Mayor Jay Schlum has sent a letter to each of the Arizona Corporation Commissioners stating the town’s opposition to a proposed 41.6 percent increase in water rates from Chaparral City Water Company.

There will a public hearing on the CCWC request beginning Monday, Dec. 8, at 10 a.m.

Residents and homeowner associations also are rallying to fight the proposed increase.

CCWC filed its application for a rate increase in 2007 and has cited numerous upgrades and expansion projects in its reasoning for the increase.

Schlum sent a similar letter to the Arizona Residential Utility Consumer Office (RUCO) and pledged support and assistance to RUCO’s position on the rate increase. RUCO declined any assistance from the town on the issue.

The homeowners associations in Fountain Hills also received a letter from Schlum explaining the town’s position.

Bill Rigsby, a rate analyst with RUCO, recently spoke to a group of residents in the Eagle Mountain subdivision of Fountain Hills.

Rigsby told the group RUCO has reviewed the case and considers an 8 percent increase fair for CCWC.

He also told the residents that ACC staff is prepared to recommend an increase of about 13 percent. He said commissioners are most likely going to lean toward something close to staff recommendation.

The Eagle Mountain homeowners association has taken a lead in fighting the CCWC request.

Dick Kloster, president of the Eagle Mountain Community Association (EMCA), said he and other residents were somewhat disappointed that the town did not choose to intervene in the rate case on behalf of citizens.

Schlum said the council has not been supportive of the CCWC request. In September the council voted not to intervene in the legal sense, but instead pledged to work with RUCO on its evaluation of the case.

Schlum said a legal intervention on behalf of the town would have required a paid consultant with the legal and financial expertise to review the CCWC application and make a recommendation.

Kloster has invited all members of the council to attend the ACC hearings next week and travel on a bus being sponsored by the EMCA and Eagle Mountain Golf Club.

Kloster said the proposed rate increase from CCWC would double the cost of irrigation for the golf club and force it to turn off the water to some areas of the golf course.

Other golf courses in the community are on board with Eagle Mountain and supporting the lead of that facility.

Desert Canyon is the community’s oldest golf course and the only course in Fountain Hills that does not supplement its water use with effluent water or reclaimed wastewater.

Desert Canyon does have its own water well, and club General Manager Karl Boettcher said they supplement their own water supply with CCWC water during the summer months and during overseed time.

Boettcher said Desert Canyon pays CCWC about $50,000 a year. He said double that would place a strain on the club’s operations.

“We are trying to become independent of (CCWC) water,” Boettcher said. “We don’t want to use potable water for irrigation and want to be less reliant on (CCWC).

“We are aligned with Eagle Mountain and support their position. We will be at the hearing. We’ll wait and see what they settle on and deal with it.”

Kloster said he can’t invite everyone to ride the bus from Eagle Mountain to the ACC hearing, but he sure encourages anyone with a concern about their water rates to attend.

He said he would be representing the 1,100 residents of Eagle Mountain.

The hearing will take place at the ACC offices at 1200 W. Washington in Phoenix on Monday, Dec. 8, at 10 a.m.