City Council eyes higher utility rates

Staff report



THOMASVILLE — The Thomasville City Council considered new rates for several Thomasville Utilities services at its Dec. 14 meeting.

Adjustments considered include those to natural gas, water, sewer, solid waste and cable television rates.

Assistant City Manager of Utilities Don Atkinson said the rate adjustments were necessary to cover rising costs of materials, services and maintenance.

“For many years we have been able to expand our customer base and develop new service offerings to spread our costs and prevent rate increases,” he said in a city news release.

“The current economic downtown has slowed our growth somewhat and forced us to look at adjusting rates to maintain our current level of service to our customers.”

Assistant City Manager of Customer Service Lynn Williams said the city uses independent surveys when benchmarking rates, such as the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority and the Georgia Public Service Commission.

“We use these independent surveys because we want unbiased information,” she said Tuesday. “For example, the median water rate for 6,000 gallons was $23.03 and ours is $20.84, so ours is about 10.5 percent less than the state median.”

The base charge and the distribution fee of the residential natural gas rates were adjusted by approximately three percent, according to the release.

This adjustment, the first since 2005, was necessary because no growth is projected for 2010.

“Residential customers using an average of 10 Mcf (thousand cubic feet) will see an average increase of about $1.48 per month as a result of this adjustment,” Williams said.

Water rates were also adjusted by six percent to reflect higher material and maintenance costs.

This adjustment equals about $1.20 per month for a city resident using an average of 6,000 gallons of water, Williams said.

Water rates were last adjusted in 2007.

Other utilities requiring rate adjustments included CNS, sewer and solid waste services, all of which were adjusted by five percent.

The CNS rate adjustment was necessary to cover increased programming costs, staff said.

“Programming fees are the single highest cost associated with providing cable television service,” Williams said.

Residential solid waste pickup will increase by 50 cents per month, the first increase in this service since 2005.

The rates adjustments were heard and approved on first reading at the meeting.

The council will consider the adjustments on second reading at its Jan. 11, 2010 meeting.

“Even with the rates adjustments we’re proposing, Thomasville Utilities customers have the benefit of some of the lowest rates in the state,” City Manager/Utilities Superintendent Steve Sykes said in the news release. “We have benchmarked our rates against other communities’ rates, and Thomasville’s rates for many services fall within the lower 25 to 30 percent in the state.”

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