City to offer outdoor water meters to curb sewer bills

The average residential water bill in Senoia will be going up by about 22 percent thanks to a measure adopted Monday by the City Council.

This is the first water rate increase since 1998, City Administrator Richard Ferry said, adding that it will not affect sewer rates.

Part of the reason for the water rate increase is dictated by the city’s agreement with the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority, which gave the city a low-interest loan to fund a portion of rebuilding its lake dam which was destroyed in 1995, Ferry said.

The GEFA deal requires the city to maintain 105 percent of its annual debt service coverage, and those funds come from user fees, Ferry noted.

The average water customer uses 5,000 gallons a month and will see a $5.25 per month increase from $23.25 to $28.50 a month, Ferry explained.

Ferry said a large portion of the city’s water is still supplied by Coweta County, which has gone up 40 percent on the rates it charges Senoia in the past two years.

In other business, council decided to once again offer separate outdoor watering meters to residents wishing to cut costs. The meter would allow residents and businesses to water landscaping and use it for other outdoor purposes without that water counting against their sewer bill.

Until recently regional water officials discouraged the use of such meters, but after declining to see a reduction in water usage from communities that withdrew the meters, Senoia is once again free to offer them.

The meters will come with an initial steep price however: a $750 tap-in fee so city water employees can install the separate meter and necessary line.

Mayor Robert Belisle said it will be important to make sure that people don’t use the outdoor metered water pipes to serve indoor facilities.

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