NOTE TO DISTRICT CUSTOMERS

May 1, 2020

The District Board and staff would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all area first-responders, medical professionals, and other essential businesses operating within our community.

While these continue to be difficult times, we are heartened by the courtesy and appreciation you -our customers– show our staff members each and every day. Thank you! It makes a big difference. Our Operations staff remains committed to providing essential services in the field on a daily basis and continues to take safety precautions including practicing safe social distancing. Please understand that the staff is not being standoffish when avoiding hand-shaking. They are just trying to adhere to these social distancing standards.

The current pandemic has recently impacted many of our customers. We realize that this may mean a loss of income and difficult choices in managing financial resources. With this in mind, the District until further notice will continue to waive all late fees and penalties, as well as halt shutoffs and delinquency notices on past due accounts.

We do, however, urge you to communicate with our Customer Service Specialists (via phone or email) to set up arrangements for payment. A payment plan will help ensure that any past due balances (after the stay-at-home order is lifted) will not incur late fees or be shutoff – as long as the customer keeps to the terms of the plan.

Our Customer Service Specialists can be reached weekdays between 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. by calling (509) 466-0550 or emailing Billing@whitworthwater.com.

Thank you for all that you do and for being the best part of Whitworth Water District. Meanwhile, we will continue to keep that high-quality water flowing your way.

Sincerely,

The Whitworth Water District Board of Commissioners are considering an increase to 2020 water rates at their annual Budget, Rate, and Conservation Strategy Hearing on December 19^th.   Due to effective budgeting, and no unforeseen emergency expenses in 2019, the District is able to keep the proposed rate increase to the previously anticipated five percent (5%). 

The Board will also be considering the adoption of a revised conservation tiered rate structure.  The District’s existing and proposed tiered rates are based on a volumetric usage scale meaning that as usage increases, so too does the rate.  An attempt was made to minimize the impacts to the majority of the District’s customers while encouraging those extremely high water users to conserve.  The better the District is at curbing excessive summertime peak water usage, the better positioned the District will be at delaying and defraying some of the large capital projects costs necessary to keep up with such high demands.

The 2020 proposed rate increase and the revised conservation tiered rate structure are below. 

The Monthly Water Service Charge will be charged for each single-family and commercial unit connected to a District water meter. A single-family unit is defined by the District as any individual house or mobile home and each unit of a condominium, duplex, triplex or fourplex. The Monthly Water Service Charge includes the usage of up to one-thousand cubic-feet (approximately 7,500 gallons) of water. Units using over one-thousand cubic-feet of water will incur an additional volume charge per cubic-foot (approximately 7.5 gallons) as listed in the table above.

Motels, hotels, boarding houses, apartment units, and office buildings will pay a $22.05 Monthly Water Service Charge plus $12.13 per month for each unit available for rental whether it is rented or not. The one-thousand cubic-foot (approximately 7,500 gallons) Monthly Water Service Charge allowance will not apply to this category but will rather be charged per cubic-foot (approximately 7.5 gallons) starting at tier one rates.

RV Parks and others not mentioned above who provide transient accommodations will pay a $22.05 Monthly Water Service Charge per building unit plus the metered rate on the combined building(s) and transient space water usage. The one-thousand cubic-foot (approximately 7,500 gallons) Monthly Water Service Charge allowance will not apply to this category but will rather be charged per cubic-foot (approximately 7.5 gallons) starting at tier one rates.

Retirement homes, nursing homes and homes for the aged will pay a $22.05 Monthly Water Service Charge, $6.07 for each unit whether occupied or not, plus the metered rate. The one-thousand cubic-foot (approximately 7,500 gallons) Monthly Water Service Charge allowance will not apply to this category but will rather be charged per cubic-foot (approximately 7.5 gallons) starting at tier one rates.

Every other water user type not specifically mentioned above will pay the metered rate defined in the 2020 Rate Schedule Table.

*Note that some older District meters only read to the 100 cubic-foot and will be charged based on each 100 cubic-foot utilized.