Lompico seeks to increase fees after water bond fails

Water bills could go up in one Santa Cruz County community after a water bond initiative sank at the polls last week.

Under the plan, Lompico would have shared water with the San Lorenzo Valley Water District. Now it looks like that decision will trickle down to water customers.

California continues to experience one of the driest years on record, leaving streams like Lompico Creek very low. Residents in the area are under mandatory water rationing and the Lompico County Water District is looking to raise water rates regardless of water use. The increase is earmarked to fix aging infrastructure and hire a district manager.

The average Lompico resident pays up to $150 every two months. The proposed increase could hike that to $250 every two months. Resident Peter Weyzen has been living in Lompico for almost nine years and was on his way to pay his water bill.

“I’m a bit annoyed of course but you know we had this plan in place to kind of fix things around here, and some people in the community chose to block that,” Weyzen said.

The proposal to merge Lompico’s Water District with the San Lorenzo Valley Water District fell short by just one vote last week.

“There’s not much you can do really, I mean you can protest the rates all you want but they’re going to go up,” Weyzen said.

The president of the Lompico Water District said that if more than 50 percent of residents protest the water rate increase, it would be stopped.

Friday night the board will meet to discuss their next step. There are close to 500 customers in the Lompico Water District. Details regarding the rate increase will be mailed out soon.