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City Utilities the City of Fredericksburg’S Public in Fredericksburg, We Purchase Elec- Home Fredericksburg MUNICIPAL MESSENGER Volume 8 Number Four December, 2012 City Utilities The City of Fredericksburg’s Public In Fredericksburg, we purchase Elec- home. over 500 fire hydrants, and over 130 Works Department provides electric, tricity from LCRA. LCRA generates The City’s water system was built in miles of water mains. This infrastruc- sewer, wastewater and garbage dis- electricity at a coal fired power plant 1936. Prior to that time, residents and ture allows for the chlorination and posal to the citizens of Fredericksburg. in Fayette County, two natural gas businesses received water from pri- distribution of water throughout the As a public utility, the City of Freder- fired plants in Marble Falls and vate wells. Currently water is supplied City of Fredericksburg. icksburg’s utility department serves Bastrop, one combined-cycle gas fired by city owned wells. There are 6050 all customers on equal terms, operat- plant in Bastrop, hydroelectric power water service accounts. The City of ing safely and satisfactorily while at Highland Lakes Dam, and purchases The City of Fredericksburg also oper- Fredericksburg’s water system is rated ates its own 2.5 MGD Wastewater charging rates that are reasonable and wind power from West Texas wind superior by Texas regulators. fair. projects. Treatment Plant. The infrastructure Fredericksburg’s water is supplied by The City of Fredericksburg became a Power from these plants is sent that makes up the City’s sanitary sew- municipal utility in 1940 when it pur- through transformers across Texas several groundwater wells located in er system includes over a thousand chased the electric utility system from which push power long distances. The the Ellenburger and the Hickory Aqui- manholes and cleanouts, 18 lift sta- LCRA. power goes through high voltage fers. The water is pumped from these tions, and over 93 miles of sanitary With a population of 10,560 in the City transmission lines to a substation wells into the City’s utility infrastruc- sewer mains. Wastewater flows where voltage is lowered and sent on of Fredericksburg, we have 5,475 ture. This infrastructure network through this infrastructure to the smaller power lines. It goes from connected electric meters. Annual includes five water storage tanks, 14 Wastewater Treatment Plant where it electric revenue is $11,540,483 there to neighborhoods and pole top transformers which connect to your booster pumps, over 1,600 valves, is processed into effluent water. We Speak Fredericksburg In This Issue Page CITY UTILITIES 1 WE SPEAK 1 FREDERICKSBURG Doris Segner Marlis Icke Brenda Crenwelge CITY MANAGERS CORNER 2 The first faces someone sees when they Starting in 2002, Marlis Icke, another says. Brenda grew up here and started come to the Utility Department are friend- Fredericksburg native, likes getting to with the City in 2001. ly ones. They belong to the Clerk/Cashier/ know new people and that is something Customer service is all about meeting COUNCIL CONNECTION Customer Service representatives that she does everyday. Marlis loves the regu- people face to face and helping them solve 3 greet you at the front desk. lar customers she sees too. a problem. All three concur that work isn’t Doris Segner first started at the City in Brenda Crenwelge is happy meeting the work if you love what you do. And it is NEW UTILITY METERS 3 2000. She grew up in Fredericksburg and new people as they move to town. Often agreed among them that one of the best PROVIDE GREATER enjoys her job because of the new people these ladies are the first person they parts of the job is when they can turn EFFICIENCY she meets everyday. meet. “It is awesome to hear how happy someone’s bad day into a good day. DAILY BREIFS 4 they are to live in Fredericksburg.” she City Managers Corner Fredericksburg Municipal Messenger The City of Fredericksburg is fortunate to be able to provide quality utility services at a very reasonable price. Our residents and businesses have learned to depend on electrical, water and wastewater services through- out the year. When services are temporarily disrupted due to main breaks, weather conditions or other fac- tors, our employees respond in a timely manner and services are restored very quickly. Some of the utility lines and facilities in the City were constructed many years ago. Therefore, the City has established a comprehensive maintenance program to insure that all utility lines and other infrastructure are kept in excellent working order. The City has also developed a 5-Year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) that City Manager, Kent Myers plans ahead for major improvements that are needed to the utility systems in the future. This planning helps to prioritize