Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 1994 TAG: 9402090204
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: CURRENT EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The plan would be considered for adoption at council's April 5 meeting.
Councilman Andy Graham recommended the town not wait for its recommended July 1 date to make the rate changes. At a council workshop Tuesday morning, he said the town's aging water system needs work as soon as possible.
``The quicker we put this in, the quicker these things can be addressed,'' he said.
The recommendation had been to raise rates by 5 percent by mid-1994 and by another 5 percent in mid-1995. A major raise of 24 percent, based on an interim recommendation by consultants Ernst & Young, had been approved in October.
The revenue, along with Farmers Home Administration loans, would fund $1.5 million in improvements needed by the system The report presented Feb. 1 also recommended changing the town's seven-tier pricing system to three. Instead of low-volume users having to pay for at least 3,000 gallons a month whether they used them or not, customers would pay for what they use with high-volume industrial customers still getting a break in the third tier.
Council did not make much progress at Tuesday's workshop in studying the report from Ernst & Young, and scheduled another for 7:30 a.m. Thursday.
Most of the time was spent debating the form of the information provided in the report and what it meant. Councilman Don Crispin, who said he would prefer a two-tier pricing system, wanted more details on what the rate structure would mean to customers at all parts of the scale.
Based on the consultant's report Feb. 1, he said, ``I really don't see in this that this is going to place a greater burden on industry.''
``Were you at the same meeting I was?'' Mayor Gary Hancock asked. Hancock said most of the increases would be on industry.
``All this is a balancing act,'' Hancock said. ``We could increase the rates on industry so that they would use little or [not] any water,'' he said, which would put all the burden on residential customers.
Assistant Town Manager Rob Lyons noted that some homes would actually see a lower bills.
``The only ones who are going to decrease are those using less than 3,000 gallons,'' Crispin said.
``That's 25 percent of our population,'' Councilman Junior Black said.
by CNB