Water rates are expected to rise on average about $9.69 a month for a family of four, according to Oakwood records.
Typically, residential customers in Oakwood use between 300 and 900 cubic feet of water per month, according to the city.
Refuse collection will be $35 a month for single-family homes, and stormwater management rates for those same households will be $10 a month, according to Oakwood records.
The latest rate increases come after Oakwood this year completed a $2.1 million sewer reconstruction. The hikes will be effective Jan. 1, city records show.
“Costs for future infrastructure improvements and capital equipment including water mains, water meters, service lines, well maintenance” all factor into the rate increases, Oakwood Finance Director Cindy Stafford told the Dayton Daily News.
Councilwoman Leigh Turben said the increases were reviewed by the city’s Budget Review Committee, which gave them “a positive response.”
In past years, Oakwood has had one of the most inexpensive water rates of the more than 60 jurisdictions listed in annual regional price surveys.
The water rate hikes a year ago were expected to translate into water bills increasing $7 to $13 a month while fees for sewer services would jump $7 to $14 in the same time period, officials said.
Prior to last year’s increase, the last rate increases for those respective services came in 2017 and 2018, Oakwood records show. Before its 2017 water rate hike, those fees were last increased in 1994, city officials said.
Nearly two-thirds of the 69 jurisdictions in a regional survey this year had increased water rates, with an average hike of 4.5% from March 1 last year. That’s the largest average increase since 2018′s 5.4%, records show.
The survey by the Piqua Utilities Department included various communities in more than 10 counties stretching from Hamilton County in the south to Auglaize County in the north. The survey does not include townships.
Rates are based on 22,500 gallons or 3,000 cubic feet of water in a three-month period as of March 1, 2024.
Dayton saw a 9.2% increase in this year’s survey, ranking it 25th. The largest percentage hike, according to the data, was in Oakwood.
Customers saw costs jump 49.6% this year, when the largely residential city of about 9,500 completed a $2.1 million water and sewer reconstruction.
Oakwood has been among the eight lowest rates since 2013, finishing in the top four six times, including each year since 2021, documents show. This year it was 16th.
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