LINGLE – The Town of Lingle is currently considering taking part in a grant program through the Wyoming state government. The only drawback is, in order to participate in the program, which could protect the Town of Lingle and its residents should major repairs, replacements and maintenance costs exceed the town’s budget, it would require the town to install water meters at each water service connection throughout the town, and some townspeople are concerned about the consequences this might have on their utility bill. 

Lingle Town Maintenance Supervisor Logan Dailey expressed the discussion of water meters was brought to the council as part of his department report after he was approached by Sunny Schell, Wyoming Rural Water Technical Assistance Provider regarding an Intended Use Plan or IUP. The discussion, however, has led to much confusion by many Lingle residents. 

“How all of this came about was Sunny had stopped recently at the town hall, and we had a conversation,” Dailey explained. “She usually comes through and tries to identify projects we are working on and things like that. I am not really sure what Wyoming Rural Water’s function is. From what I have gathered, it is kind of a municipal advocacy agency where they work with water operators to help us understand what’s available to us as far as grants and resources and things like that.”

According to Dailey, Schell recommended the Town of Lingle utilize the IUP to apply for two grants: the CWSRF or Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the DWSRF or Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. 

“What Sunny had said was that we should get on the IUP for the SLIB (State Lands and Investments Board) to apply for funding for two revolving funds. The idea is if we get water meters, then we will be able to apply for other grants. Whether it is state or federal, those grants typically require you to have metered water, and the reason is that you can prove that the town is doing what they can to recoup costs and sustain their own system,” Dailey explained. “She recommended that we get water meters. Most of the town is against water meters. I don’t really want water meters.” 

According to Dailey, there are pros and cons to the town setting up water meters. 

“Some of the pros, obviously, the diagnostic side, if someone has water that’s leaking and they don’t suspect there’s a leak, we can look at the water meter and look at the usage and compare the numbers and see if there’s an issue or not,” Dailey explained. 

As Dailey explained, the town already meters the water supply; however, each individual residency is not measured. 

“The other side of it, we already meter our water where it comes in from the well, so we already know what we are taking in. As far as individual usage, we don’t know. The only metered connection we have in town is the school,” Dailey explained. “When it comes down to the individual property owner, we don’t know how much water they’re using. It’s just a flat fee you pay per month and that’s how much water you use.”

Dailey explained, there are a lot of other towns with water meters. Most of them bill residents a fee for a certain number of gallons and then they are charged additionally if the usage is higher than the allotted gallons. 

“That’s our concern. If we get meters here, then chances are…This council has said that they are not going to bill off of the meters, so they would continue to just bill a flat rate, and that’s what it would be,” Dailey said. “But then, the concern is, okay, the next council comes in, and they decide, ‘Well, okay, we could be making money off this. We should be giving them the allotment and then charging them per gallon after that.’”

Dailey explained, he understands water preservation is important.

“We don’t want people just wasting water, but at the same time, I don’t want people to think they can’t water their yard or wash their car or use more water for a different reason because they’re like, ‘Oh, no, it’s going to bankrupt me,’” Dailey said. “This is part of the issue we are running into here.” 

Throughout the last month, there has been much confusion stirring regarding the water meters. Dailey explained there had even been comments from local citizens about forming a petition against the meters but according to Dailey, the only thing that was mentioned in the council meeting was the recommendations made by Schell. 

“Sunny brought this to me, and I presented it to the council because that’s my job,” Dailey explained. “Just a, ‘Hey, this is what she’s recommending. This is what she said we should look into.’ I don’t necessarily agree with it. I get it, but this is where we are at. We needed to have this discussion at least.”

From Dailey’s departmental report at the council meeting, rumors spread, Dailey explained.

“Well, that immediately turned into, ‘No, we’re doing this,’ and now we’ve got townspeople that are very upset about it,” Dailey explained. “[It was] hearsay. It was entirely assumptions, and that’s part of the problem, which is why I want to get this out so that people understand that.” 

The town is conducting research on the meters and the grant programs available before a decision will be made, Dailey explained.

