Allen will soon sweep its own streets. A 75-cent monthly increase in the residential drainage fee, approved by the City Council at its Sept. 22 meeting, is meant to pay for the city's first in-house street sweeper and an equipment operator to run it.
The city expects the new drainage rates to bring in about $537,000 more a year. According to a city summary of the meeting, that money covers the $440,000 sweeper and its operator and also allows a $537,000 transfer into the drainage capital improvement fund for emerging drainage needs. Commercial properties will pay less than 2 cents more per 100 square feet of impervious surface.
Bringing sweeping in-house is projected to save about $129,000 a year in contract costs, the city said, while letting crews sweep more often, including in residential neighborhoods.
Trash, water and sewer rates also change
The drainage vote was one piece of a broader set of rate changes. The council also adopted new rates for solid waste, recycling and household hazardous waste collection. For a typical residential customer, the overall increase is 80 cents a month.
City staff cited inflation, account growth, higher disposal costs from the North Texas Municipal Water District, vehicle replacement, the cost of the city's composting program and modest pay and benefit increases.
Water and sewer rates were updated too. The city said the new rates will help buy a hydro-excavator, which loosens soil with a high-pressure water jet and vacuums the mud into a debris tank, and add a meter services technician to handle data from Allen's advanced meter system. The city did not list a typical-bill dollar figure for water and sewer in its summary.
