The City of Sequim’s $30 million budget is now set for 2017 after Sequim city councilors unanimously approved it in a 7-0 vote on Monday, Nov. 28.

Residents’ water bills will increase by 2 percent in January, which city staff say equates to about a 60-cent increase for users who use up to 650 cubic feet of water per month. The increase is based on a 2013 study suggesting a 4-percent increase of water and sewer rates over six years, said Sue Hagener, Sequim administrative services director.

However sewer rates will remain the same because city staff found other avenues to offset the 4-percent increase such as an increase in city construction, Hagener said.

City councilors also approved a 1-percent tax levy increase over last year’s levy amount allowed by state law. In recent years, assessed values within the city limits had been going down, but for 2017 the city’s assessed value is at about $906 million, said Connie Anderson, Sequim deputy director of administrative services.

Because of that assessment, and a high amount of new construction this year, property owners’ taxes may go down and that a homeowner for a $200,000 home may see an increase of about $1.

Senior citizens 61 and over and disabled residents making $40,000 or less per year are eligible for exemptions, she said.

New rates for fees and services were approved on Monday as well including general facility charges for new construction to join onto the city’s utility system going up by $250 for both water and sewer to $6,850 for water and $8,800 for sewer.

Through October, city staff have issued 109 residential building permits and 83 commercial permits for new construction within the Sequim city limits for a total of $15,167,244.

City councilors also approved a revised fee schedule for facility rentals that goes from a per-hour basis to flat fees per day, such as $90 to rent the Guy Cole Convention Center hall.

Capital project loans

About $6.2 million of the budget is set for capital projects including reconstruction of Fir Street tentatively beginning the end of 2017 between Sequim and Fifth avenues. The City of Sequim recently received a $3.1 million grant from the state Transportation Improvement Board for the reconstruction. However, to complete the project funding, city councilors unanimously approved taking on two loans from the Department of Ecology and the Department of Health to replace 2,650 feet of 8-inch asbestos concrete water line along the road.

The loans come to $957,000 from the Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund at 1.5 percent interest over 20 years and $830,129 from the drinking water State Revolving Fund at 1-1.5 percent depending on completion time over 20 years.

Sequim city engineer Matt Klontz said on Nov. 26 that one of the reasons to do the loans was because “the longer we wait, it’ll cost more in the future. We want to make these improvements now.”

However, some city councilors expressed concern over taking on more loans.

“It concerns me we just took on other loans,” said city councilor Pam Leonard-Ray. “We are in a sense saving money but I don’t know if this is something we do all the time.”

“While these are low-interest, I am sympathetic to keep our debt down,” said city councilor Genaveve Starr said.

Earlier this year, city councilors approved loans from the state departments of Ecology and Health with some of the principal forgiven to expand a booster station to transfer water from the Port Williams Wellfield to a reservoir to increase reliability of water service ($745,000 budgeted), replace water lines ($481,000) and sewer lines ($517,000) on Sunnyside Avenue, perform engineering for an aerobic digester for two 100,000-gallon cells to increase capacity ($157,000) at the Water Reclamation Facility and construct a new lift station for waste at Doe Run Road ($261,000).

The loans came in at 1-2 percent interest over 20 years with the aerobic digester and the Sunnyside sewer and the Doe Run lift loans offering forgivable interest. These loans are the first debt the city has taken on since financing the construction of the Sequim Civic Center and paying off Keeler Park.

Projects overview

Several projects are tabbed for construction next year from parks to streets.

As part of the Transportation Benefit District’s funding, a bike lane will be striped in on both sides of Third Avenue from U.S. Highway 101 to Fir Street for $71,000, while $60,000 goes to safety projects, $20,000 to convert street lights to LED and $104,000 for pavement rehabilitation.

City staff also budgeted $52,000 to extend the Olympic Discovery Trail from North Sequim Avenue to North Brown Road to provide a separated shared-use path for pedestrians, cyclists and electric scooters.

In parks, Carrie Blake Park’s road entrance ($274,000) will relocate south between the skate park and Trinity United Methodist Church and connects to North Rhodefer Road with a roundabout in the middle to prevent speeding. The new road would result in closing off the existing main entrance that runs between the playgrounds.

The city is committing $51,000 toward pickleball courts while local pickleball players are contributing the rest to total $205,000.

Position changes

City staffing increases by 1.24 employees to 76.78 for a 1.4-percent wage increase and 3.5-percent benefits increase from 2016 up to $5.4 million for salaries and $2.4 million for benefits.

The budget also includes salary increases for the non-uniformed bargaining unit at a 0.75-percent increase, police sergeants at a 2 percent increase, police officers at a 1 percent increase and non-represented staff at a 1.5 percent increase.

Police Chief Bill Dickinson officially retires later this month and Chris Hugo, director of community development, plans to retire in April. Hagener said Hugo’s position will be reclassified as a manager after his retirement and overseen by Joe Irvin, assistant city manager.

Irvin’s job was reclassified from assistant to the city manager so that he’ll oversee the DCD, parks planning, human resources and a newly created administrative pool of 1.5 employees.

Hagener said the administrative pool would handle customer service and administrative functions on the second floor of the Sequim Civic Center.

A few other departments will see shifts and retirements including Lisa Hopper, animal control/code compliance officer, from community development to the police department and School Resource Officer Randy Kellas’ salary will paid as part of the police department’s budget after grants ran out.

In total, the police department’s budget increased $333,000 to account for the additional staffing, changes in salaries and benefits, and an increase in equipment reserves.

Two jobs were created in the budget as well: a DCD specialist and a part-time temporary project manager.

For more about the City of Sequim’s budget, visit www.sequimwa.gov.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.