The Nodaway County Rural Water District, at its meeting on Monday, put several different options on the table for raising water rates to customers. The Maryville City Council recently approved a rate hike of 50% across the board for 2027. This will mean $615,000 in increased costs for the Rural Water Districts, without factoring in any other price hikes or extra labor should the data center project south of Maryville move forward.
Options
for raising the rates included a $3 across the board increase for everyone to a
gradated increase which would hit bigger customers such as Sheridan harder.
Currently, the Rural Water District charges a $35 rate for a minimum of 1,000
gallons of use. The risk of increasing the minimum water rate is that it would
create hardship for customers on fixed incomes. Many of the options presented
included leaving the minimum rate as it is.
On
the other end, targeting bigger customers with higher rate increases could also
affect people on fixed incomes. Barnard has one of the highest rates in the
area, charging a minimum of $120 a month for water and sewer. Other cities
purchasing their water from the Rural Water District would also have to pass
costs on to their customers.
The
board took no action on the rate hike at Monday's meeting. It will be on
October's agenda as an action item. The district has been seeking water from
other sources to reduce costs.
Brock
Pfost reported that people from the Rural Water District, the City of
Maryville, and two Maryville council members met to discuss the city providing
wastewater to the data center should it come. They are seeking formal numbers
and parameters regarding usage.
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