City council sets pool rates, swimming lesson fee

The Tea City Council met April 18 and discussed pool rates for 2016. After reviewing surrounding city pools’ rates, the council voted to raise rates for swimming lessons and season passes. The city raised the family season pass from $60 to $70. Child and senior season passes will go from $30 to $35.

Swimming lessons for toddler and preschool levels went from $15 to $20. Levels I-IV went from $20 to $25. Private lessons saw the biggest increase from $10 per hour per child to $40 per hour with a minimum of five lessons.

The council also approved a permit for a group daycare at 640 N. Christine Ave., owned by Sarah Eichmann. The daycare can have up to 12 children, including her own.

The council held the first reading of Ordinance 231. The ordinance would rezone property located on North Main Avenue and High Pointe Street from R2 residential to GB general business district and L1 light industrial. No one was there to speak in favor or against it. They will hold a second reading at the May 2 meeting.

Joe Munson and Tanya Miller with Banner Associates presented information on the wastewater regionalization preliminary engineering study that was commissioned by the City of Tea, City of Harrisburg and City of Worthing. The two presented the information at Harrisburg two weeks ago and Worthing last week.

Munson said all of the cities involved need to spend money on wastewater improvements in the next five years. The study looked at building a regional wastewater treatment facility that all three could use. The average daily flow would be 3,613,800 gallons per day and options for discharge would be the Big Sioux River or Beaver Creek. The locations for the facility were randomly chosen for the study and are not set in stone. He said no matter where the wastewater gets pumped Tea needs to upgrade its lift stations.

The study also looked at regionalizing with Sioux Falls. Miller presented projected costs of the options. One, building a sequencing batch reactor treatment facility that would discharge into the Big Sioux River. The activated sludge treatment option would discharge into Beaver Creek. The cost for either of these options are more than $52 million. Miller said these projections were realistic with a cost of $6.15 per gallon to build. Hooking into the Sioux Falls system would be $15.60 base rate with $4.01 per 1,000 gallons with a 3 percent rate increase every year. She noted they may increase that by 6 percent for the next three years. A typical resident would have a connection fee of $2,391.

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