September Office Hours, Water Utility Update, and Flooding Update

September is a busy month with the introduction of the Mayor's Capital Budget and the Jewish Holidays, but I will be holding open office hours twice during the month:

If you have a question, concern or topic of interest that you would like to discuss, but the times above don't work for you, you can schedule a meeting with me online at http://calendar.keith.net.

The Madison Water Utility (MWU) announced last month they have filed an application with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) to increase revenue by 30% by increasing water rates. The average residential customer will see their monthly bills increase by about 37%.

Yesterday, MWU announced they plan on filing for the ability to raise rates to increase their revenue by 4% each year for 2020, 2021, and 2022.

These increases aren't insignificant to residents' budgets and I've had concerns about the communication from MWU about this issue. I'm glad to see MWU is finally adding information to their site to detail the need for the increase:

"The biggest driver for the proposed increase is replacing aging water infrastructure, especially deteriorating water mains. The utility has been ramping up main replacements for the last decade, focusing on the most needy pipes that were put in during the post-WWII boom era. We estimate about 300 miles of the city's 900 miles of water main need to be replaced at a cost of about $1.5 million per mile. In addition to mains, Madison Water Utility maintains and rehabs 22 municipal well facilities, 8,000 fire hydrants, and 30 large reservoirs. Madison Water Utility is also building new infrastructure on the edges of the city, including a new water tower to serve the far west side. And it recently replaced an 80 year-old water tower on the north side with a new, larger one to provide better fire protection for the area."

You can read more here: http://www.cityofmadison.com/water/billing-rates/madison-water-uility-revenue-increase

I'm a big believer in taking care of our infrastructure and understand the need to be diligent in replacing old pipes. I'm in the process of looking into other ways to make sure MWU is doing a better job with communication and making sure their spending is appropriate.

It looks like we're finally going to have an extended break in the rain for the next 7 days. Our lake levels are still extremely high. Someone from the Engineering department told me that without rain, lake levels should decrease approximately ½ inch per day, so it's going to take a little while to get back to normal. A storm that delivers 3-4 inch of rain in the next few weeks could be devastating. Though my weather app does not show storms of that size predicted in the short term, the City is advising if you have sandbags in place, to leave them in place.

The Capital Budget the Mayor announced on Monday does not contain any spending related to fixing infrastructure overwhelmed by the August 20th storm, but the City is working on a roadmap for going forward. The Mayor estimates it will take 3-6 months to properly to develop a roadmap.

The City continues to update www.cityofmadison.com/flooding. They just added the ability to get flooding updates via SMS.

Here's the City's latest flooding update as of 2pm:

Lake Levels & Weather Outlook

As of Thursday morning, September 6, Lake Monona is at a new record high of 848.53 inches, two inches higher than yesterday, and ten inches higher than the 100-year flood level. Lake Monona is expected to crest today, and dry weather is predicted for the coming days; however, we are not in the clear. Flooding remains an ongoing risk as long as lake levels remain this high. Once again, do not remove sandbags, and continue to be on alert.
 

If there is anything I can do to help, feel free to reach out: district19@cityofmadison.com

-Keith F