LAGUNA BEACH : Sewer Bills to Rise $2 in July, $1 More in ’90

Laguna Beach residents and developers will pay higher sewer bills next year to help pay for a two-year sewer improvement plan.

Beginning July 1, residents will pay an extra $2 on the current $18.50 monthly bill, Municipal Services Director Terry Brandt said Wednesday. That amount will be increased an additional dollar in July, 1990.

The city will also raise the cost of sewer connections for new buildings from $1,500 to $2,500, and the building construction tax will be increased from $500 to $1,500, Brandt said.

“It’s a more equitable way to spread the cost” of the sewer improvements, Brandt said. “This program gets us into the 20th Century.”

The $590,000 plan includes installation of an early warning system to alert the city to failures at 21 of the city’s 23 pump stations. The cost of that system will be shared with Southern California Edison Co., Brandt said.

Backup generators for the four most critical stations will also be installed.

That leaves four other stations previously identified as “high risk” unprotected, at least for the next two years, officials said at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

But backup generators for all 23 stations in Laguna Beach would cost the city $2 million, City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said.

“We think this will resolve almost all the spills,” Frank said.