Ammon addresses residents’ water questions
It was standing-room-only in Ammon Thursday night, as hundreds of residents came to ask the city council about the city’s new metered water system. People filled city hall and the adjacent overflow in the fire station.
Mayor Sean Colletti walked through the entire history of the project, as outlined in a letter mailed to residents a couple of weeks ago. 
One concern voiced by residents focused on how the city was using revenue from the metered billing. Officials explained that water revenues were used within the water department only, as required by law.
City Administrator Micah Austin said Ammon is taking steps to ease the impact, especially during summer months. The city has already adopted a secondary irrigation requirement. It requires all new developments to build a pressurized irrigation system that would use less expensive, untreated, surface irrigation water for watering lawns and gardens.
He says the city has extensive water rights that are largely unused by the city.
Ammon has contracted with engineers to design and build the first pressurized irrigation system. That could be online for new developments by as early as next spring. Eventually, that kind of system could be made available to other neighborhoods in the future.
Austin said the city welcomed the opportunity to explain its metered-billing system and may hold future meetings for people who missed the Thursday night session.
