City of Sundance scraps controversial utility fees

New rate schedule returns to ‘pay for what you use’ approach

SUNDANCE — The Sundance City Council has approved a new rate schedule that it hopes will spread costs more fairly, particularly among housing businesses.

Utility rates have caused concern for a number of home and business owners since the city’s new schedule came into effect in August, based on the results of a rate study performed by Carl Brown.

The biggest sticking point was a minimum use fee, which was to be charged no matter whether or not a dwelling is occupied. This $91 also applied to individual units in multi-use properties, which Sundance Village apartments owner Nate Torberson said had raised his water rate from around $400 to $2000 per month.

The feedback caused the council to reconsider, and the results of this rethink were presented at Tuesday’s meeting.

Council Member Joe Wilson explained the changes, having taken the lead on developing them alongside Council Member Callie Hilty and Clerk-Treasurer Theresa Curren and with the assistance of the Sundance Economic Development Committee.

The city will now be introducing a tiered system for residential water, starting with a base of $19.45 for the first 1000 gallons. The cost per gallon will increase by 5% for every 1000 gallons thereafter.

The city will also introduce a tiered commercial water rate. This will start with a $45 base rate for the first 1000 gallons and again increase by 5% for each 1000-gallon milestone thereafter.

This new system for businesses is based entirely on usage and does not charge a base rate per unit in a multi-use property.

“We’re not doing the ‘by door’ thing, that’s gone,” Wilson remarked. “It goes back to ‘pay for what you use’.”

Instead of the $91 minimum use fee that was introduced with the new rate schedule, the city will now return to charging a vacation rate of $54 per month. This rate is to be used, for example, when snowbirds leave the city for the winter.

The rate schedule that came into effect in August also introduced a non-use fee of $12 per month, to be charged to empty lots or vacant buildings that have access to utilities.

This will now be replaced with a meter box maintenance fee of $5 per month, which will only be charged for lots that already have meter boxes in place.

The reasoning for this, Wilson explained, is that the city must maintain the meter boxes and periodically replace them. The $5 will be placed in a sinking fund alongside tap and availability fees and used to perform this maintenance.

Wilson noted that the changes have been made specifically in response to concerns raised by local business and home owners.

“This thing was big and it was messy and you guys came in and reminded us of that,” he said.

No changes will be made to garbage, which Mayor Paul Brooks explained is based on the cost of collecting trash and transporting it to a landfill. In response to a comment from the audience about the cost, he pointed out that the city did attempt to push for a countywide garbage district but was unable to convince the county commissioners to form one.

Nobody spoke up on behalf of the city when that was happening, Brooks said.

“We didn’t get any input and we damn sure didn’t get any support,” he said.

Sewer will also continue to be calculated by winter usage, as has always been the case.

Sundance Country Club will see a 20% increase per thousand gallons after the initial base rate.

The council approved a motion to update the rate schedule to reflect these changes.

Future Rates

Hilty noted that the new figures have been looked over by interested parties including the economic committee.

“Everybody has checked it out and weighed in on it,” she said.

But while most seem content with the new rates right now, there’s no telling what the future may hold financially.

Brooks reminded the audience that the Wyoming State Legislature may not yet be done cutting property taxes, which could lead to further hardship in the next budget cycle. He said he had recently visited Cheyenne and returned with the impression that the current plan may be to replace the property tax with higher sales taxes, but that he does not feel confident that this will happen.

“The pain is coming – it’s not imaginary,” he said.

For now, though, Wilson said that the revised rates appear to leave the budget whole and will allow the city to capture enough data by the time the next budget cycle rolls around to be sure things are indeed on track.

Refund Problems

There was disagreement among the council as to whether the accounts that have been charged the higher rate since August should be refunded or issued a credit, as they would have been charged less during that timeframe under the rate schedule passed on Tuesday.

Clerk-Treasurer Theresa Curren expressed concern that this would require individually calculating all 700 accounts and adjusting each one three times to account for three months of billing.

Dan Fairbanks of the economic committee added that this would also, for the sake of fairness, require recharging all businesses the new commercial rate, which would open “a can of worms”.

“It’s going to take a long time to backdate this,” agreed the mayor.

Stating that the council has a choice to either ask city staff to perform these calculations or decide that the previous rates stand as they were initially passed and the new rates replace them.

Council Member Brad Marchant moved to adopt the latter position. Due to, “the size of our staff and the work involved,” Council Member Randy Stevenson seconded.

Wilson, however, said he thinks the city needs to go back and look at issuing credits.

“That’s 700 calculations by hand,” Brooks responded.

“Times three,” added Hilty.

Instead, Hilty suggested separating out the accounts that saw a significant increase, most of which were apartment complexes and vacant buildings. Instead of doing every account by hand, she proposed picking a ballpark number for all multi-use building owners and three lots of $91 for all vacant building owners.

A vote was called on the initial motion, which passed with Marchant, Stevenson and Brooks voting for it.

This story was published Oct. 16, 2025.