The amount Big Lagoon-ers pay for their water has a chance of tripling by 2029, and much of that’s for paying off salaries.

The Big Lagoon Community Services District, the organization tasked with supplying water to the 42 houses on Roundhouse Creek Road (plus Big Lagoon Elementary), announced recently that it’s going to attempt to increase water rates by a large margin. It’s currently $0.005519 per gallon, plus a $54.61 monthly flat fee; if the rate increase goes through, by November 2029, it’ll be $0.035 per gallon, and the flat fee will be $125. 

Example: according to a water rate study Arcata conducted last year, the average single-family household uses about 3,740 gallons of water every month. Right now, that would cost one of the district’s customers $75.25. In late 2029, the same amount would cost $255. 

The increase is structured to go up a little bit every year. If the increase is adopted by its board of directors later this month, the flat fee will immediately go to $95 per month in November, plus the per gallon “variable” charge will rise to $0.025. Multifamily connections will cost a little more.

There’s also a new charge included for users that consume more than 8,000 gallons of water in a two-month billing cycle; they’ll pay an additional $0.015 per gallon in November, and, by late 2029, an added $0.025, for a grand sum of $0.06 per gallon plus the monthly $125. 

Ratepayers eligible for the discount utilities programs CARE or FERA will get a monthly $30 discount.

Why the jump? The district claims it’s because of various infrastructure projects they need to complete to keep everything running smoothly. “The costs of water, energy, labor, safety, liability insurance and other aspects of providing a reliable water supply have all increased,” the district wrote in a notice sent to its customers, so it needs to “invest in water storage infrastructure to make sure that all State and Federal regulations continue to be met.” Plus, there are several waterlines and “dilapidated” fire hydrants that have outlived their usefulness, break often and need fixing. In October 2024, a water leak at the school wasted 10,000 gallons and the district was forced to replace six toilets. The district still managed to finish 2025 with $123,235 in its checking and savings accounts.

The district also needs to increase the amount of water it can store on-hand, both for day-to-day operations and if firefighters need it. It may need to purchase another water tank; it currently has two that hold 5,000 gallons apiece. It owns three wells; only two of them put out any water at all, and one of them only spits out five gallons an hour. Keeping the infrastructure functioning until a (as-of-now hypothetical) grant can fix it is expensive.

But the district’s not planning on spending too much on materials. According to a chart it published, roughly $34,000 of its projected 2030 budget will be spent on things like maintenance, parts, water testing, utilities, et cetera. Its biggest expense, by far, is personnel costs: an estimated $44,000 for the general manager, $27,000 for a water distribution operator, another $4,000 for accounting services. That’s new for the district, which until last year was entirely volunteer-run. Members of the board of directors walked around and read meters by hand; their emails to one another show a chummy approach to the job. “Gus you are a real gentleman,” its treasurer, Louise Minor, wrote in May last year to a staff member, Gus Satein. He’d picked up some files taking up space in a retiring board member’s garage. “Thank-you so much.” (“You are kind Louise…🌞” he replied.)

Satein seemed bullish on keeping the operations going as they had been, commending the board members and staff for their hard work. But they were in a bind; keeping the district functioning was a lot of work, and now they were down another member: their chair, Dick Maeir, another volunteer. A five-person board was down to three. It barely met quorum. They needed someone to share the load, they felt, so they hired a manager in fall last year.

Their new general manager, Jennie Short — also Blue Lake’s city manager — seems to be an old hand at this line of work: a form she filed with the state when she joined the California Intergovernmental Risk Authority’s board of directors shows she made $25,800 in 2025 from Redway’s Community Services District in consulting fees, plus another $241,000 from the Garberville Sanitary District. She was its project manager in the early 2010s. 

Short charges $100 an hour plus expenses as the district’s manager, which, she wrote to the board, is what she charged Garberville, Redway, and the McKinleyville Community Services District. Her salary takes up close to half of the district’s projected budget: $44,000 out of $115,185 in the projected 2030 budget. (She may not end up actually earning all of that; her contract only covers actual hours worked.) A part-time water distributions operator takes up another $27,000.

