In Park Falls, water utility rates were just increased by about 75%.
That’s because the city lost a major customer, the paper mill, which they say forced them to raise rates.
For the past few years, there have been a lot of changes at the paper mill in Park Falls.
It’s been passed through several different owners, changed names, and been sold.
Now, the mill is shuttered, but the city still needs to run the water that the mill used to use through their system to avoid it freezing and causing damage.
Without the paper mill paying for that water, the cost is left to the residents of Park Falls.
Since 2020, the city has been aware that they might need to raise rates.
They’ve held public hearing sessions and presentations, but some residents were still caught unaware when the change came.
Ultimately, the city determined that they needed to raise the rates almost entirely due to the permanent loss of the paper mill as a customer.
This is the first time they’ve increased water bills in 14 years.
Debbie Obiedo is a resident of Park Falls.
“It hurts enough to where it’s taking food from my table and the winter clothes that I wanted, I put it in to pay my bills,” said Debbie Obiedo at the Q and A.
Brentt Michalek is the City Administrator of Park Falls.
“A kind of hindsight thing, it should have been increased at the standard incremental rate all along,” said Michalek.
He said that there should have been a rate analysis in 2015 and that they should have increased water utility rates to match inflation and price changes.
“Had that been done, you would have been looking at more of a 20% increase, rather than an overall jump,” said Michalek.
Residents asked if the changes to their water rates were permanent.
“If we can find a user that would use that volume of water, and it’s nice, clean PFAS-free water... yeah, we could lower water rates back,” said Michalek.
So far, the city has tried to attract Nestlé Waters, a water bottle company, but the company said Park Falls is too far north and it would be too expensive for shipping.
