Historically, the City’s utility billing cycle is between 91-93 days for each billing quarter. During the second quarter of this year (March, April, and May 2022) reads were performed early, which resulted in the usage period for the third quarter (June, July, and August 2022) containing up to 22 days of May usage. This early read period impacted approximately 97% of all meters. For those ratepayers, no additional reads were performed before the end of May so usage must be estimated in order to calculate a rate adjustment.
To estimate usage, the methodology selected was to take the usage as a percentage of days. As a beginning parameter, the date of May 9th was selected since it represented the first day any read was performed. As an ending parameter, May 31st was selected because it represented the last day that FY22 rates were in effect and reflects a read date within historically consistent parameters. This equates to a difference of 22 days. From the spring quarter to the summer quarter rates increased a total of $5.25 per 1,000 gallons, combining water and sewer. The percentage of usage for the 22-day period will be multiplied by the difference in consumption rates to calculate the total adjustment. The calculation is as follows:
Total Usage * (22/114 days) = Estimated May Usage
Estimated May Usage * $5.25 (Total Rate Increase for Water and Sewer) = $ XX Total adjustment
For residents at home, take your total usage (shown in 1,000 of gallons), but if we use the average:
14 * (22/114) = 2.7, rounded to 3, therefore 3 * 5.25 = $15.75 adjustments
Adjustments will show up as a credit on your account. The City will post a notice once the adjustments are completed, project estimate of completion is no later than November 1, 2022. You can find your bill at bsaonline.com, select the municipality, City of Saline.
Original source can be found here.
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