Scottsville city officials acknowledge, explain rising cost of water bills - WBKO

Scottsville city officials acknowledge, explain rising cost of water bills

SCOTTSVILLE, Ky. (WBKO) - Scottsville residents have reported unexpectedly high water bills in recent months, with some doubling their typical billing amount, though city officials say this is to be expected with recent rate raises and updated water meters.

Last year, the city set out on an improved infrastructure project that included the installation of new ‘Smart Meters’ throughout the city.

“And one of the things that the smart meters are doing is that they’re accurately reading the amount of water that you’re using. I think a lot of the older meters, not all of them, obviously, but a lot of them were operating at sometimes 20%, sometimes they weren’t operating at all,” explained Mayor David Burch.

“We found meters that weren’t even operating, so people were using water, they were still paying a minimum bill, but they could’ve been using two or three times as much, so that’s some of the cases there,” he continued.

Prior to the new meters’ installation, 53% of the city’s water was unrevenued, and showed inaccurate readings of household water consumption. When new meters were installed, customers saw an increase in their bills despite their water consumption remaining unchanged.

After the meters’ installation, Burch and other city officials met with representatives from the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority (KIA).

KIA provides loans to the city to improve infrastructure, though with the lack of funding through years of inaccurate water readings, KIA representatives could not approve an upcoming loan for Scottsville city improvements.

However, because the city had not incrementally increased utility prices to reflect inflation, KIA recommended a dramatic rate increase.

“Basically, they recommended a 35% rate increase. And that’s the minimum we could get by on an increase to get into a financial position and cash flow to where KIA would probably go ahead and approve our loan based on what we wanted to do,” Burch explained.

In the months leading to the rate increase in July, Burch recalls inviting the public to city council meetings that discussed the increase, as well as advertising it in the Citizen Times, on the Scottsville Mayor podcast and on radio stations.

The 35% rate increase impacted both water and sewer utilities for all Scottsville water customers in August, and for every subsequent month since then. However, many residents say they did not see a substantial increase until recently, and they believe that their doubled rates are unrelated to the expected changes from the meters and rate increase.

“If it was anything to do with the new meters picking up a reading correctly, it should’ve happened a long time ago, not just within the last couple of months. If it was a rate increase, it should’ve happened in August, again, not just in the last couple of months,” Scottsville resident Robin Russell explained. “This is something that’s just been happening to everybody just in the last month or two, so no. I don’t think this has anything to do with the new meters being put on or the rate increase.”

Russell shared that for many Scottsville families on a fixed income, the change has led to them to make sacrifices in their daily life and seek assistance from Allen County Community Action.

“You know, you’re budgeting for a certain number of bills, and at the end of the month you get ready to pay your bills and all of the sudden, boom. You’re hit with a bill that’s double what it would usually cost, and you’re not ready for that, because then you have to give up on something,” Russell shared.

Burch shared that in the future, he plans to make additional efforts to relay clear communication to residents when changes are expected to be made to utility prices.

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