City will offer some help with burden of water rates

Port Orchard residents soon will start getting water bills that reflect the first phase of rate increases approved by the City Council.

A few bucks more on the bimonthly bill won’t be a huge deal for a lot of people, but it will be a burden for some families that are scraping by in hard times, perhaps because someone in the household has lost a job, or for some seniors living on meager fixed incomes.

The council showed a commendable awareness of that when discussing a “helping hand” program during Tuesday night’s work study session.

A household struggling to pay its bills will be able to get a one-time waiver of its water bill from the city. But it involves more than just writing off a debt to help a family get through a tough month.

What’s in the works, as city treasurer Allan Martin explained, is a partnership with the nonprofit Kitsap Community Resources. If a family meets the low-income qualifications to receive assistance through KCR, they can sign up as a client and become eligible to apply for the water bill waiver.

They can only get a waiver once, not once every year or two, and evidently they’ll have to be current on their account to get a waiver, but the hope is that this option might prevent some folks from getting their water service shut off.

Moreover, Martin explained that the connection with KCR will be a “portal to help” for people who could benefit from the array of social service programs administered by that organization — which happens to be building a new facility on Jackson Avenue for serving South Kitsap clients.

These waivers won’t be a substantial cost for the city to absorb. Martin estimates there might be only about 10 a year, and even it turns out to be several times that many, the cost will be manageable.

Most important is the meaningful help being made available to people who need it.

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