BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — The Starke City Commission has adjusted water and sewer rates over several years to ensure 
the utilities were covering their costs, but additional adjustments are needed to fund system improvements and upkeep.
With more than $20 million in grant and loan funding from the USDA, the sewer plant replacement project requires rate adjustments to meet grant requirements and assure the city can meet its repayment obligation.
The city is also receiving money from the state to rehabilitate sewer lines, a portion of which must be repaid.
But there are questions about how the Florida Rural Water Association developed its recommended rate structure. According to Operations Manager Scott Anaheim, the engineers for the wastewater plant and collection system projects believes the recommended rates are too high.
He called for the commission to hold a workshop to investigate the study.
“We need to really look at what’s behind those numbers, because that’s going to be a significant increase on the ratepayers,” Anaheim said, citing a $3 per 1,000-gallon sewer charge that would increase to $11.
The study also failed to take impact and capacity fees into consideration, said Anaheim. Growth outside the city limits often requires connection to the city’s water and sewer services, and Anaheim said developers need to be paying for that infrastructure. The burden should not be on the backs of ratepayers, he said, and commissioners agreed.
The commission set a special meeting on the rate study for Tuesday, Oct. 26, at 5:30 p.m.
At the same time, they will workshop the asset management plans required by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
In other business:
—the city is taking property to complete a lift station project on Call Street. The two-step process will involve forcing the Hilda Dekeyzer estate into probate, and then initiating the eminent domain process, which will require the appointed estate administrator to sell the property to the city. The property is located on Call Street at North Saint Clair next to Bradford Pet Care.
The project will move the lift station away from the creek and connect a force main under the highway to Redgrave Street.
—the commission approved a resolution appointing Carrie Johnson and Monica Kadlec to the Planning and Zoning Board.
