Boone's water facilities may soon become privately managed. Here's what you need to know
The Boone City Council will hear a proposal Monday from a Florida-based utility company seeking to manage the city's water facilities.
If the proposed five-year contract goes into effect, U.S. Water Services Corporation, also known as USW Utility Group, would manage operations and maintenance of Boone's water and wastewater treatment plants as an independent contractor. The contract would begin March 1, 2022, and expire June 30, 2027. U.S. Water also manages water services for the cities of Grimes, Fort Dodge and Chariton in Iowa.
The company's presentation to the Boone City Council on Monday will follow a utility committee meeting Monday, Nov. 29, where members of the public provided input on the proposal. At that meeting, the committee — which is comprised of three city council members — voted to bring USW's plan before the full council. The minutes from Monday's meeting were not available as of Friday afternoon.
More than 200 people have signed a Change.org petition expressing concern over how the management change might impact Boone's existing water services employees.
"These city employees need our support to stop this private company from coming in," the petition says. "Let's show our city council that the city of Boone does not need this private company to come in and do what our local citizens/employees are already doing a great job at."
Here's a breakdown of U.S. Water's proposal:
What is USW's staffing plan?
According to the proposal, USW plans to hire seven full-time equivalent employees, which they say they'll attempt to fill from the city's existing staff or by recruiting locally. Six people currently work at Boone's water treatment and wastewater treatment facilities. USW's positions would include a project manager, a lead water operator, a lead wastewater operator, a water operator, a wastewater operator and two operator trainee/maintenance technicians.
USW says it intends to interview all current Boone water services employees interested in the jobs, who will be given "priority status" in the hiring process.
How much will the USW contract cost?
A copy of the USW proposal currently available on the city of Boone's website does not include the final proposed cost to the city, which was presented at the Nov. 29 meeting, but Boone City Administrator William Skare provided a copy of the final proposal to the Ames Tribune.
The total proposed monthly cost for the contract's first term (March 1, 2022-June 30, 2022) would be $134,074. The total annual cost would be $1,608,888.
The switch to USW would cost Boone around $8,000 more annually than the expected current budget for its water and wastewater facilities.
More: Last school year brought more diversity among fewer K-12 students in Iowa, new report finds
According to a city news release, Boone would not sell its water treatment facilities and USW would not have any control of the city's water or sewer rates under the proposed contract.
What's next?
The Boone City Council's agenda for Monday's meeting had not been published as of Friday afternoon, but the utility committee voted Monday to bring the USW contract to the full council.
Monday's meeting starts at 6 p.m. at city hall, located at 923 8th St. Past Boone City Council meetings can be viewed at bit.ly/3xYnoDF.
Isabella Rosario is a public safety reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached by email at irosario@gannett.com or on Twitter at @irosarioc.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Boone's water facilities could become privately managed. What to know
