loans.
Trash rates will increase by 4% on July 1. The rate for weekly pickup of a 48-gallon trash can will increase from $46.95 per month to $48.83. The rate for a one-yard dumpster will go from $114.75 to $119.34 per month.
Sewage services will go up 5.5% for residential and commercial users, with the monthly residential rate increasing from $58.40 to $61.61.
There is no increase in electrical rates this year.
The annual review of rates and fees is important if the borough is to keep pace with the rising costs of operations, Borough Manager Mason Villarma explained at the April 22 assembly meeting.
All of the utilities operate as “enterprise accounts,” meaning they are self-supporting and need to charge fees sufficient to cover their operating costs and maintain adequate reserves to replace equipment and facilities.
In addition to utility charges, the assembly approved increases in many of the port and harbors fees, with the largest rate hikes at The Marine Service Center.
The annual reserved moorage rate at Wrangell harbors will increase by 5%, from $34.34 per linear foot to $36.06 per foot for vessels up to 30 feet long. Boats from 31 to 55 feet long will cost $42.50 per foot, up from $40.48.
The rate for moving freight into town by barge or at the City Dock also will go up by about 5%.
Marine Service Center users will see several rates go up substantially, as the borough wants to start collecting and setting aside funds for equipment replacement — there has been no such replacement fund for the nearly 20-year-old facility.
A 2022 economic analysis for the borough reported that if equipment replacement such as boatlifts and other capital expenses were counted against the marine center, it would show the borough loses money on the operation.
Starting July 1, rates at the center will increase, with a variable rate structure adopted for boat haul-outs intended to ease the burden on local users. There will be two rates: Higher rates April 1 through July 31, with lower rates the rest of the year.
Currently, the boatlift and haul-out charge for vessels up to 40 feet in length is $15.92 per foot. That will increase to $20.46 per foot April through July (about a 28% increase), with a rate of $17.05 the rest of the year (about a 7% rate hike).
The rates for larger boats will increase by similar percentages.
The rates for storage will increase too, with higher rates for short-term storage April through July.
Assembly members also approved an addition to the rates and fees structure to tack on a 25% surcharge when the borough sells land at the appraised value rather than at auction.
Currently, when someone applies to buy a parcel of borough-owned land, the assembly can agree to sell the property at appraised value without taking bids.
The surcharge is intended to compensate the borough for the administrative costs of selling the land and more importantly to recover revenue that it might lose by not going to auction for the parcel, borough manager Villarma explained in an interview the day after the assembly meeting.
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