The city of Bend is revising how it will calculate sewer and water rates. Although many residential customers may end up paying less, households and businesses should check it out for themselves.

The Bend City Council has not made any final decision about the rate system. Councilors decided Wednesday night to put an option out for the community to consider. This particular change isn’t about collecting more revenue. It’s basically designed to create a system that is more equitable across customer classes. Within that goal, though, there are still a lot of choices to be made.

The first thing you should know is that many residential customers would pay less under the new proposal.

For water, the 400-cubic-foot allowance for $22.36 would be eliminated. The volume charge of $1.68 per 100 cubic feet would also be changed.

The proposal has a base fee of $17.02. No water is included in the base fee. Customers would pay for every 100 cubic feet of water. The volume charge would be $2.07 per 100 cubic feet.

For sewer, the residential flat charge of $48.36 per month would be eliminated.

The new charge is related to volume used for indoor use. There would be a new base charge of $31 a month for a single family residence. There would be a volume charge for $3.25 per 100 cubic feet. The city does not have a way of measuring sewer volume so would use a proxy of winter water use. The strength of the discharge will also be taken into account for businesses.

How is this going to affect you?

The city is planning an open house to better explain the changes Nov. 13 at City Hall from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., noon to 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The city is also going to put up a rate calculator on its website so customers can decipher what it means to them.

The city can tweak its proposal. For instance, the city picked this water-rate alternative because the higher volume charge encourages more conservation. The city also could implement its extra strength charge for sewer more quickly. Any change in the system is not likely to go into effect until next year. Businesses, in particular, may be in for the biggest changes.

There is already a bunch of information at http://bendoregon.gov/utilityrates. Tell the city what you think.