By Willie Howard
Manalapan is offering Hypoluxo water customers a 35 percent rate cut and a five-year rate freeze in exchange for a 30-year contract extension as the tiny waterfront town competes with Boynton Beach to retain its Hypoluxo water customers.
The proposed rate cut would apply to about 550 Hypoluxo water customers served by Manalapan through a contract that expires in 2020.
Hypoluxo council members heard the rate-cut offer during a Jan. 18 presentation by Manalapan Town Manager Linda Stumpf and Kevin O’Donnell of Nova Energy Consultants.
Under the proposed rates, Hypoluxo customers with a 5/8-inch water meter using 8,000 gallons would pay $48.02 a month — a savings of $25.86 from the current rate. A similar 35 percent rate reduction would apply to Hypoluxo customers with larger water meters.
To further sweeten the offer, Manalapan officials offered to pay for $1.64 million in needed upgrades to water distribution lines in Hypoluxo.
Hypoluxo officials also are considering a water-supply offer from Boynton Beach Utilities, and their decision could come as early as this year.
Even though the town’s water contract with Manalapan doesn’t expire until 2020, the contract requires 18 months’ notice if Hypoluxo plans to switch to a new supplier.
Meanwhile, much larger Boynton Beach Utilities, which already supplies water to Hypoluxo customers west of U.S. 1 and handles all of its sewage, has offered even lower water rates to the Hypoluxo customers served by Manalapan.
Under Boynton Beach Utilities rates, presented to the Hypoluxo Town Council in August, single-family residential customers with a 5/8-inch meter using 8,000 gallons a month would pay $25.55 to Boynton Beach Utilities.
That’s $22.47 a month less than the discounted rate offered by Manalapan.
Hypoluxo interim Mayor Michael Brown said he liked the quick service provided by Manalapan following water main breaks and other problems. But, he said, “that’s only worth so much.”
Stumpf told Hypoluxo officials that Manalapan would keep its water plant and remain in the water production business even without the Hypoluxo customers it has served since 1960.
“I find that very interesting,” Brown said.
Meanwhile, Boynton Beach Assistant City Manager Colin Groff told council members that Boynton Beach Utilities needs to upgrade water meters for the 550 Hypoluxo water customers served by Manalapan, or charge them maximum sewer rates based on 7,000 gallons of water use. Sewer bills for those Hypoluxo customers are based on water consumption measured by Manalapan. Boynton Beach Utilities employees manually enter the Manalapan water-use numbers every month to generate sewer bills, which often leads to errors, Groff said.
For its customers, Boynton Beach Utilities uses smart meters that read water usage every 10 minutes.
“We have to move to an automated system to get accurate sewer bills,” Groff said. “We’re not trying to be mean. We just want it to be fair to everybody.”
Brown said the Hypoluxo Town Council would review the water rates presented by Manalapan and Boynton Beach, along with service and other factors, before making a decision on whether to end the Manalapan water-supply contract or extend it for another 30 years.
Manalapan Vice Mayor Peter Isaac said he hopes Hypoluxo is swayed by the immediate savings water customers would enjoy.
“If they accepted, Hypoluxo residents would save $30,000 a month,” Isaac said at Manalapan’s Jan. 24 meeting. “That’s a lot. If they don’t make a decision, that $30,000 doesn’t get to be retroactive. If they take two months [to decide], that’s $60,000 that’s lost.”
Town Manager Stumpf, who is leading the negotiations for Manalapan, said Hypoluxo officials have asked her why this proposed deal wasn’t put on the table months or years ago. She said Manalapan couldn’t offer it until now because the town had to complete a study of its utility and make some management changes.
“The answer is that we were not in a position to make the offer back then,” Stumpf said. “Now we are.”
Dan Moffett contributed to this story.
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