City raises water use charges

City residents will soon be paying more for water and sewer services following the Clarendon Board of Aldermen’s 3-1 vote last Tuesday.

The board approved Ordinance 385 to amend the utility rates. While residential and commercial base rates for water will remain the same, the amendment reduces the 5,000-gallon minimum to 2,000 gallons and sets a usage rate of $2.25 per thousand gallons over the minimum.

City Administrator John Webb said the rate change was necessary to help get the city back on track financially.

“The longer we wait to do this, the less money we have to take into fiscal year 2010,” Webb told the board.

Aldermen had put off implementing the increase when they met before Christmas, but most said now that they had to do something.

Alderman Will Thompson, who was appointed to the board last month and took the oath of office last week, said he had studied the situation and felt the city had to put its financial house in order.

Webb and Mayor Chris Ford also raised the specter that the city might be headed for bankruptcy if changes were not made. The administrator presented information from the state attorney general and the Texas Municipal League about what happens to a city in bankruptcy.

“This is something we do not want to even consider,” Ford said.

Alderman Tommy Hill was the lone dissenter on the amendment and said he felt the city had already raised rates and fees too many times.

Aldermen Terry Noble, Ann Huey, and Thompson voted for the measure. Alderman Kyle Davis was absent.

In addition to a lower minimum for water consumption, Ordinance 385 lowers the commercial rate for sewer service from $36 to $25 per month but implements a new usage rate for residential and commercial sewer services that will be based on average water consumption in December, January, and February.

In other city business, Webb reported on an analysis requested by Alderman Hill on the cost effectiveness of running sanitation services outside the city limits, specifically to Greenbelt Lake and the City of Howardwick. The study showed the city nets more than $43,000 per year on these routes.

Denise Foster presented the annual audits for the city, the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation, and the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department. Each received a favorable report, but Foster noted the city’s General Fund ran short in the last fiscal year. Webb said the audit showed that the city had just been “getting by with no eye to the future.”

The board approved a proposal to purchase three new Dell computers for $4,100 for City Hall.

In his administrator’s report, Webb said he was working with TxDOT and the Texas Historical Commission to relocate the Seventh Street Bridge so that it can be preserved for future generations and a new bridge built in its place. The bridge is a 1908 Pony Truss design and was closed by the state last month.

Webb also said the city is in line to get a grant from the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission for a new trash truck. The grant would cover 90 percent of the cost of the truck.

In public comments, Roger Estlack addressed the board concerning the city’s policy on deposits for new water accounts. He asked that the board consider changing the policy so that deposit money could be applied to the account if there were no delinquencies in a six- or 12-month period.