NEW EDINBURG - The West Saline Water Users Association at New Edinburg has announced a public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 18, at the New Edinburg Community Center to discuss the possible merger of the West Saline, Outside Kingsland and City of Kingsland water systems.Preliminary discussions between the three public water systems has been ongoing over the past few months, though no official decisions have been made. The discussion of merging the three public water systems comes in the wake of Act 605, which is a new state law the requiring each public water provider in the state to implement rate structures that will not only pay for the systems, but also create a surplus for money that will be used to upgrade or replace the system in the future.The City of Kingsland has seen its water rates double this year as a resulted of the new rates determined by its rate study. West Saline has added some to its base rate in anticipation of a need to possibly raise its rates.Trey Foster of Civil Engineer Associates of Conway told the Kingsland City Council last month that he did not know what impact a merger of the three systems would have on current rates, but he said it would prevent the need for more significant rate increases in the future.Foster said during that meeting that he is researching what rates would be should all three water systems merge into one....
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