The Altoona Water Authority Thursday created a new “penalty fee” for theft of hydrant services to deter unauthorized use of fire hydrants instances of which have come to the authority’s attention with increasing frequency. The penalty fee will be $2,500. The fee is not designated as a fine, because fines are the province of […]
The Altoona Water Authority Thursday voted to apply for a $7.5 million low-interest loan from Pennvest to pay for replacement of 14,000 feet of problematic water main on Logan Boulevard. The authority is undertaking the project now so that it will occur before PennDOT’s planned repaving of the boulevard and not afterward, which would […]
The Altoona Water Authority Thursday raised its blended water-sewer rate for average residential customers by 6.91% for 2024. The increase will hike monthly payments for users of 4,000 gallons of water a month by $7 to $119. The increase conforms with recommendations in a 2022 rate study whose updated version calls for those average customers’ […]
bkibler@altoonamirror.com
For the second year in a row, the Altoona Water Authority isn’t raising rates after five consecutive years in which costs for authority customers went up.
Last year, the authority avoided a rate hike partly due to the benefits of a rate restructuring in December 2018 that moved the authority away from charges based on amounts of water used toward charges based on fixed costs like wages offsetting a long-term societal trend toward reduced water usage coupled with the imposition of a capital surcharge.
This year, there’s no need for an increase due partly to capital loans having been repaid for the water division and revenue from treating leachate from outside sources this year offsetting a deficit on the sewer side, according to controller Gina DeRubeis.