City backs off some proposed increases

Clarendon residents may still see their taxes go up, but the city is backing away from earlier discussions of other fee increases.
Last week’s Enterprise reported that the City Council was considering a seven percent increase in sewer rates, but during a budget workshop last week, aldermen said they did not wish to raise that rate at all this year, expressing an aversion to hitting citizens with too many increases.
Sewer rates will have to rise some in fiscal year 2018 if the city is to be successful in applying for a future Community Development Block Grant, but City Administrator David Dockery confirmed Tuesday that a sewer rate increase is off the table for fiscal year 2017.
The city was also considering a nine percent rate hike for sanitation services in an attempt to close an approximate $30,000 deficit in that department. But Dockery said this week that the city has taken measures in house to close that gap. Since aldermen met last week, City Hall moved a full time sanitation employee to fill a vacancy in the public works department, and Dockery says his office continues to work to find efficiencies in sanitation.
Dockery said the city may still need to raise its sanitation rate, but he believes any increase will now be well below the nine percent originally proposed.
The city administrator has also been tasked with spending the next year evaluating the sanitation department and exploring all avenues to find savings for trash service. Clarendon hauls its own trash to the Memphis landfill, and Dockery told aldermen last week that most cities of this size picking up their own trash have their own landfills. The city is also faced with large expenses in the future as trash trucks need to be replaced.
The administrator said he will explore all options for the city including what it will take to keep the current service, the option of opening a landfill, or the possibility of contracting the city’s trash service.
The Clarendon City Council has proposed a tax rate of $0.74800 per $100 valuation, which is higher than the effective rate (the rate required to bring in the same revenue as last year) of $0.707967. Tax hearings will be held on August 11 and 25.