SLO residents will soon be able to pay water and sewer bills online

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• Grover Beach water rates to rise starting in April

  Grover Beach water rates to rise starting in April

  Water rates in Grover Beach will increase about 10 percent starting in April.

  The Grover Beach City Council voted 4-1 on Monday, with Councilwoman Phyllis Molnar dissenting, to raise water rates and establish a fee to pay for new state regulations to the city's storm water system.

  City officials have said the water rate increase is needed to cover basic operational and maintenance costs, re-establish a reserve fund and close an estimated $196,186 deficit in the water fund budget.

• Residents get new rates for water use

  Residents get new rates for water use

  Water customers in Atascadero will see their monthly bills increase this week by an average of 7.5 percent. The Atascadero Mutual Water Company’s Board of Directors earlier this month adopted water rate hikes that include a surcharge for the Nacimiento Water Project after a previous funding plan fell through.

  Under the new rates, which went into effect Wednesday, the monthly water bill for an average single-family residential customer will increase from $44.45 to $48.15 per month while an average business user’s bill will increase from $54.99 to $56.68. An average single-family residence uses 11,000 gallons of water per month, while an average business uses 19,000 gallons, according to the utility. Tiers in the rate system encourage conservation, so those who use more water pay more.

  Increases for all users, minus fire connections, include a $2.50 surcharge per meter that the utility’s Board of Directors also approved to help fund the community’s share in the Nacimiento pipeline.

• Highway, bridge tolls higher for out-of-towners

  Highway, bridge tolls higher for out-of-towners

  Some tolling authorities have found a way to give local motorists a discount on tolls while charging out-of-towners a higher rate for using the same roads and bridges.

• Code enforcement gets clearer and tougher in San Luis Obispo

  Code enforcement gets clearer and tougher in San Luis Obispo

  It’s no longer just your neighbors who care if you put your trash cans away. Or pull your weeds. Or keep your fence upright. The city is watching you, too.

  Two recently hired code enforcement officers, dubbed neighborhood services specialists, are hitting the streets and actively patrolling San Luis Obispo neighborhoods for such violations.

  Wrongdoers will get a warning and 10 days to clean up their act. After that, the city will start issuing fines to property owners that can reach up to $500 a day.

• SLO refinancing its water fund debt

  SLO refinancing its water fund debt

  Taking advantage of lower interest rates, the city of San Luis Obispo is set to sell $5.48 million of water revenue bonds Wednesday that would replace a 2002 bond refinancing.

  That would save the city’s water fund about $50,000 a year until the bonds mature in 2023, city Utilities Director Carrie Mattingly said in a news release.

  Called a re-funding in the municipal bond market, Wednesday’s issue replaces the remaining principal of a $9.485 million bond sale from 2002, according to the issue’s preliminary official statement by Irvine-based Fieldman, Rolapp & Associates, the city’s financial adviser for the sale.