HIGHFILL — The way Highfill’s water customers are charged for water usage was officially changed at the Jan. 12 town council meeting.

An ordinance setting new water rates for the town of Highfill was placed on its first reading at the December reading and passed on its final two readings with a single vote last week - a vote made possible by Mayor Chris Holland voting with three of the four council members present to suspend the rules. An emergency clause in the ordinance was also passed, placing the rate-structure change into effect immediately.

Instead of charging for water usage on a tieredrate schedule, with a set rate for the water service including the first 1,000 gallons of water, and charging declining rates per thousand gallons of water as usage increases from one tier to the next, the town will go to a flatrate system, charging the same amount per thousand gallons of water to all customers within a watercustomer category.

The new rate per thousand gallons or any part thereof is $4.55 for residential customers, $3 for commercial customers and $2.50 for industrial/wholesale usage such as the airport. The rate per thousand gallons remains the same, no matter how much water a customer uses.

The change is not a rate increase, according to Frank Holzkamper, the town’s water works supervisor. It is only a restructuring of the way water customers are charged. An increase in the water rates at the present time was not feasible, according to Holzkamper.

The change will not make a significant difference on most water bills, Holzkamper said. Those using between 3,000 and 20,000 gallons of water per month will see no increase. Those using less than 3,000 gallons per month will see a slight increase because they will be paying $4.55 for the first 1,000 gallons of water - something the city was not charging for in the past.

“We were giving away the first 1,000 gallons of water to each customer,” Holzkamper said, adding that this amounted to near $3,000 per month.

The proposed change is the result of recommendations made by Community Resource Group andadopted by the Highfill Water Board after a comprehensive rate study was completed on Highfill’s water system. The proposed flat-rate or fixed-cost structure was recommended because it is a more fair way of charging customers for their water usage and it encourages water conservation.

Also recommended by the American Water Works Association was a monthly meter service charge for each meter installed, with charges varying based on the size of the meter because of the costs to replace meters and the effects of larger meters on the number of water customers the system could potentially serve.

Monthly meter charges (charged in addition to water usage each month) are now $25 for a 5/8-inch meter (the most common residential meter); $35 for a 1-inch meter; $45 for a 1.5-inch meter; $72.50 for a 2-inch meter; $275 for a 3-inch meter; $350 for a 4-inch meter; $525 for a 6-inch meter; and $725 for an 8-inch meter. In addition to meter replacement costs and the higher cost for the larger meters, the greater meter charge for larger meters is to compensate the water system for the reduced capacity on the system - for example, a 3-inch meter would have the capacity to use as much water as 11 standard 5/8-inch meters, thus reducing the number of water customers which could be serviced by a line in the water system.

The town of Highfill has also come to a tentativeagreement with the city of Centerton on the sale of a portion of Highfill’s water system along Arkansas Highway 102 to Centerton since that portion of the system in now within Centerton city limits and the sale would be beneficial to both municipalities.

The sale would benefit both cities, according to Frank Holzkamper, supervisor of Highfill’s water and sewer department, in a report to the Highfill town council on Jan. 12, because the lines are dead-end lines which need to be regularly flushed; the sale would allow Centerton to loop its lines (also dead-end lines) and minimize flushing; and the sale would provide a second water-feed source for Highfill’s system in the event of an emergency.

The tentative sale price is $103,490.08, and the town would apply all the proceeds from the sale toward a Arkansas Natural Resources Commission loan of $123,600 which becomes due in December of 2013. The final sale is subject to the approval of the state, but no problems are anticipated. The sale agreement will also require council approval by ordinance.

Holzkamper also reported that, with council approval, he will ask the ANRC to defer a second loan maturing in December of 2011 for another three to five years to give the town more time to build up its customer base on its sewer system, making it easier for the town to repay the loan. Holzkamper said he thought, with the present economy, the request would possibly be granted.

News, Pages 2 on 01/20/2010