Lanny McPherson told his fellow Russellville council members Tuesday, that the Logan Todd Regional Water Commission (LTRWC) was looking at ways to reduce costs and had to figure out a way to stabilize water rates.

McPherson serves on the LTRWC as Russellville’s representative along with 11 other members.

LTRWC announced late last year they were going to raise water rates by 13 percent beginning on March 1. According to LTRWC director Kyle Kenner, the water supplier is not selling enough water to meet their financial commitments.

Russellville along with Adairville, Auburn, Lewisburg, Trenton, Elkton, Todd County, Oak Grove, Guthrie and the districts of East Logan, South Logan and North Logan all purchase water from the LTRWC beginning in 2003.

The 13 percent increase has been met with some controversy by some buyers and simply accepted by others. Russellville Mayor Gene Zick had said he didn’t know how his city or it’s customers would pay the increase with the economy the way it was and even called the increase unjustified.

“If LTRWC thinks the bond holders will come after them they are crazy. We can kiss any progress we’ve made goodbye. We get a little ahead and now we are going to be shot,” Zick had said.

The city of Russellville currently purchases 300 million gallons of water from LTRWC for $1,090,000 and sells approximately 190,000 million gallons annually. With the new rate increase the city will pay $1.236,000 for that same amount.

Although most of Logan County’s buyers have decided how to handle the up and coming increase, Russellville is lollygagging and has still made no definite decision of how much of the increase will be passed onto the city’s customers.

At Tuesday’s council meeting two options were presented by a committee formed to look into the increase. City Clerk Bob Riggs said the council could choose to accept the consumer price index (CPA) of 4.3 percent, which would generate $173,000; however, problem with this option is this would be $80,000 short from the $240,000 the city will need to cover the increase as well as increases associated with utilities and setting aside $40,000 of capital monies.

The second option Riggs presented was to pass on a 5.9 percent increase that would generate enough money to compensate for the next fiscal year.

If council chooses the CPI this will raise customer’s water/sewer bills from $1.83 more per month for an average of 2,000 gallons. If council chooses the 5.9 percent increase this would raise customer’s rates $2.52 per month for 2,000 gallons. This does not include sanitation costs that appear on the water/sewer bill.

“If I thought that $3.72 would be devastating to a household that uses an average of 3,000 gallons a month, I certainly would be against it, but I don’t think that it is,” said Councilman Russell Jones. “We can’t ignore some things and this is one we can’t ignore especially if the costs are going up for us.”

Jones noted either option would not be passing the whole 13 percent onto the customers.

“We’ve got to have money to buy equipment and fix water leaks and continue to fix the sewer problems. We can’t continue to sweep these problems under the rug and try to absorb things. It’s been done that way for many years,” said Jones.

Riggs told the council they could make the change anytime, but reminded them of LTRWC March 1 date.

A very large water leak was discovered recently that could have an impact on how much water the city is purchasing from LTRWC. Councilman Lanny McPherson said he would like to wait to see what impact that leak will have before voting on the increase choices.

Councilman Jimmy Davenport agreed.

“Some of the leaks we are finding could have an impact on what we are paying,” said Davenport who was very vocal during a previous meeting saying he wouldn’t pass “one red cent” on to the customers.

Zick told his council they could wait to see what impact the water leak had but said sooner or later they were going to have to make a decision.