In Sherwood, sewer rate rise gets approval

15% increase to help pay for wastewater treatment

Sherwood Wastewater customers will soon see higher sewer charges on their water bills.

The Sherwood City Council unanimously approved a 15 percent sewer rate increase Monday night to offset the utility's higher expenses for wastewater treatment.

The increase raises monthly sewer charges by about $2 on customers' bills across the board, city officials said. Sherwood Wastewater has about 5,000 customers in the city. Residences make up about 90 percent of that customer base.

City aldermen also voted 8-0 on the ordinance's emergency clause so there won't be a delay in implementing the new rate. The emergency clause puts the increase in effect immediately. The legislation, held over from two previous meetings, specified the increase being effective as of Jan 1.

Even with the increase taking effect immediately, it will be 30 to 60 days before the change appears on customers' bills, Alderman Kevin Lilly told fellow aldermen before the vote on the emergency clause. Without the emergency clause, it would be another 30 to 60 days before the increase could be calculated into billing cycles.

"The purpose is so we can move forward quickly," Lilly said of the importance of the emergency clause. "If we wait another 30 days, it would be May or June before we'd see collection on the rate."

Legislation for the increase was introduced in November and the council held a public hearing Dec. 19 before pushing a decision until the first council meeting of this year. Aldermen agreed to the postponement in December in order to give more time for customers to learn about the increase and have an opportunity to comment. Only one customer spoke at the Dec. 19 public hearing. Aldermen didn't discuss the rate increase Monday before voting its approval.

The rate increase is necessary, city officials have said, to offset an increase in treatment expenses charged to the utility by North Little Rock Wastewater to help pay for rehabilitation costs of the treatment plant, Dennis Benson, former manager at the Sherwood Wastewater Department, told aldermen during last month's meeting. Benson retired Dec. 31.

The North Little Rock utility treats wastewater at North Little Rock's Five Mile Creek treatment plant for about 2,000 Sherwood Wastewater customers.

Treatment costs are the second-highest budget item for Sherwood Wastewater behind personnel salaries, Benson said.

"The mover of this [rate increase] is that we cannot continue to absorb the cost," Benson told council members last month during a discussion on the issue. "We try our best to hold the line. Virtually every wastewater utility has had to come back and raise their rate. It's the world we live in."

The city had absorbed the increase to avoid raising rates a year ago, Sherwood Mayor Virginia Young said last month. Because the increase will be minimal on water bills, Young said, she hadn't heard concerns about the increase.

The ordinance states that the city "will review the user charges at least annually and revise the rates as necessary to ensure that adequate revenues are generated to pay the costs of operation and maintenance," among other expenses.

The last time Sherwood Wastewater increased its rates was in January 2015, when customer charges went up by 8.5 percent. The last increase before that was in 2010.

North Little Rock Wastewater also has customers inside Sherwood, and two other wastewater treatment providers serve Sherwood's annexed areas of Gravel Ridge and Runyan Acres.

Metro on 01/24/2017

Upcoming Events