By Rafael Marquez

A $5 fee will be added to Kyle residents’ utility bills starting January 2017 to fund the city’s new storm drain and flood risk mitigation utility. 

As plans for the utility move forward, Kyle city leaders will host two public meetings in November to communicate with citizens on the new service. 

The city of Kyle is making efforts to communicate with citizens about the city’s new Storm Drain & Flood Risk Mitigation Utility, its function and how it affects citizens. The city will hold two hearings to discuss the fee and the new department. The first reading is scheduled for the city council meeting on Nov. 1, and the second reading is on Nov. 15, 2016. Citizens are welcome to provide feedback to the council during any city council meeting, but the storm drain utility fees are on the schedule for those two sessions. 

Kyle Mayor Todd Webster explained that the reason for financing the department with a fee rather than adding the cost of the department to the ad valorem tax rate rests in state law. 

Webster said that since the fee is earmarked for the new department, Texas law dictates that the fee can only be used to fund the department and cannot be allocated to other uses. Had the new department been funded with tax income, there is a chance that future councils may divert money from the department for other uses.

Per the city, the floods of October of 2015 saw 17 inches of water fall within a 24 hour period. Webster said that he understands that as time moves on people may be less supportive of the fee, it is necessary for the city to have this department to help mitigate and manage flood waters. 

Webster said that despite receiving mixed feedback about the new proposed fee and its potential impact on individual and commercial utility bills he feels that “creating and maintaining this utility is 100 percent the right thing to do for the city.”