Rocky Top leak insurance offered Water/sewer coverage begins Feb. 1
Water- and sewer-line breakage and leak insurance will begin Feb. 1 for Rocky Top residential customers.
There will be a monthly fee of $2.35 for water and an additional $2.35 for sewer coverage (for those with sewer service) to be added to each customer’s utility bill.
Customers are allowed to decline the insurance coverage and avoid the extra monthly insurance charges, but they must go to City Hall and sign a form, City Manager Mike Ellis said during last Thursday night’s City Council meeting.
Anyone who doesn’t sign the form to opt out of the coverage will see the additional charge of up to $4.70 on their bills starting in February.
But opting out of the insurance means that utility customers will no longer be allowed to have leak adjustments made to their bills by the City Council, as they have been in the past.
For instance, at last week’s meeting, the council approved a total of $1,046 in leak adjustments for five sewer customers, including one at high as $412 and another for $348.
Ellis said the insurance would pay up to two claims a year, for a total of $2,500, per residential customer for high water and sewer bills caused by leaks.
Still to be worked out is how the city will handle giving customers sewer bill adjustments for filling their swimming pools. The way billing operates, customers’ sewer bills are calculated from how much water they use, with the theory being that most water used in the household goes down the sewer.
But that doesn’t happen with water for swimming pools, so the city traditionally has adjusted bills to deduct the amount that went into filling the pool. Mayor Kerry Templin said he would like to see that policy continued.
Ellis also noted that the leak insurance does not apply to commercial water and sewer customers, including the city’s motels.
He said he would talk with the insurance carrier to find out whether there is a program that commercial customers could participate in.
