Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell/Chattanooga Times Free Press – An interceptor sewer line that is paid for through city bonds is shown at West Chickamauga Creek on Cloud Springs Road in Fort Oglethorpe.Sewer bills will rise by about 5 to 6 percent in January for Fort Oglethorpe residents after a unanimous vote Monday by the City Council.
The rate hike is much milder than those in store for residents of East Ridge, Red Bank and other cities served by the Hamilton County Water & Wastewater Treatment Authority, which is raising customers’ rates by 39 percent.
Still, a Fort Oglethorpe official said she expects to hear from residents about the hike.
“We get feedback if we go up 50 cents,” Finance Director Pam Travillian said.
Part of the increase is due, Travillian said, to bonds Fort Oglethorpe sold in 2009 to finance sewer line construction. The city is required to increase rates by 5 percent for the first five years of the bonds’ life, she said.