HOPE – Hope residents can expect to see their next bill from Hope Utilities go up by about $1.
The increase will be considerably smaller than rate hikes that went into effect in 2016 – and again in 2019, town utilities superintendent David Clouse said.
Essentially, the increase consists of an annual surcharge that Hope is legally responsible to pay to Eastern Bartholomew County Water Corp., which supplies the water to the community of 2,200 residents.
The Hope Town Council voted to raise the average water and sewage bill temporarily from $28.13 to $45 a month in the first of a two-phase hike in 2015. It was the first rate hike implemented in the community in 11 years.
Council members did express concern about financial hardship to residents, particularly elderly residents on a fixed income.
Newly-released census data shows the per-capita income in Hope is $19,787, compared to $32,664 for Columbus. In addition, nearly 13% of the adults in Hope are 65 or older, with many on a fixed income.
For that reason, the town stopped adding the annual surcharge to the monthly utility bills in 2016, and paid the money due to Eastern Bartholomew that was required by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, Clouse said.
As one town council member said, it was a effort to “remove a bit of the sticker shock.”
Every year, the amount of the surcharge is tied to whatever the rate of the consumer price index is, Clouse said. As long as inflation was under control, the town could afford to pay the small surcharge, the utilities superintendent said.
“Well, the cost of goods went up 5.9%,” Clouse said. “So instead of going up just a few cents, inflation has raised the surcharge to 16 cents per 1,000 gallons of water.”
But to keep things in perspective, the resulting monthly increase should be less than $1 for the average residential customer in Hope, Clouse said.
However, the town would have found itself paying $9,600 this year to continue covering the surcharge as it had in the past, Clouse said.
The decision to pass the surcharge increase on to town residents was unanimously approved by the Hope Town Council.
Even before the first rate hike went into effect in 2016, residents were warned that another jump could be expected three years later. But due to financial planning and acquired grants, the 2019 increase in water bills was only an average of about $5 a month.
Much has been done to improve the quality of water in Hope over the past seven years. Along with a number of grants, the 2016 rate hike helped fund a $3 million water system improvement project that included replacing 14,000 feet of antiquated water mains.
Part of the rate hike also helped Eastern Bartholomew Water issue nearly $8 million in debt to improve infrastructure that included construction of a state-of-the-art water treatment plant to replace two others that had reached the end of their useful lives.