Minor, the district’s volunteer bookkeeper, indicated last year that she wanted to “transition out of” her treasurer and finance duties, according to the minutes from the board’s October meeting. They’d have to find another one. In August, the district hired another consultant from the firm Short owns, 4Js Consulting: her daughter Josephine. She makes $50 an hour keeping the books. According to her resume, she’s currently completing classes at Cal Poly Humboldt after getting an associate’s degree from College of the Redwoods. This year’s accounting expense is $2,000; it’s projected to be $4,000 in 2030. (The minutes note that organizations should separate financial duties “so no single person controls an entire financial transaction from start to finish. This system of checks and balances prevents fraud, catches accidental mistakes early, and ensures public accountability.”)

A pro bono study done by the consulting firm GHD last year noted that the district’s main expenses were the new wages. “For FY 2026, budgeted expenses are projected to rise by 100%, reaching approximately $105,000 compared to the prior range of $40,000–$45,000. This significant increase is primarily attributed to the addition of new part-time positions, including a General Manager and Water Operator, as well as the limited availability of volunteer resources. These higher expenses constitute a principal factor in the proposed rate adjustments discussed in subsequent sections of this report.”

Even with the new expenses, the district still estimates it’ll net $21,772 in 2030 if the proposed rates go through, bringing its total net profit from 2026-2030 to $6,612. It could also choose to lower the rates then. It’s also not guaranteed to happen at all; by law, if more than half of the people responsible for paying the water bill send a hard copy letter of protest, or attend the district’s hearing on Oct. 17 and file their letter there, the rates can’t be raised.

There are some benefits to increasing the costs. It might incentivize people to keep their water usage down, according to the GHD study, and it’s good for the district’s long-term solvency. “The planned transition to a new tiered rate system represents a critical opportunity to promote fairness, encourage responsible water use, and improve long-term financial stability.”

One Big Lagoon resident, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid potential retaliation, told the Outpost they were worried about how it’d affect the district’s poorer customers. “As a customer, this could be the difference between putting food on my table or paying my water bill,” they wrote. “With the rising costs of groceries, gas, etc., this massive jump in my water bill is going to push me to a breaking point. This is not reasonable.” 

They also wrote a letter admonishing the district for making it unclear what infrastructure upgrades the customers would fund and when they’d finish. It doesn’t seem fair, they wrote, that the biggest singular expense on the balance sheet should be paying someone’s salary. “It is the writer’s belief that a collaborative approach and the use of existing available services and partnerships, in addition to outsourcing accounting responsibilities, could meet the administrative needs of the General Manager position without requiring a $40,000 contract.”

Taken at face value, the story is almost mawkishly simple: a consultant comes in, asks for a lot of money, hires her daughter, and screws over the powerless residents. But many of Big Lagoon residents are fine with paying more for their water, Short told the Outpost. The volunteers were “amazing,” she said, and it was “astounding” that they kept it up for 25 years. But the system wasn’t working well any longer; the board members were getting old and quitting, and no one was willing to take their places. Short made it clear when she took the job that hiring her would double the rates, but they wanted to do it anyway. She had “reservations,” she said, and she was concerned about how the new rates would affect the area’s poorer residents. Splitting a $44,000 salary amongst 43 customers, plus the water operator’s $18,000 — the math doesn’t work out well in their favor.

“I would truly be happy to step down if they do not want to have the rate increase,” she said. “I have no attachment to staying there. I did it because I cared about their district, and I wanted to help them. This is not a big money maker for me. I have another full time job.” 

Short tried to find someone else to do the bookkeeping work, she said, but no one wanted to take on a piddling $2,000 contract. It was the board’s choice to hire Josie, not hers. And they need someone who can afford to take the time to write grant proposals that could allow them to purchase a new water tank and fix the water line to Big Lagoon Elementary School, plus keep the district’s aging infrastructure working. That’ll cost millions, she said, and no matter how high they raise the water rates, those alone cannot cover them. 

Big Lagoon will have to keep waiting for a state-funded cash injection, Short said. Her most recent grant proposal was denied.

The district did not respond to a request for comment.