needed projects and insures that the burden to local ratepayers is minimized by scheduling major improvements over several years. For example, the City has a number of water improvements that are need- “The City of ed over the next five years and these are all included in the CIP. Fredericksburg One of the biggest drivers to utility costs is staffing costs and the City has historically taken a very conserva- is fortunate to tive posture to utility staffing. For example, we recently completed a comparison of the staffing in our Electri- be able to cal Division with the City of Boerne and the City of Lockhart's Electrical Division which have a similar electrical load and a similar number of electrical customers. The City of Fredericksburg has 6 full-time employees in our provide quality Electrical Division compared to the City of Boerne with 17 full-time employees and the City of Lockhart with 16 utility services full-time employees. at a very Every year the City compares our utility rates with other cities around the State. We also participate in a reasonable statewide survey of utility rates conducted by the Texas Municipal League (TML). The results of these surveys highlight the very reasonable utility rates that we enjoy in this community. For example, the TML study in- price.” cluded over 600 cities and they reported an average monthly water rate of $30.40 based upon 5,000 gallons Kent Myers of use. In Fredericksburg, our average rate for this level of use is $17.00 a month. In terms of wastewater, the TML survey indicated that the average monthly rate is $23.83. The wastewater rate in our City is $15.25 a month based upon 5,000 gallons of water consumption. The City is planning on conducting a comprehensive rate study in the coming year. Following this study, it is likely that some of our rates will need to be adjusted to keep pace with increasing costs and to make needed capital improvements to our utility systems. However, even with these changes our rates should continue to be well below the rates and charges in other cities. This is one of the many factors that make our community a great place to live and own a business. These reasonable utility rates will also help insure that Fredericks- burg continues to grow and expand in the future. From the City of Fredericksburg to you and yours: “May the seasons of Christmas and the New Year bring you peace and joy.” Page 2 Volume 8 Number Four Council Connection An article about water rates in Harper appeared in a June edition of the Fredericksburg Standard - Radio Post. The company that services the Harper Water Company Systems is proposing to double their water rates. This article prompted the following com- parison between Fredericksburg’s current water rates with those of our neighbors. In Fredericksburg, the average monthly water usage is 9000 gallons. The following table compares our City’s monthly water bill. Compared to Harper’s water rate before the rate hike, Fredericksburg utility customers are saving an average of $201 on their annual water bill. Item Monthly Usage Total Charge Charge Bill City of Fredericksburg $8.25 $15.75 $24.00 Current Harper Rate $25.00 $15.75 $40.75 Proposed Harper Rate $48.33 $27.90 $76.23 Councilman The average City customer’s electricity usage is 1,000 kwhr. The following table compares our City’s monthly electricity bill. Compared to CTEC’s current electricity rate, Fredericksburg utility customers are saving an average of $287 on their annual Graham Pearson electricity bill. Adding it up, Item Monthly Usage Total Charge Charge Bill clients of City of Fredericksburg $10.00 $80.60 $90.60 Fredericks- Central Texas (CTEC) $22.50 $92.00 $114.50 burg’s water, electricity, Pedernales Electric (PEC) $22.50 $116.70 $139.20 and garbage The average City customer uses either a 64 or 96 gallon garbage can. The monthly fees are $10.50 and $12.00 respectively. utilities are Typically customers outside of Fredericksburg are charged $130 every 3 months for garbage collection. This translates into an annual savings of approximately $385 on garbage collection fees. benefitting from an aver- Adding it all up, clients of Fredericksburg’s water, electricity, and garbage utilities are benefitting from an average annual sav- age annual ings of $873. These savings are offset by our City’s property taxes which residents outside of Fredericksburg do not have to pay. The current property tax rate for Fredericksburg is 0.2647 cents per $100. You would pay $873 in property taxes on a savings of home that is worth $330,000. $873. In summary, if you are an average consumer of Fredericksburg’s water, electricity, and garbage utilities and you live in a home Graham Pearson appraised less than $330,000, your annual savings on utility rates more than compensates for the property taxes you pay each year.
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