Hamilton County Commissioner Curtis Adams today asked the chairman of the county’s Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority to appear before the commission to explain a proposed $8 fee for about 24,000 customers.

In a letter to Chairman Henry Hoss, Mr. Adams said the WWTA “displayed bad judgment” when utility officials decided to add the $8 charge to customers’ monthly bills. Mr. Adams asked Mr. Hoss to come to the commission’s May 29 agenda meeting at 9:30 a.m.

Commission Chairman Bill Hullander on Monday asked Mr. Adams’s committee, the Finance Committee, to find out why the WWTA was adding on the additional fee.

WWTA officials have said the fee is for repairs and inspections of pipes that connect residents’ houses to sewage lines. It is the residents’ responsibility to maintain those pipes, Mr. Hoss has said.

If residents by themselves were to pay for the repairs, it would cost $3,000 to $5,000, WWTA officials have said.

The fee will be charged to residents in Signal Mountain, Red Bank, East Brainerd and Lookout Mountain who use gravity sewer systems. The Red Bank City Commission is expected to discuss the fee tonight.

See tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for full coverage.

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