Mt. Charleston Water Co. to boost water rates 34 percent

Friday, Jan. 2, 1998 | 9:51 a.m.

You can bet the faucets won't be allowed to drip overnight at the Mt. Charleston Hotel and Restaurant this year.

The Nevada Public Utility Commission earlier this week authorized the Mt. Charleston Water Co. to boost water rates by 34 percent.

The resort at 2 Kyle Canyon Road -- it also is known as the Mt. Charleston Inn -- uses 73 percent of the water supplied by the water company that has just 20 customers, the commission said.

As a result, the two-tier water rate for the hotel, which is a popular winter wonderland getaway as well as an oasis from the Las Vegas valley's sweltering summer heat, will rise sharply. Its flat-rate fee will go from $28 to $447 a month and the per-gallon cost will climb from $3.28 to $3.82.

"We are not sure what the impact is going to be at this time, so I really cannot comment on it right now," said Wes Lang, in-house counsel for Budget Suites of America, the corporate office for the hotel.

"We filed a protest when the rate-increase request was submitted several months ago."

The Mt. Charleston Lodge, which is much higher up the mountain from the Mt. Charleston Hotel and Restaurant, gets its water from the Las Vegas Valley Water District, and thus won't be affected by the increase.

The commission's decision, reached Tuesday in Carson City and televised by closed-circuit TV to Las Vegas, means that the Mt. Charleston Water Co.'s 16 residential customers will pay 7 percent more each month, a cost increase from $28 to $30.

Two of the other three businesses also will pay 7 percent increases. The other commercial customer, the Metro Police substation, operates under a separate contract and will pay no rate increase, the commission said.

The Mt. Charleston Water Co. had requested a water-rate increase of 76 percent and a sewer-rate hike of 41 percent. The commission limited the water-rate increase to less than half of what was sought and ruled that there was no evidence to support any rise in sewer rates.

Attempts to reach a spokesman for the water company were not successful.

The water-rate hike will mean an additional $8,173 a year in revenue for the company. Of that figure, $5,028 will be paid by the Mt. Charleston Hotel and Restaurant in flat-rate fees alone.

SUN REPORTER Cy Ryan contributed to this report.