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Published on 10/27/1997 All articles from this issue

Purissima Hills water board ponders Cal Water offer

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By Carol Tiegs / Town Crier Staff Writer

District also reduces rates by 20 percent

Representatives of California Water Service will meet formally Nov. 12 with the Purissima Hills Water District board to present material and answer questions regarding their May offer to purchase the district.

District Manager Patrick Walter said California Water Service has offered to buy the district for $1, in return lowering rates to $1.45 per unit.

What would happen to demand with lower rates is one questions for the district board to consider, Walter said.

"Demand is very weather- dependent," Walter said. "We've already reached the supply assurance of Hetch-Hetchy (the district's water source). Last year we went 20 percent over with the hot weather."

The Nov. 12 meeting is a formal presentation and opportunity for California Water Service to answer questions raised following district board review of the data, Walter said. No decision on the purchase proposal will be made then.

The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Pinewood School, 26800 Fremont Road in Los Altos Hills.

Meanwhile, the water district has announced a 20 percent reduction in water rates, in part due to completion of improvement projects funded by a 1996 rate increase.

"Rates were raised in February 1996 to fund extraordinary improvement projects, including painting tanks," Walter said. "Those projects are now fully funded."

Walter also said high usage during the last two exceptionally hot, dry summers resulted in high revenues for the district. Those revenues helped enable the rate reduction, he said.

The district board added a new unit block, which reduces the cost of the first 10 units of water consumed by an additional 10 percent.

Residential rates for 1-10 units of water consumed dropped from $2.35 per unit to $1.65 per unit. Rates for 11-30 units declined to $1.85 per unit from $2.35 per unit.