Costly pipe repairs put Shawnee in a pinch

Two recent failures of Shawnee’s stormwater pipes have blown through much of the city budget for pipe repair, causing city council members to ask themselves whether higher taxes are needed to sustain the aging pipe system.

Council members are at the beginning of a discussion on whether the city’s current stormwater funding can sustain a stormwater system in which over half of the corrugated metal pipes are close to or exceed their 35-year lifespan.

The option recommended by the city’s public works staff calls for increasing the stormwater utility fee charged to property owners from $36a year to $84 a year and adding 3 mills to property taxes.

That would raise $98 million over 20 years and decrease — but not eliminate — the amount of pipe that is in need of attention, staffers said.

Two major pipe failures drew the city’s attention to its stormwater pipes just as staffers were drawing up a 20-year strategic plan. One at 73^rd Street and Quivira Road cost $205,000 to fix. A more significant failure at Interstate 435 and Holiday Drive will cost $1 million. Together, the two emergency repairs will consume double what the city had planned to spend on major pipe repair and replacement this year.

The issue came up during a question and answer session last week with Mayor Michelle Distler. Distler, who has monthly morning meetings with citizens, added a quarterly session in the evening. During her update, she explained that council members are exploring options on how to keep up with repairs on the pipes.

At a recent work session, city council members were advised that the city should speed up its schedule for repairing and replacing the corrugated metal pipes.

The city has 101 miles of the steel pipes, said Mike Gregory, the city’s stormwater manager. A little over half of those have an average age of 31 years. There are another 71 miles of newer reinforced concrete pipes, which have a 50-year lifespan. Steel pipes are the most worrisome to public works officials.

Shawnee has for the past several years been surveying the insides of the stormwater pipes with cameras to see how they’re holding up. Based on that, Gregory said about 8.5 percent of the city’s pipes are in immediate need of replacement, and 23 percent will need patching soon.

The city’s budget currently pays to replace about a quarter mile of pipes every year. At that rate, it would take 60 years to replace all of the pipes that are now considered in the worst of shape, he said.

The staff’s recommendation fell in the middle of three options presented to council members during the work session. The most-expensive plan divided the funding into two phases. In the first seven years, the mill levy would increase by 4.2 mills and the stormwater utility fee would go to $144 a year. The tax and fee burden would drop in the remainder of the 20-year plan, with the utility fee at $72 a year and a mill levy that would be 2.6 mills above the current rate.

The least-costly plan calls for an increase of 1.4 mills and a $60 utility fee.

The issue caused concern among some on the council because it has been less than two years since voters approved a three-eighths cent sales tax to improve the city streets. At the same time, they voted to extend the “Parks and Pipes” one-eighth cent sales tax.

Work on the streets has begun with curb and sidewalk replacement, and this summer crews will resurface 48 lane miles of street, the most ever done by Shawnee in a single year, Distler said.

At the work session, Councilman Eric Jenkins expressed reluctance to raise taxes so soon after that vote. Councilman Jeff Vaught said the city has a duty to protect its assets. Past councils have been able to keep taxes low, but “it’s catching up with us,” Vaught said. “Our predecessors got a free pass.”

Another issue putting pressure on the council is an impending property tax lid passed by the Kansas Legislature that would require citizen votes for property tax increases beyond the Consumer Price Index. The election process will pose an added cost to governmental bodies wanting to raise revenues.

Shawnee’s last mill levy increase was in 2006 for the 2007 budget year.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 1:03 PM with the headline "Costly pipe repairs put Shawnee in a pinch."