Talkeetna Water bills will likely double by Christmas

Time is running out on the Talkeetna Water and Sewer board’s search for alternatives to a fifty-percent rate hike for residential and commercial customers. An extension granted by the Matanuska – Susitna borough to allow the board to explore other ways to pay off the utility’s debts expires in early November.

A number of recent infrastructure upgrades required by the Department of Environmental Conservation and Mat Su department of Public Works have been completed with money borrowed from the Borough. The Borough says it’s time to make the service pay for itself. Without some other source of funding, the utility will be forced to spread the repayment of Borough loans for large infrastructure improvements across almost two-hundred water and sewer customers connected to the system.

Currently, all residential water and sewer customers pay the same rate of forty-one dollars, and commercial users that have a water meter pay almost six dollars per thousand gallons. If they don’t have a water meter, or if the meter is broken, commercial users pay a flat fee of forty-six dollars a month. All residential and commercial customers can expect to see their bills almost double by Christmas.