— from Paul Kamin for Eastsound Water —
The cost of purchasing service from Eastsound Water is going up on January 1st.
The rate change applies to the initial cost of membership or the upgrade of a membership. Since 2016 the cost of new service has been $12,700 for a single family home. A year ago, at the 2018 annual meeting, the Eastsound Water Board announced an increase to $14,000, with the provision that the change would go into affect Jan 1, 2020.
If you are considering a new development or an upgrade to your existing membership it might be prudent to consider applying for that membership before the Dec 17th Board meeting. The Dec Board meeting is the last chance to purchase a membership at the current rate.
Contact the Eastsound Water staff at 360 376 2127 to discuss your future water service needs, or to secure an application.
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Wow; that’s a pretty steep increase of $1300 per single-family home. How did the board come up with those figures – and did they publicize and explain their rationale for the increase? What costs/expenses/projects are driving the increase?
On a related note: When does EWUA plan to build its desalinization plant? Are these increases going toward funding that? What kind of public process and environmentals will ensue? How does the public find out more about EWUA’s potential land swap with the Port for building the desalinization plant – and where in the timeline are you?
This article doesn’t say when the board meeting for December is – date and time.
Thanks.