Does anyone understand how the water billing works in Wake Forest? If I understand it correctly, we're now on the Raleigh water system, and we're billed by Raleigh. But for a certain period of time, we're being billed higher rates (apparently to pay for needed infrastructure improvements). Does anyone know when our water rates will be the same as Raleigh?
When I lived in Holly Springs, the water/sewer rates were clearly shown on the bills and on their website. Now that I'm in Wake Forest, I can't figure out what I'm being charged. (I'm disappointed with the Wake Forest web site...it's very hard to use compared to the websites of Holly Springs and Cary). I heard from an irrigation installer that sewer is charged at about twice the rate of water. So installing an irrigation system makes a lot of sense, since you're only paying about 1/3 the price for the same amount of water. But I haven't been able to verify this.
Also, since July 1, all new irrigation systems on the Raleigh water system require a separate meter, which costs about $800. However, Wake Forest has an additional 'water availability fee' of around $1600 for each meter. So an irrigation system here costs $2400 before you even put a single sprinkler in the ground.
As far as I know, Raleigh doesn't have this availability fee. So I'm wondering if the fee will go away once we're billed at the same rate as Raleigh? Does anyone know? And why am I even paying a water availability fee to Wake Forest if I'm getting my water from Raleigh?