Jessie Stensland reports from the Oak Harbor City Council meeting of Tue., Sep. 2, 2025 for the Whidbey News-Times. Read the whole story.
City utility rates for Oak Harbor residents are projected to increase by a total of about $54 over the next five years.
During a meeting Tuesday, Oak Harbor City Council adopted five-year rates for water, sewer, solid waste and storm drain. The overall cost for residents is projected to increase by about 25% from 2025 until 2030, reversing a recent trend of decreased rates.
They Said It
Deputy City Administrator [David] Goldman, who’s also the finance director, pointed out during the meeting that Oak Harbor’s rates are no longer the highest among comparable cities.
Goldman pointed out that that the consultant who did a rate study in 2022 found that Oak Harbor had the highest overall rates among nine similar communities, including Anacortes, Mount Vernon and Burlington.
Goldman recently redid the study and found that Oak Harbor’s rates now fall in the middle of the range. Moreover, Oak Harbor was the only city that decreased rates during that period.
Goldman and council members emphasized that the increased rates were not only expected but unavoidable, given the factors affecting the costs. As Councilmember Jim Woessner explained, each enterprise fund is self-sustaining, which means they are funded by the rates people pay. Except for a small utility tax, the city doesn’t make money from the rates.
Goldman said the fund balances for the different utilities are projected to go into the red at the end of next year without rate hikes.
One of the factors affecting rates, Goldman said, is an increase in wholesale water costs. Oak Harbor contracts with the city of Anacortes for water, which is piped all the way from a treatment plant on the Skagit River in Mount Vernon. The amount that Anacortes charges the city recently increased by 25%, Goldman said.
In addition, different utilities, Goldman explained, have to keep a fund balance to pay for replacement of infrastructure, plus there’s just overall inflation.
Councilmember Eric Marshall commended the city administration for adding a capital replacement fund to the utilities, which he said was “long overdue.” Just two years ago, the city’s public works director told the council that city infrastructure was in a “severe state of decay.”
At the same time, Marshall said he was concerned that the rates may have to be revisited in a couple of years, which he worried would bring uncertainty to city households. Goldman, however, said that the five-year plan for rates are based on the best information the city currently has.
“There’s always the possibility that we have to bring it back, one way or another,” Goldman said.
On the Ballot in November 2025
| CITY OF OAK HARBOR |
|---|
| Councilmember, Position 4 Barbara Armes |
| Councilmember, Position 5 James P. Marrow, the incumbent Brit Kraner Marrow was appointed to replace Shane Hoffmire until the results of the election are certified in November. |
| Councilmember, Position 6 Andy Plumlee Sandi Peterson Incumbent Jim Woessner did not file for another term. |
| Councilmember, Position 7 Bryan Stucky |
