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Water rate increase to be reconsidered
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McMinnville’s Water and Sewer Committee will be reconsidering a water rate increase Tuesday at 6 p.m. Members will be rethinking their first recommendation to the board, that being to increase water and sewer rates by 20.5 percent.Consideration for a rate increase began two months ago with a letter from the Tennessee Comptroller’s office informing the city that it needs to increase rates to generate an additional $854,388 to cover expenses. Because the department is an enterprise system, meaning its revenue must cover all expenses, the state felt current revenue would not.Water Department director Bill Brock sat down with city engineer Anthony Pelham and the two decided a 20.5 percent increase would satisfy the state and give the department what it needs for upgrades. At 20.5 percent, revenue would increase by more than $1 million.“The $1 million will get us above the $800,000 the state says we need in additional revenue and help us with rehabbing of the sewer plant so we won’t have to raise rates now to take care of expenses and raise rates later to cover construction,” Brock said to committee members on Sept. 24.