Sherwood aldermen will consider a 15 percent increase in sewer rates for Sherwood Wastewater customers at today's 7 p.m. City Council meeting at Sherwood City Hall.
Residents will be able to comment on the proposal during a 6:30 p.m. public hearing before the meeting in City Council chambers at 2201 E. Kiehl Ave. The council's regular monthly meeting is being moved to today from Dec. 26 because of the Christmas holiday.
The rate increase would take effect Jan. 1 if aldermen choose to approve the legislation. The increase would raise monthly sewer charges by about $2 across the board, city officials said last week.
The higher rate is needed to offset an increase in treatment costs charged by North Little Rock Wastewater, which treats wastewater at North Little Rock's Five Mile Creek treatment plant for about 2,000 of Sherwood Wastewater's customers, said Dennis Benson, manager for Sherwood Wastewater. North Little Rock Wastewater also has customers in Sherwood.
"Because North Little Rock had to do some rehabilitation of their system, some of those costs have to be passed on to us," Benson said. "We've seen a significant cost increase in what North Little Rock has had to pass on to us for our customers that have their wastewater treated at the Five Mile Creek plant."
"We're going to have to have a rate increase to continue," he said. "Treatment costs are our second-highest budget line item behind salaries. Our treatment costs have gone up significantly."
Sherwood Mayor Virginia Young said the city "absorbed the increase" this year instead of raising the sewer rates. She hasn't heard concerns from residents or city aldermen about the higher cost to residents next year, she said.
"Typically with these kind of increases we do not hear that, because it's not a large part of their bill," Young said.
The dollar amount of the increase is minimal because Sherwood has one of the lowest sewer rates statewide, said Sherwood City Engineer Ellen Norvell.
Sherwood Wastewater has about 5,000 customers spread out over the entire city, Benson said. Residential customers make up more than 90 percent of its customer base.
In addition to North Little Rock offering wastewater service in Sherwood, there are two other wastewater treatment providers for the annexed areas of Gravel Ridge and Runyon Acres.
"Depending on where you are, there are four different wastewater systems serving Sherwood," Benson said. "It can be a little confusing."
The previous sewer rate increase by Sherwood Wastewater was 8.5 percent in January 2015. The last time rates increased before that was in 2010.
Metro on 12/19/2016