Water conservation commitee wants rebates for residents

Brandon’s water conservation committee has proposed a program that will pay residents to conserve water starting next year.

At the Brandon city council’s Dec. 17 meeting, committee member Kevin Smith outlined four ways that residents could cash in on water conservation measures.

“2018 has been a year of education and 2019 we’re hoping will be a year where citizens can actually be engaged,” Smith said.

The first of the four measures the committee encourages is a weather-based irrigation controller, which Smith said, reacts to plant needs in lieu of scheduled watering (i.e. every other day).

“It’s the next generation of irrigation systems,” he said.

The committee suggests a rebate up to $100 to put toward the homeowner’s purchase and installation of the controller.

A rain sensor, Smith explained, is a fix to any irrigation system that’s been installed in the last several years, and is one the committee encourages residents to consider. The sensor does not allow the irrigation system to activate with a minimum quarter-inch rainfall.

For older irrigation systems, Smith said a programmable timer would allow the homeowner to schedule watering for certain days of the week because many of the older systems are unable to be programmed to an even/odd schedule.

The committee earmarked a $75 rebate for this measure.

A $50 rebate is pegged for homeowners that purchase a rain barrel.

“This one was the most popular with the water smarter committee,” Smith said. “It probably won’t save the most money, maybe just to use to water the garden or flower beds.”

Once officially implemented by the city, the committee encourages residents to take advantage of the rebate program, if applicable.

“This is for purchases people make in 2019,” he said, noting no retro rebates would be issued. “We hope we see a large number of reimbursements to give back through a credit on their utility bill or check, but that’s still to be decided,” Smith said.

 

Meeting posting policy

In a continued effort to make city government more transparent, Alderman Tim Wakefield suggested council meeting packets be made available to the public earlier than the council’s regularly-scheduled Monday night meetings.

“This is valuable information residents are not able to look at,” he said. 

State law mandates that meeting agendas are posted 24 hours in advance of a meeting, and that a physical council packet is made available to the public at the meeting. Cities that have websites are also required to post the agenda on their website 24 hours prior to the meeting.

The Brandon Council meets all of those requirements, City Attorney Lisa Marso said.

“We are meeting that, not to say we can’t exceed that,” she said.

Wakefield also charged that city staff is not being held accountable to ensure agendas are posted and the council packet is made available to the public in a timely manner.

Alderman Chuck Parsons said he’d like to see the calendar removed from the city website homepage. “Sometimes it gets forgotten and then it gets used against us,” he said.

Wakefield disagreed, adding that he’s become frustrated that city government continues to lack transparency.

With a new city website presently under construction, Alderwoman Dana Clark suggested the item be tabled until the website redesign is completed.

“If we want to table it, that’s fine,” Wakefield said, “but I want to make sure our staff is meeting that threshold.”