ARLINGTON - Residents and business owners will soon begin paying a little more on their monthly water bills.
The City Council is set to adopt some fee increases Tuesday when it approves the $396.5 million budget for fiscal 2013, which starts Oct. 1.
Trash collection
Residents were initially expected to see an increase of $4.80 a year for twice-a-week garbage collection, but over the past few weeks the city negotiated with Republic Waste Services to keep that rate the same, according to a city staff report.
Residents will pay $12.23 a month for trash collection, once-a-week recycling and debris removal until a 65-gallon recycling cart program begins in early 2013. After that, residential customers will see a nearly $1-a-month increase in water bills, whether they recycle or not.
The wheeled carts with lids will be distributed to Arlington's nearly 93,000 households, replacing the open 22-gallon recycling bins used now.
Fees for commercial customers whose trash is collected by hand will increase from $18.64 to $19.26 monthly for the first cubic yard and from $7.97 to $8.29 for each additional cubic yard.
Commercial customers who use trash containers will get an average 3.4 percent increase for collection and hauling, depending on the size of their trash container and how often it is emptied.
Water
The average residential bill will increase $7.92 a year, or 1.20 percent, and bills for commercial customers who use at least 50,000 gallons will increase $76.20, or 1.62 percent, under rates the City Council is set to approve Tuesday.
The increases will help the city pay higher fees being charged by the Tarrant Regional Water District and the Trinity River Authority for wastewater treatment and raw water, said Terry Benton, interim director of Arlington Water Utilities.
By refinancing and lowering the interest rate on some debt this year, Arlington offset about $867,000 of the increase for wastewater treatment requested by the Trinity River Authority, keeping the increase effective Oct. 1 from being even higher, Benton said.
Arlington's property tax rate will stay the same for the 10th year in a row: 64.8 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
Susan Schrock, 817-709-7578
Twitter: @susanschrock
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