Forsyth County water, sewer rates to increase

County residents will soon see an increase in their monthly water and sewer bills.

The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 Jan. 8 to pass the temporary increase. Commissioner Brian Tam voted against.

Chief Financial Officer Bill Thomas introduced the proposal and conducted a presentation illustrating the pros of accepting the proposal for temporary water and sewer rate increases.

In his presentation, Thomas recommended that for residential water rates the county should change from $12 for the first three thousand gallons to $12 for the first one thousand gallons. The senior rate will be changed from $9 for the first three thousand gallons to $9 for the first one thousand gallons.

For sewer rates, he recommended they should establish a base rate of $10 per residential customer and $20 for commercial customers. In addition, accounts will be charged a usage fee in accordance with existing rates.

Four Forsyth County residents voiced their arguments as to why the proposal should be rejected. Some said this was not a good time to increase the rates because of the tough economy.

Commission Chairman Charles Laughinghouse said this was a direction the county simply had to take.

"It is a bad time to raise rates," he said, "but the water and sewer fund is losing money and something needs to be done. "

Forsyth County's current financial policies do not allow for any fund to operate in a loss. The policy states, "The County will set fees for each Enterprise and Internal Service Fund, at a level that fully supports the total direct and indirect cost of the activity. Indirect costs include the cost of annual depreciation of capital assets and requirements for future capital costs."

Commissioner Jim Harrell voted to improve the temporary increase but mentioned to the public that he would like more public input in the future town hall meetings on this subject.

In other business, the Forsyth County Planning Commission will have some new faces in 2009.

Matt Murphy will be serving District 4 on the Planning Commission, replacing Bettina Hammond who resigned at the first of the year.

Jim Quinn will be serving District 5 and will be filling the spot left open after Mary Helen McGruder's resignation at the first of the year.

The county appointed Pam Livesay to continue her service on the commission.
- www.northfulton.com

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