The City Council of Webster City this evening will consider a resolution to increase electricity rates by 3% for fiscal year 2026 rather than the usual 1% per year increase the city has seen since 2017.

The proposed increase would apply to both base and energy use rates for all classes of users.

The council will meet in the council chambers of City Hall, 400 Second Street. The meeting begins at 6 p.m.

A memorandum in the meeting’s council packet cites a 2.3% increase in the cost of electricity from Corn Belt Power Co-Op of Humboldt for the proposed increase. Corn Belt, formed in 1947, is owned by commercial and industrial electricity users and residents in rural areas and small towns in 41 counties across northern Iowa.

The proposed 3% increase would cover the increases passed along by Corn Belt, as well as expenses related to the city’s locally-owned electric utility.

The increase cannot be approved until it passes three public readings, so opportunities remain for citizens and taxpayers to comment on the increase and how it might impact them before actually seeing it reflected in monthly bills.

Also on the agenda this evening is a measure that would see the city issue new general obligation bonds in the amount of $2.82 million to pay for Phase 2 of the Fair Meadow Drive reconstruction project, and buy a new street sweeper and snow plow. If approved the new bonds would go on sale in September 2025.

The council is also expected to decide whether to support an application for an Iowa Economic Development Authority workforce housing tax credit application by Ankeny-based HQ Homes. The developer, which has also gone by the name Quirk Development, proposes to build a 33- or 40-unit project it describes as a single story, zero-entry (i.e. no steps) senior housing center on a 96,000-square-foot lot as part of the Lynx Development, which is near the Van Diest Medical Center. More details on the development are expected to be available at tonight’s meeting.

Finally, what’s being referred to as a “very favorable” base bid for the fiscal year 2026 Hot Melt Asphalt (HMA) paving program, may allow up to $150,000 to be spent on further HMA paving in the city this summer. Street Department Supervisor Brandon Bahrenfuss will present two options to the council for its consideration. The first would fund HMA improvements to five- to six-block stretches of Union, Water and Walnut streets in residential neighborhoods; the second would see 750 feet of asphalt paving on Industrial Park Road in the city’s northwest industrial park.