Feeling the crunch — Financial assistance available to residents struggling to pay utility bills
Photo by Michael Alexander/NLJ The City of Newcastle plans to replace the orange water tank on the hill, located south of town, in the next few years.
A recent utility rate increase passed by the Newcastle City Council went into effect on Nov. 18, and the increase is reportedly taking an immediate toll on some household budgets.
Fortunately, some financial assistance is available for Newcastle residents feeling caught in a bind due to the increased utility rates.
Wyo Help resource coordinator Channing Lutz told the News Letter Journal that her office anticipates an uptick in utility assistance applications with the recently approved rate increases. This organization offers two sources of such assistance.
Approved applicants may receive assistance in covering their utility bills from either the Community Services Block Grant or the organization’s new Good Neighbor Club (see related story).
The first option is a federally funded grant and, therefore, comes with stricter rules and limits on aid, according to Lutz. The second, newer option is funded with donations, which may be applied to local needs and allows greater discretion by the Weston County Wyo Help office.
“Whatever is raised stays in our county,” Lutz said of the Good Neighbor Club donations.
Individuals may apply for either form of Wyo Help assistance online or at the Wyo Help office in Newcastle.
The Low Income Energy Assistance Program, or LIEAP, is another resource available to those struggling to pay their utility bills, and interested parties may apply for this program through the Department of Family Services, either online or at the local DFS office.
Eligibility for aid from this program is determined by an applicant’s income and household size.
According to DFS administrative assistant Michelle Cisar, it may take up to 20 days for an application to be approved, but she encouraged anyone in need of assistance to apply, even if “they’re not sure if they’re eligible.”
The DFS LIEAP website states that, as of Dec. 12, the program has paid a total of $667,000 in utility assistance to providers on behalf of 3,649 households.
According to City Clerk Stacy Haggerty, the increase was spurred by rising costs faced by the city due to maintenance of aging infrastructure and inflation.
“One of the (recent city) projects almost tripled in cost from the time of planning to actually being able to get the project started,” she said.
Public Works Department Supervisor Greg Stumpf echoed Haggerty’s sentiments and pointed to Tank One, the orange tank on the hill south of town, as another primary cause for the rate increase. The tank, he said, has been in use for 90 years and needs to be replaced. Replacing the tank, which was installed in 1934 and is a repurposed oil tank, will cost $9 million. Another underground tank on site will also need to be excavated, which will add significant costs, somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Stumpf also pointed out that most of the city’s water pipes are nearing the end of their operational lifespan and that putting off necessary repairs and replacement can lead to costly leaks.
“We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he said.
The city relies, in part, on state and federal loans and grants to pay for such projects. However, such resources have become less generous in their financial support of municipalities.
According to Stumpf, the city learned in September that the Wyoming Water Development Commission, which used to cover 67% of an approved project, had recently reduced this percentage to 50%, thereby increasing the city’s financial responsibility for such projects by 17%.
The federal government is even more tight-fisted. Stumpf recalled learning at a training session that less than 1% of all federal grants go to water and sewer infrastructure.
“The (Environmental Protection Agency) EPA wants customers to foot the bill (for water/sewer infrastructure),” he said.
City government is considering introducing a levelized billing option for residents similar to what is offered by utility companies such as Black Hills Energy. That is, a customer could opt for paying the same amount every month for a year. This amount would be determined by the prior year’s usage and would be reevaluated at the end of each year.
Haggerty said that nothing is yet official but that the idea was suggested at a recent council meeting by Mayor Pam Gualtieri. The city is communicating with the billing software company to determine how to set up this option.