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Utility Fund

The Utility Fund primarily provides for water and sewer services as well as the operations and
maintenance of the water and sewer system that provides running water and functioning sewer
lines to your home. Water conservation efforts along with the rising cost of water over the past
decade have motivated people to be more conservative with their usage to avoid expensive
water bills and have been effective in maintaining water supply. The rising cost of water can
be attributed to the rising cost of maintaining and operating the system that supplies the water
to your home. By the time the water reaches your faucet it has been well travelled. The water
is pumped from a lake into the treatment facility, then from the treatment facility to the city
system where the water is stored in the elevated storage tanks. From the elevated storage
tanks, the water is pumped through a network of pipes until it reaches your house. By the time
water reaches your NRH home, it may have been pumped through nearly 100 miles of pipe.
A break in any part of the system interrupts water supply. With population increases in Tarrant
County, water has to be acquired from longer distances and pumped more of the way. The
high cost of water results from the cost to properly maintain and operate all of these systems
to insure adequate and safe drinking water. Our suppliers pass on the cost of maintaining their
system to us, and we also have to fund the maintenance and operation of our own system.

Escalating costs with declining sales has resulted in a need to increase water rates. Water
rates contain two components: the base rate which is assessed to any connected meter, and
the consumption rate that charges for the water that is actually used. The base rate
includes 2,000 gallons of consumption for the residential customer. For the first time since

2013, an increase in the base rate adopted rate from $10
to $12 for a typical residential meter. When examining our base rate we learned that we
have the lowest base rate in the region, and that the $10.00 charge is lower than what the
actual consumption charge is for the 2,000 gallons that the base rate covers. An increase
in the base rate will have more proportional impact on low water users; however, it does
help make the rates more equitable and less susceptible to consumption variances.

Drainage Fund

In 1991 the City established a drainage utility fee to fund drainage improvements throughout
the community, and the drainage fee has not been changed since it was established. Current
rates are not meeting the drainage improvement needs, and additional drainage
improvement projects are necessary to prevent property loss. The 2018/2019 budget
includes an increase to the drainage utility fee from $3.00 to $5.50 in an effort to fund
additional drainage projects. The average drainage utility fee among area cities is $6.68.

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