Would add either $1.50 or $3 to average residential sewer bill

Peachtree City’s sewer authority will discuss two possible rate increase scenarios at its meeting Monday night.

But the final vote on the matter won’t take place until the October meeting of the Water and Sewer Authority, said General Manager Larry Turner.

Either way, the increase would work out to an extra $1.50 or $3 on the average sewer bill of $30 a month for a residential customer.

Turner is proposing two options. One would add a straight 10 percent increase on sewer bills. The other would add 5 percent this year and 5 percent next year, but leaving the door open to dropping the increase next year if it’s not needed, Turner explained.

Even after the increase, Peachtree City would still have sewer rates among the lowest in the metro Atlanta area, Turner noted.

WASA, which is a separate legal and fiscal entity from the City of Peachtree City, has ended with a shortfall in its budget for the past two years though the funds have been covered by reserves. Last year the authority ended its fiscal year with a $210,000 loss and a similar loss is projected this year.

Two years ago WASA lost one of its largest customers when the Photocircuits plant shut down. But this year rate revenue is down significantly thanks in part to water conservation measures.

Because water usage is used to calculate sewer bills, the rate revenues have declined along with water usage. Last month WASA reported it was about $150,000 behind its projected pace for rate collections.

In June, Peachtree City residents at single family homes used a total of 58.1 million gallons compared with a year prior when 102.5 million gallons of water was used, according to WASA’s data. Commercial water use is down too, from an average of between 17 and 18 million gallons to just under 14 million gallons, the data indicates.

Turner is hoping to get a board consensus Monday night so he can draft a resolution that will be considered at next month’s WASA meeting, which the resolution and increase will be voted on after a public hearing.

Last month WASA adopted its $6.45 million budget, which was a 2.68 percent increase over the previous budget.

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