The Cave Creek Town Council on Tuesday put plans in motion to increase the water rate for customers of Cave Creek Water, Desert Hills Water and Cave CreekWastewater system.
The 7-0 vote to increase the rate by 6% will results in water bill increases to most of the 5,500 customers Cave Creek serves.
The votes sets in motion the process to increase the rates in February of 2026. A written report will be released to the town’s customer on Nov. 7, and a public hearing on the rate increase will take place Jan. 6, 2026 with adoption of the rate increase at that meeting.
Also included in the rate increase is a new tiered system, where the top level comes cown from 50,000 gallons per month to 40,000 and creates a new tier from 0 to 4,000 gallons per month.
The council decided against adding a water resource fee, which was first discussed in the Oct. 15 work study session, saying it needed more real data to decide whether a resource fee should be added to customers’ bills.
The council also decided against going to a seasonal rate, seeing that there was not much change to customers’ bills, with the rate on increasing minimally, and councilmembers decided there wasn’t enough gain in revenues to justify the seasonal rate.
“I mean, we’ve squeezed blood from that turnip already. So I think 6%’s a pretty reasonable increase based on the cost we’re incurring,” councilmemeber Dusty Rhoades said.
The residential customers in the first three tiers under Cave Creek water will see a modest 3-4% increase while the top end customers will see between a 17-19% increase in their bill. Cave Creek water has nearly 2,000 customers, with nearly 1,850 customer within the first three tiers of the new plan. Cave Creek Water also has 200 commercial customers, who will also see their rates increased as well.
Most customers on the Desert Hills water system, however, will see a decrease in their bills, between 1 and 7%. Customers at the highest tiers on Desert Hills water will see a 1% increase in their bills.
Of Desert Hills’ 1,800 customers, just over 1,500 of its customers would see the decrease in their bill.
Mayor Robert Morris and Rhoades couldn’t figure out why there are residential customers that are using an acre foot of water (approximtely 325,000 gallons) per month.
“It just seems like that’s problematic,” Rhoades said. “Particularly as we’re facing massive shortages here. We need to talk to anybody that’s over 40,000 gallons.”
“There’s a difference between commercial and residential in my view because the problem in Arizona is outdoor water use,” Morris added. “And when you’re that high, it’s highly unlikely that you’re using that much water indoor.”
Rhoades asked Cave Creek Utilites Service Director Shawn Kreuzwiesner if there was a way to control the highest users from using too much water.
“There are actually some jurisdictions who through conservation have actually given customers both instances,” Kreuzwiesner said. “One example we looked into is actually in California where they go out with their customers and actually give them a yearly annual balance, and if they go over that and they don’t throttle back after being notified three times they’ll actually go put a reducer on.”
Utiliies Advisory Committee chairman William Sullivan expressed concern over the fact the committee did not have much say when it came to setting the rates and wopuld like to see more interaction between the committee and the council in the next rate study.
“One of the things that we would ask in the next go around is to create a process that we can be involved in, and that means seeing the data that they’re considering before they come up with recommendations to you so we can have input right away,” Sullivan said. “We never saw a cost of service study. We never saw what customers were using what so that we could help really define what rates should be proposed.”
“So it’s pretty important to keep us involved if you want a meaningful recommendation from the committee,” Sullivan added.
Sullivan said the committee was supportive of the recommendations brought forth to the council from the previous work study.
“We are supportive of the 6% increase for both systems and the 4,000 gallons as a separate tier and moving to 40,000 is the main one,” Sullivan said.
Meet Jeff Jeff Wendt started at Independent Newsmedia in January 2023, after 25 years working for Gannett and The Arizona Republic. Started as a high school sports scoretaker, worked up to reporting high school sports and then became an associate high school sports editor in 2002. Also worked in the Design Studio as a copy editor.
Community: Jeff serves on the Board of Elders at his local church.
Education: Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication
Random fact: Attended Game 2 of the 2001 World Series.
Hobbies: Playing video games (yes still the kid in me), watching reality TV, playing poker.
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