Utility bills headed for high water mark

La Conner’s Town Council will be faced with an agonizing task in the near future: they must ask their constituents to pay more for utilities.

Residents should brace themselves and perhaps start budgeting for a sticker shock that could hit with the April water bills.

The town’s water mains and sewer lines are starting to fall apart, and the costs to maintain them have outpaced the yearly rise in utility bills. On top of that, the price charged by the town’s water supplier, the city of Anacortes, has been rising yearly.

Presently, a La Conner home that uses 500 cubic feet of water per month pays...