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City to revise water, sewer rates for inns One motel's rate tripled in a month JACKSONVILLE -- The City Council agrees with the owner of the town's largest motel about changing the way it calculates water and sewer rates. John VanDyke, owner of the 27-unit The Stage Lodge, told the council this week that his bill jumped from $129 to $450 in one month. After hearing his testimony, city officials agreed to rewrite the ordinance that charged motels per unit, in addition to the base rate and use fee that all businesses and residences pay. "We could find no other municipality in Oregon charging a per-unit fee for a motel that had only one water meter," VanDyke said. VanDyke's geyser-like water bill was caused by an oversight, according to city staff members. While the ordinance allowing the city to charge $10.90 per first motel unit and $8.40 per additional units had been on the books since The Stage Lodge opened in 1991, per-unit charges never showed up on VanDyke's statement until last month. When the ordinance is rewritten, The Stage Lodge will pay a $20.40 base rate for its 2-inch water main, plus a $1.02 use fee per 100 cubic feet of water. Another city in the region that calculates motel sewer rates by the number of units is Shady Cove, a town that has no water meters and no way of calculating sewer rates based on water use. The Shady Cove City Council recently reduced the per unit amount, from about $25 to $12 per unit, to make sewer rates more equitable among businesses, says Jerry L'Estrange, city administrator. In Rogue River, the largest motel is the 54-unit Inn At The Rogue Best Western. For its 3-inch water main, the Inn's base rate is $317.80 per 11,600 cubic feet, $1.75 for every additional 100 cubic feet, says Carol Weir, Rogue River deputy recorder. In Jacksonville, VanDyke's water bill reflected not only the city hall oversight, but a fee increase the City Council had approved earlier. The system development charge for sewer jumped from $1 to $20, he said. His bill also included a 39-cent water use fee increase that became effective June 26. The changes came at a time when the motel is not filling up, he said. "We are about 25 percent below the average occupancy rate in the state of Oregon," VanDyke said. The revised ordinance will also impact the eight-unit Jacksonville Inn, owned by Jerry Evans. In other action Tuesday, the Jacksonville City Council hired Corvallis master mason Alan Ash to begin restoring the exterior of the Brunner Building, where the library is located. The city budgeted $10,000 for the first phase of the restoration project, said Councilman Dean Paddison. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA