City ready with water offer Its rates would fall; suburbs would pay a 17 percent surcharge By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Suburbs would pay 17 percent above a lower bulk rate to buy Green Bay's water from Lake Michigan under a proposal backed by the Green Bay Water Commission on Monday. The proposal will go to the Green Bay City Council a week from tonight for its approval; if given, it would go to the Central Brown County Water Authority, to Ashwaubenon, and to anyone else who might be interested. The proposal meets two key goals set by the commission, said vice chairman Tim Nixon: It's fair to both sides and helps the Green Bay ratepayers. Roy Simonson, president of the CBCWA, was on hand for the vote but not ready to speak for the six suburbs the water authority represents - Allouez, Bellevue, De Pere, Howard, Lawrence and Ledgeview. He did say his group might meet Thursday for their first discussion of the offer. "We're moving along the timeline we've established, and that's good to see," he said. The suburban group had set a late-February deadline for deciding on a Green Bay offer. Ashwaubenon, which dropped out of the authority last month, will have a meeting of its water advisory committee Thursday. Nixon, in proposing the offer, said he had done so under nine principles. They include: - A benefit to Green Bay ratepayers over going alone in the future. - A rational charge to the suburbs. - Rate stabilization. - Open negotiations. - Work after an agreement on a more comprehensive arrangement, such as a single billing system. The proposal was one of six looked at by commission members, including two proposed by the commission last year that would have charged the suburbs the city's bulk rate plus 25 percent. That proposal - which would have resulted in $34 million in interest income for the Green Bay utility by 2030 - led to several members of the commission being fired by Mayor Jim Schmitt. The bulk rate is charged to the city's largest customers. The commission also looked at a $64 million upfront payment by the CBCWA and bonding, which would have left Green Bay paying nearly $100 million by 2030. The final proposal would lower Green Bay's bulk rate to $1.48 per 1,000 gallons. The suburban customers would pay the bulk rate plus 17 percent, or $1.73 per 1,000 gallons. Rate increases after that are estimated at 3 percent a year for cost-of-living adjustments. The proposal would provide nearly $4 million in funds that could be used for rate stabilization or capital projects. "The more you sell, the more you stabilize the rates," Nixon said. The proposal would require expansion of the city's facilities: - In 2005: A third Lake Michigan intake, lake pumping and filtering expansion, and larger raw and treated water lines, paid for by $51.7 million in bonding. - In 2015: Additional filter and lake station expansion, paid for by cash from the surcharge to the suburbs, of $12 million to $20 million. - In 2024: Another filter and lake station expansion, from $14 million to $35 million. - In 2032: Another lake and pipe expansion. After 2030, the rates would be set by the state Public Service Commission, which has agreed to stay out of the city-suburbs deal until that time. Nixon admitted estimates were the best the commission could do. "None of us can foresee the future; I was ready to go to Houston (for the Super Bowl)," he said. Ald. Fred Graves said he thought the offer met one key goal. "We don't want to subsidize the suburbs," he said.