ELDON, MO. -- A new city water ordinance is putting some Eldon businesses and property owners in outrage.
The city raised its water and sewer rates and changed the way it bills customers who own multi-unit commercial and residential buildings.
Customers use to pay about $7 a month.
Now, the city is charging these minimum monthly rates, plus the cost of water.
3/4 inch-1 inch meter: $14.45
1 1/2 inch meter: $24.10
2 inch: $37.37
3 inch: $135.10
4 inch: $171.29
The city of Eldon hosted what it called a work session over its new city water ordinance at the Community Center Thursday night.
The ordinance has become a hot topic among several property owners in Eldon.
City Administrator Frank Schoneboom said the meeting was planned to clear up any confusion.
"Hopefully we'll get a better understanding in the community of what's happened and why it's happening," Schoneboom said.
Deanna Blythe helps oversee willow creek apartments.
She said the water and sewer increase is falling on the shoulders of only a small percentage of the population, and could cause many Eldon businesses to close their doors.
"In virtually every case it has tripled these businesses water bills and often to the point that a town that already seems to have some growth problems could see some business failures," Blythe said.
But Schoneboom said the city had to raise the rates to cut its debt.
"In order for the city to do improvements and cut its fiscal deficit we had to raise the rates and we raised the rates in such a way that we allocated the cost across all users, not all meters and that is I think part of the confusion as to what we did," Schoneboom said.
Both Blythe and Debbie Parkhurst, who owns a mobile home park with her husband, said the city needs to find a better solution to bring in revenue.
"I think there's different areas they need to look into as far as their budget, areas that they can look at and say maybe we can make a cut here or a cut there," Parkhurst said.
"We understand their need for additional funding but we very strongly feel that it should be a more fair distribution, that we should only be paying our fair part and not the answer to their problem,” Blythe said.
Schoneboom said Thursday’s meeting was not the only opportunity for residents and property owners to express their feelings about the ordinance.
He said if you have any suggestions or comments about the water rate situation contact the City of Eldon.
What do you think of the increase?
Do you think it is fair how it is?
If not, what would you do differently?
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