OVIEDO, Fla. – If you live in Oviedo, your water bill may go up soon.
In Oviedo, the utility bill is actually three different fees: water, sewer, and stormwater – and raising each of those is their only option for a new facility.
“There’s nothing that has been mismanaged about them. It’s just, we need a new, different kind of water treatment facility because people are watering their grass too much,” Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek said.
Sladek said the new facility would cost around $70 million. It would be paid through water and sewer fees.
“The upper Floridian Aquifer, we’ve run out of capacity. If we get any additional usage, we’re gonna need to go to the lower Floridian aquifer and it has a different quality of water,” Sladek said.
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They’ll also need $9 million from stormwater fees to enhance and maintain run-off, drainage and storm prevention.
Oviedo City Officials plan to pay for the new water treatment facility and the stormwater improvements with 30-year payment plans. Sladek released two charts on social media showing taxpayers what they would have to pay for the first 10 years of the payment plans.
“Either paying as you go which levels the rate based on repaying a $70 million loan over 30 years. The big triangle is what it would cost if we did not borrow the money,” Sladek said.
According to the water and sewer bill chart, the blue line shows that if taxpayers borrowed nothing for the water and sewer treatment facility.
Over a 10-year span, taxpayers would see a slightly higher bill for two years and pay a more than $400 water bill for one year. After the period of high prices, the price would drop roughly $150 until the end of the payment period.
The green line represents the option of borrowing money. The line shows initially the bill starts low, but it will continue to grow at market value over the next 10 years.
This chart shows the stormwater bill’s 10-year span for the $9 million for stormwater improvements.
If the city borrowed nothing, the blue line shows it would initially raise taxpayers’ bills by $13 or more. Afterward, the price would rise gradually till the end of the 10-year span.
The green line shows the growth of the stormwater bill if the city borrowed $9 million for drainage, run-off and storm system improvements.
The bill would start off low and increase over time.
“We’ll we wanna make sure that residents know that we considered borrowing and not borrowing,” Sladek said.
They’re in the early stages of this right now, they’ll be discussing these options and asking for input from the public during the city’s meeting Monday at Oviedo City Hall at 5:30 p.m.