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The Pipestone City Council during its Dec. 15 meeting voted to leave some utility fees unchanged for 2026.
Increases to the utility fees were included in a proposed ordinance establishing fees and charges for city services. The ordinance was introduced during the Dec. 1 City Council meeting and when it was brought up for consideration on Dec. 15, Mayor Dan Delaney said he didn’t support the proposed increases due to the current economic conditions.
“Our current economic status here is getting to be strenuous for some of our residents and I know we held the levy down as far as we could for 2026, but in my eyes it doesn’t make any sense to hold the levy down and then increase fees for services,” Delaney said. “I know we need to increase some fees for services, but I think we’re being too aggressive in increasing these fees for next year.”
He suggested approving the fee ordinance without the proposed increases to the water base fee, water usage fee, sewer base fee, sewer usage fee, storm sewer residential equivalency factor and commercial garbage fee. Those proposed increases included raising the water base fee from $36.30 per month to $39.93 per month, the water usage fee from $1.02 per 100 gallons to $1.13 per 100 gallons, the sewer base fee from $22.20 per month to $28.08 per month, the sewer usage fee from $1.23 per 100 gallons to $1.36 per 100 gallons, the storm sewer residential equivalency factor from $10.60 to $11.24, and the commercial garbage fee by $2 per yard overall.
The rate increases were primarily the result of a rate study conducted by Ehlers, a public finance advisor firm, and part of a plan to increase the rates over a period of years to make the city’s utility funds self sustaining. Delaney suggested delaying the increases proposed for 2026 for now and reevaluating them at a later time.
“I just look at it from a common sense point of view that this is too aggressive of a plan and that we need to pump the breaks a little bit and slow it down and keep it as is for 2026 and address it again for 2027,” he said.
Councilor Scott Swanson said the City Council could also consider reducing the size of the yearly increases going forward to spread them out over a longer period of time and make them less drastic for residents. He cautioned that the revenue still needs to keep up with expenditures, however, so the funds can be self sustaining.
The Council ultimately supported leaving the utility rates as they are and the fee schedule was approved accordingly.