Stormwater fee could see an increase

raise your stormwater fee next year. abc-7’s ashlie rodriguez attended tonight’s meeting. she’s live with information on the proposed increase — ashlie? the flooding here on montana can get pretty bad. addressing the flooding here and across the county costs money — which is why the water utilities is recommending an 11 percent increase. we’re increasing the fee because we have a big task ahead of us. when the rain falls, the roads flood in el paso. this is i-10 submerged last september, and a giant sinkhole on geroge dieter this october. the stormwater budget is meant to address issues like that — paying for maintenance and flood control projects, among others. we’ve put in a lot of projects to reduce flooding and have done some major improvements on the interstate flooding situation, but the problems are still out there. the water utilities has a $650 million master plan, and they say raising the stormwater fee is what it takes to do that. new projects they want to tackle include flood control in central, northwest and north east el paso, including more open space and park ponds. so what does 11 percent look like? for residential customers- a small home 18 cents more a typical home 35 cents large, 71 cents more. non residential, 3.21 to 3.63, 36 more fastfood restaurants would pay 18.19 to 20.19, 2 more car dealerships, 287.87 to 319.56, 31. 69 more i think 35 cents a month, which is what the typical customer is paying a month is a very small amount to which is what the typical customer is paying a month is a very small amount to pay and its being very well spent. last year the stormwater rate went up 8 percent. and the water utilities forecasts it will have to continue raising the rate for the next four years. the next meeting is next monday nov. 16th. they will be discussing the proposed budget for water and wastewater. the board president tells us he anticipates an increase for that as well. nothing will be officially adopted until next year. a dona ana county spokeswoman says two people are now recovering at an area