PETERSBURG, Va. – Petersburg City Council voted to implement a 13.4% water rate increase at Tuesday night’s meeting.
This is effective immediately.
Before the vote, taxpayers voiced their concerns about the increase in utility bills.
“It seems like we’re going to have an increase in a water bill whether we the citizens like it or not,” said one resident.
Back in April of 2015, City Council voted for the 13.4% hike, but it had never been implemented.
The increase will be every year for the next five years.
“The amount of money that the City needs to pay to ARWA, the Appomattox River Water Authority is approximately $13 million over the next year,” said City Spokesman, Clay Hamner. “The City sold its water supply years ago so Appomattox River Water Authority essentially owns the water, the city owns the infrastructure to the utility systems... they have to pay to fix them when they break and this is part of that increase.”
While city leaders know the rate increase will bring concerns from some residents, they say the city has already lost a large amount of money by not implementing the hike when it was passed the first time.
“Petersburg has been too low for way too many years, so this is just really bringing them back into 2018, said Hamner.