“ We’re looking into it to prove the viability of whether we should do this, not do this, and obviously, as our concern here, is we are a small municipality, and if we were to have a huge…like right now our water system is in good shape but if we had a huge issue where we had a water main break and it contaminated water, that gets expensive very fast,” Dailey explained. “If we needed money to replace that, then we would probably be looking at grants or some other source to do that.”

With every grant, there are regulations and stipulations, Dailey explained. 

“For us to get a grant, our hands could be tied if our water is not metered,” Dailey said. “So, it is a double-edged sword. That’s why we are evaluating the options because I understand I don’t want people to get charged more for water, but at the same time, we need to be able to get the money we need to recoup costs and work on the system.”

There is “a ton” of grant money to be found, according to Dailey, it is just a matter of meeting the requirements. 

“Especially with federal government grants, there are always strings attached, and you never know what it’s going to be until you go to apply and you need that money,” Dailey noted. “Typically, when you need that money, it’s too late because there’s already an issue. We are trying to look and see what the best option is, but we want people to understand that we haven’t said, ‘Yes, we are doing it,’ or not. We are still looking into it, and we are going to get the public’s input on it. We are not going to just do this behind people’s backs and then make it happen. We are being upfront with it, and we want people to be involved in that process.”

Dailey explained the council is open to hearing the public’s voice on the matter at hand.

“If people want to have their input heard on it, they should come to a council meeting and address it. We are going to do what we can to get out to the public and discuss this,” Dailey said. “It hasn’t even been brought up at the meeting as an ‘action item.’ It was literally brought up in my report.”

As Dailey and the members of the town council continue to research options, ultimately, Dailey hopes for the best decision for the town.

“I don’t want it to be something where it turns out, ‘now we have a catastrophe,’ and we have to raise our bills to $80 a month because the town now has to try and recoup costs from a $2M water break that we have a loan for now or some catastrophe. It’s such a double-edged sword,” Dailey repeated. “I don’t want my bill to go up, but if I need to pay a little bit more to protect myself, I am okay doing that, too. We need to find that middle ground.” 

Again, Dailey stressed, he, as well as members of the town council, would like to hear from the residents of Lingle.

“I want the community to actually come and talk to us about it,” Dailey said. “There’s so much going on outside of the council meeting that never gets brought to the council. We haven’t taken any action on it. We haven’t filed anything. We want to know where people are at before we make any move forward.”

According to Dailey, the application deadline to get on the IUP and apply for the grants would be in January or February with a final decision.

“We do have a couple of months,” Dailey said. “This is something that comes up every year, and so even if it is something that we are like, ‘No, we are not going to do it this year,’ just because of the time where we are getting close, then we can at least have that discussion next year and if it is something we want to do, we can look at doing it. Whether it is something we want to do or not do, want is maybe not the right word. It’s whether it’s something we’re going to have to do because of grant funding or other alternative sources of funding or not.”

Dailey reminded the community to attend the council meeting and speak to the council. He explained people wanting to address the council just needed to “show up,” as no prior signup is required. The next council meeting will be held in the community building at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 20.

“The town is really impartial in this. We have not come to a conclusion or made a decision on any of it,” Dailey said. 

The town has made adjustments in its rates to better sustain the town. However, Dailey expressed even though rates have slightly increased, there is uncertainty about the unknown. 

“We were told before that they (water/wastewater rates) were low, and, so, to help ourselves, we should increase them a little bit to cover costs and maintenance and things like that,” Dailey said. “We have incorporated increases, but I can’t remember what they (the amount) were now. They weren’t huge, but we are trying to take that step to protect ourselves and make sure that we can afford and be viable on our own, but at the same point, if there’s a huge issue, that’s where we get concerned,” Dailey expressed. “We’ve only got so much money; we can’t just come up with a million dollars just like that to do something. Unfortunately, when it comes to water and infrastructure projects like that, that gets expensive fast.” 

“If someone has something they want to say about it or someone wants to be heard about it, they should bring that to the council meeting so that it can be expressed and put on the record,” Dailey concluded.