Rocky Top water, sewer rates will rise
Rocky Top utility bills will rise $30 to $50 a month for most customers beginning in October, thanks to an ordinance given final approval by the City Council in a special meeting on Monday afternoon (Aug. 28).
As with the first reading of the rate-increase ordinance on Aug. 17, the council voted 4-1 to raise the rates, after holding a public hearing that was attended by only one person besides the council and city staff.
Councilman Zack Green, who was the only “no” vote on both readings of the ordinance, was also the only person to speak during the hearing in opposition to the rate increase.
“We live in an impoverished community,” he said. “People can’t afford this.”
Green said a utility customer using about 4,700 gallons of water a month, as his household does, will see the utility bill rise to $155, up from about $120. The bill includes water, sewer and trash-collection services ($17).
“That’s about what I will pay, but my research shows that a typical family of four uses more than 10,000 gallons of water a month,” Green said.
Mayor Kerry Templin said the water and sewer rate increases are necessary to keep up with inflation, which is causing operating expenses to rise.
“This is not a significant increase,” he said. “But it is going to cost people more. It’s something we have to do to maintain the integrity of our system.”
Templin also said the city “needs more manpower” to operate the system and keep it maintained.
Green argued that the increase was not based on any professional estimates, but only on the calculations of the city staff.
He asked again Monday that the rate increase be delayed until outside consultants could determine how big they should be to keep the city’s water and sewer systems operating in the black.
“We don’t need to raise the rates more than they need to be,” he said.
Councilwoman Stacey Phillips made the motion to approve the rate increases, and her motion was seconded by Councilman Mack Bunch.
City Manager Mike Ellis told the council that the rates “will have to go up 6% again next year,” too.
Rocky Top had already been identified as having the highest water and sewer rates in the region, according to a study by the Clinton Utilities Board that was presented to the Anderson County Commission last year.
The city buys its fresh water from the Anderson County Water Authority, but distributes it through its own system to residential and commercial customers.
But Rocky Top operates its own wastewater treatment plant and collection system, which is now in the middle of a major upgrade that is costing millions of dollars.
Most of the cost is being paid from grants, however.