Benton residents will see an increase in their water rates, effective Aug. 1.
Benton City Council on Monday adopted a 50-cent price increase on water usage in a 5-1 vote Monday during a regularly-scheduled council meeting at City Hall. Councilman Justin Lamb opposed the measure.
The rate hike serves to shore up a $41,865 budget shortfall in the city’s water and sewer department incurred from line repair and replacement, as well as set back funds in reserve for future projects. Councilmen heard the first reading of the ordinance last month, after having initially considered a 20-cent hike for services. The 20-cent hike would have covered the department shortfall, but only just.
“We have no money for this extra stuff, we’re just breaking even,” Councilwoman Rita Murray said in the June 12 council meeting. “If we have a major line blow out from one end of town to the other, we don’t have any money in reserve to pay for that. … Constantly, somebody’s having to boil water. These lines, they can only band-aid them so long. When these band-aids blow out, you’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, if we could every year put a little bit back, say $100,000 a year back, for future repairs and things, it wouldn’t hurt.”
New residential rates in Benton city limits will go to $3.50 per 1,000 gallons of water; West Marshall and other customers outside city limits can expect to pay $4 per 1,000 gallons of water used. Base bills have not changed.
The council also voted unanimously to increase rates on those services related to water and sewer that fall outside normal business hours. Service calls to turn water meters on or off that fall on weekends, holidays or otherwise outside standard business hours will increase from $60 to $75, per the ordinance amendment.
The charge for service calls to determine if a sewer blockage is in the city sewer line or a customer’s service line increased as well, from $25 to $50. Sewer department service calls occurring outside business hours were set at a minimum $100 fee. In addition, the ordinance calls for the city to clean out only city sewer lines; and the city will assess a $10 fee to replace a customer’s sewer cleanout cap.
Benton City Hall employees and regular visitors will see some improvements to the building in the coming months, as well. The council voted to accept $76,318 labor and materials bid for repairs to City Hall from the Hardin-based company West Kentucky Specialties, which submitted the only project bid. The council budgeted up to $100,000 in the 2018 fiscal year to cover expenses on the project. Mayor Rita Dotson said it was a little more than she’d hoped to spend, but facility repairs were necessary.
“The outside walls, as you notice, it’s falling apart,” Dotson said. “It has holes, it has cracks; the paint is gone. It’s just looking pretty ragged.”
Dotson said work would include repairing holes and cracks in the structure, a full skim coat on the building, two coats of specialized paint designed to preserve the work and layer of sealant to finish. Dotson said the building should have had a seal coat applied about every five years to preserve its integrity.
“Hopefully we can keep a schedule in the calendar some way,” Dotson said. “Whoever is here can keep a schedule in the calender and a reminder set in five years and get somebody up here to put a sealer on this building so that we don’t get in this shape. … We looked at bricking it, and we can’t find any original plans where the building was remodeled. So, there’s no way to know – brick is so heavy – you don’t know what kind of footer you’re putting it on or anything like that. The brick layer recommended not doing it.”
Original plans for City Hall were rendered and housed at CMS Architects, which had previously burned, Dotson said.
And the council voted to appoint City Treasurer Bethany Cooper as the new city clerk, effective Aug. 1. Cooper replaces long-time city clerk Michele Edwards, who will retire July 31. Dotson said the city will hire a part-time assistant to Cooper, who will assume the main duties of both the clerk and treasurer in the new consolidated role.
In other business, the council:
- Commissioned a $4,500 hydrological analysis to be conducted by DLZ Corporation to look at waterflow on the Fairways prior to replacing culverts to alleviate flooding;
- accepted a planning commission recommendation to rezone lots 21 and 22 in the Southland Estates Subdivision on Tara Court to an R2 residential district for multi-family housing;
- transferred $100,000 from the Benton Gas Department fund to the city’s general fund for the repair of Master’s Circle; and
- opened the Joe Creason Community Center from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday as a cooling center this week in anticipation of extreme temperatures this week.