Georgetown City Council approves increase in water and sewer rates

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (WTVQ) — A proposed water and sewage rate increase has been a hot-button issue in the city of Georgetown for months, leading many concerned residents to plead lawmakers to vote ‘no’ on the issue.

But, after much debate, the motion passed on Monday night.

“Georgetown is a very growing city and they had to increase the water rates to keep up with demand and to add infrastructure that will help our city,” says Dale Stow, a longtime resident in Georgetown, who approved of the increase.

During their last meeting, the council re-visited their proposed plan, 17% increase for the first three years followed by a 6% increase for another three years, totaling a compounded increase of 84.7%. This proposed plan would go into effect on Wednesday, March first, and wouldn’t be reflected until the bills in April.

“What our boards did was to, the increase was going to be there, but they’ve done it gradually, that will not be such a drastic effect on our citizens. So they used good common sense and did what had to be done to build an infrastructure that will help a growing community,” added Stow.

Back in December, Georgetown residents called for a full audit of the water company to get a better picture of what went wrong.

“On February 13th, we had a letter from the state auditor of public accounts. They determined that no specific allegations of fraud, waste, or abuse have been reported to our office and therefore no special examination is warranted,” said Alonzo Allen, a Georgetown City Council member during the meeting.

Those with Georgetown Municipal Water and Sewer Service say they’re working towards preventing any similar mistakes in the future.

Chase Azevedo the general manager of GMWSS added, “the board has directed me and they’re committed that every 12 to 18 months, again, I think it’ll be with the development of our annual budget, that we will have a rate consultant come back in review and make sure that the rate model and the current rate structure is behaving in a way that allows us to fund operations, allows us to fund those projects.”

Meanwhile, the city says they will be seeking additional funding to help alleviate the potential burden.

GMWSS adding that they will work with those who may find themselves in a difficult situation to pay their bills to avoid cutting them off.