Dear editor: I noticed in the Feb. 23 edition (of The Eatonton Messenger) that EPWSA (Eatonton-Putnam Water and Sewer Authority) will be raising rates by 8.7% starting in March.
Without any explanation of how that would be applied, I guess it will be applied across the board. Interesting that the rate increase matches the 2022 inflation rate.
I would have found the increase more credible had the rate increase been based on some kind of EPWSA financial operations calculations. Given the state of our economy, I don’t doubt some increase in operational costs have been incurred; therefore, shouldn’t the actual cost increases and future anticipated cost increases have been used to calculate the rate increase?
The 2022 inflation rate was determined by evaluating price increases, over time, of a whole host of products and commodities. Couldn’t EPWSA have done the same with their operations? It might be those actual calculations would show that 8.7% is not enough.
People will accept rate increases if the increase can be shown to be credible. I am not sure just picking a federally determined inflation rate of 8.7% for the rate increase is all that credible.
My biggest beef with EPWSA is not only with the impending rate increase justification (or lack thereof) but the ongoing $6 per month that unincorporated water users have to pay on their base rate over what a corresponding city user pays.
This $6/month differential that us folks out in the county have had to pay – for the last 15 years – now totals more than $2.7 million,
if you figure in over 2,500 county users. Given this impending rate increase of 8.7%, presumably across the board, will raise that $6/month differential to approximately $6.50/month. I, for one, think it is past time for the unincorporated water user to be discriminated against in this fashion.
Billy Webster, Putnam County
(Ed. note: Mr. Webster is a former Putnam County commission chairman.)