Last Thursday, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. released what he said was the proposed rate structure for the city’s water and sewer services to the public.

There is no question that the price of everything, including water and sewer service, is going up. We have on many occasions pointed out the problems with the city’s aging utilities infrastructure:

• The city’s consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency to map, assess, repair and upgrade its 111-year-old sewer system.

• The aging electrical system at the city’s 51-year-old water treatment plant that is now being upgraded.

• The efforts to install the proposed auxiliary waterline.

• Problems with the wastewater treatment plant on Rifle Range Road.

Meeting those present needs and those in the future will cost money, and the only way to pay for them is through fees assessed to the users. Are there areas where the city could save money and reduce the proposed user fees? It’s possible. Is it possible to find other funding? The city cannot delve into the general fund to pay for utility work, and it has already borrowed from the gas department’s $9.5 million surplus for the work at the water treatment plant.

A rate increase is coming. And the question is whether the aldermen, who had not seen the rate structure before it was presented to the public, will approve it when it comes to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for a vote Aug. 24.

But before that vote, the board needs to take several long looks at the proposed rate structure and the city’s utility budget to see if it can find any possible cuts in the utilities department, and if the proposed rate schedule will meet the future needs of the system.

It also needs to simplify the complex rate structure based on water use and the size meter a home or business has, so it can easily be explained to the customers.

But most important, the board needs to make sure they are approving an affordable rate plan that will not cause a financial burden on the customers and meet the city’s needs going forward.

A rate increase, or examining a small one, should happen every year, like most businesses and utilities do, rather than wait years and be forced to put through a much larger increase that is less palatable for ratepayers.