The City Council approved the $85,000 utility advisor contract to GHD, Inc. on Wednesday, including allowing the costs to be tentatively taken from the water utility fund.

At the conclusion of the contract, city staff will review the hours spent on particular parts of the project to determine what might be appropriate to allocate to other funds.

Arlene Buetow, vice chair of the city Utility Advisory Committee, expressed her concern that it is not appropriate to charge water customers the full cost of the consultant contract when many of the questions and work addressed will provide answers for the community as a whole and would merit general fund support.