Council approves water rate hike

PRESCOTT – Customers of Prescott’s city and rural water system will be seeing higher bills soon.

In its December meeting, Monday night, the Prescott City Council approved rate hikes on both systems. This was done because both the city and rural water system have been operating in a deficit situation. Perry Nelson, water superintendent, said he’s been talking about the situation with City Accountant Carl Dalrymple and officer manager Bruce Bean, along with Prescott Mayor Terry Oliver. Nelson showed them figures where the water rates should be in order for the systems to operate in the black.

Nelson pointed out the cost of everything has gone up while the rates have remained unchanged. Additionally, he said, the city had to deal with the problem of the intake valve at the river. “We can’t keep operating at a loss.” He reminded the council the law requires all city water departments to do a budget study every three to five years. He added the state approved Act 605 which will require water departments to operate within their budgets. Nelson said Prescott isn’t currently working under Act 605, but will be eventually.

He continued, telling the panel the rural system has seen an increase in members which adds to the operating expense while the rates have been unchanged. “The last increase was in 2017 and prices are crazy now. We can’t pay more without more income. We need help to operate within our budget and stay in the black instead of the red.”

Councilman Susie Meeks asked if there were no other way to do this. She was told there isn’t. The council discussed whether the two ordinances needed to be done during the meeting or if they could be postponed until January. Oliver said they needed to be done at the meeting. Dalrymple reminded the council the city can’t begin the new year with a deficit budget by law, pointing out this would be the case at this time.

Dalrymple was blunt in telling the council people won’t be happy with the budget, which will have a lot of cuts.

Councilman Howard Austin said he’s concerned with the rate situation and knows it needs to be publicized once. He said a lot of people won’t understand why the rates are increasing, adding there will be a lot of comments from the public on it. The public, he said, should know we’ve been putting this off a long time. There was discussion on how to let the public know about the increase. Councilman Patricia Roberts suggested putting a note in light bills or on the bills to let people know. Larry Jones, Jr., said this could be done, but it would take a full month or more to get the information to all customers as there are three cycles in the city and one for rural water.

City Attorney Glenn Vasser reminded the council the ordinances contain an emergency clause making them go into effect immediately after passage.

The discussion went back and forth, with the council approving both ordinances.

For rural water customers the rates will be as follows: for a 3/4 inch line, $35,76 per month; one inch, $36.20 per month; two inch, $39.661 per month; three inch, $42.06; four inch, $44.81 per month; six inch, $50.31 per month. For services exceeding six inches, the basic monthly service fee will be determined based on the cost of the meter setting divided by 25 plush $8 for operation and maintenance.

For customers of the city’s water system the rates break down into residential and commercial fees. For a 3/4 inch meter, residential will be $21.63 per month, while commercial will be $23.61 monthly; a one inch line will be $22.29 residential and $24.27 commercial; a 1.25 inch line will be $22.95 residential and $24.93 commercial; a 1.5 inch line will be $23.61 residential and $25.59 commercial; and a two inch line will be $25.59 residential and $27.90 commercial. Plus $3 per 1,000 gallons of water used.

The news didn’t get any better when the council was informed sometime next year the city will also have to go up on its trash collection fees as well.

In other business, Jamie Hillery, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce, updated the council on the Chamber’s activities of late, saying it’s been a busy holiday season and the Chamber was able to provide a lot for the community. She said with the COVID pandemic waning, people are starting to schedule coffees again.

The first coffee of 2023 will be Curry’s Community Outreach Coffee on Jan. 5 from 9:30-11 a.m. at the library, followed by a ribbon cutting at New For You at Arkla Circle in Emmet in Jan. 11 at 10 a.m., with Southern Pines hosting a coffee on Jan. 24 at the nursing home from 9:30-11 a.m.

Mary Godwin, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, provided the panel with before and after pictures of houses that have been torn down. She said work had to stop because of wet weather, but will resume when things dry up.

Prescott Police Chief Ann Jordan told the council the Prescott Police Department had three officers go through the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy (ALETA) and graduate – Tyler Hicks, Zach Prince and Mae McKinnon. She introduced Alicia Page as the new secretary, replacing Tammie Rose who was elected Nevada County Clerk.

Jordan said an officer has been through the class on car seat installation and can show people how to safely install car seats for children. In addition, the PPD can now apply for grants to buy car seats for the needy. Another officer will be going through this training in January. She continued saying the department received a grant for the K-9 project and has ordered supplies. The next step will be buying the dog and sending an officer to drug interdiction class. She wrapped up telling the panel the PPD’s Blue Santa program Saturday was a success and put smiles on a lot of faces.

As the meeting wound down, Austin asked about a replacement for Vasser who will be retiring at the end of the year. Vasser reminded the council he tendered his letter of resignation last February to give the city plenty of time to find his replacement. He pointed out city attorney is an elected position, but no one runs for it. Vasser agreed to help the new attorney with the transition, saying there’s a lot of complex legal problems the city faces.