Water, Sewer Rates Explained During Kingsland Meeting

KINGSLAND - After customers finally got to see what their water and sewer bills will be like after the rate hike with the arrival of their January bills in early February, Kingsland Mayor Sharon Crosby invited the engineer who recommended the new rates to explain the situation to what she anticipated would be a large crowd at last-Thursday's Kingsland City Council.Crosby said last week she had received several calls about the new bills so she expected a large crowd to be on hand for last Thursday's meeting. Instead, only five members from the public attended, and three of those were there to specifically address the water bills.Crosby had Trey Foster of Civil Engineering Associates of Conway to attend the meeting to explain why the January bills were more than doubled what they were the previous month. Foster conducted the water and sewer rate study for the city.Last November, the Kingsland City Council approved the new rate structure recommended by Foster following his rate study.For water, the base rate increased from $17 to $34 per month, and the cost for each findings during the October city council meeting. He said the average customer in Kingsland uses about 3,000 gallons of water per month. Based on that average, Foster said the monthly cost for both water and sewer combined would be about $115.Crosby gave Foster an opportunity to explain the reasons behind the rate increase during last week's meeting. He said Kingsland, like several small towns across the state, is having to make major adjustments to their water and sewer rates to put them in compliance with Act 605 of 2021. The act requires every public water system in the state to conduct a rate study, with the smaller systems like Kingsland having the earliest deadlines to meet.That rate study determines much money is required to operate and maintain the system, plus have enough in reserve to make repairs or replace the system in the future. Following those gui...