After more than two years of discussion, the Signal Mountain Town Council has finally decided what to do with its aging municipal water system: keep it.
Councilors voted 3-2 at their April 22 meeting to retain ownership of the system and notify the two bidders, Tennessee American Water and Walden's Ridge Utility District, of the town's intent.
No citizens opted to speak in regards to the matter during the meeting, but Mayor Dan Landrum asked fellow councilors to share their opinions.
"I think that down the road we're going to incur a lot more expenses to keep it," said Councilman Bob Spalding who, along with Vice Mayor Amy Speek, was one of the two councilors to vote against keeping the system.
While no one knows what parts of the system will break in the future, said Landrum, the amount of money the town plans to invest in the system is three times the amount one bidder committed to spend on the system and twice what the other bidder committed to spend.
"So the rate at which we make improvements to our system is faster if we keep it ourselves," he explained, adding that he may have considered selling the system if the town needed the funds from the sale to stay afloat. "There are towns that wish they hadn't sold their water companies, because the money that you get when you sell [a town utility], it would look really good, but that goes away.
"Once it's gone, you don't own your water company and you can't sell it anymore."
The funds for maintenance, operations and improvements to the system will come from a customer rate increase approved unanimously at the same meeting. The town will raise rates by about 15% now, followed by 15% increases each of the next two years - a cumulative 52% increase over three years - followed by moderate annual increases for the foreseeable future.
Speek agreed with Spalding that water system repairs will cost the town more than it anticipates.
"A bigger company can run it better than we can here," she said.
The water rate change begins July 1 and is based on recommendations made by the University of Tennessee Municipal Technical Advisory Service, which conducted a rate study for the town.
The ordinance establishing the new rate eliminates the previous 4,000-gallon minimum usage charge. Residents will instead be charged a base rate of $6 plus $5.80 per each 1,000 gallons of water used, according to Town Manager Boyd Veal.
Email Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com.