Haleyville, Lynn water customers to pay more

HALEYVILLE - Residents of Haleyville and Lynn will see another small rate increase on their January water bills.
Upper Bear Creek Water Authority, from which Haleyville purchases water, is raising its rates by 5.2 percent. That equates to an increase of approximately ten cents per 1,000 gallons of water, from $1.80 to $1.90, according to Haleyville Water Works and Sewer Board General Manager Lane Bates, speaking at a recent board meeting.
The HWWSB voted unanimously at that meeting to cover the additional expense by increasing its customers’ water rates by three percent every year for the next five years, starting in January 2023.
“Everything we’re doing right now is costing more money,” said Mayor Ken Sunseri, the chairman of the HWWSB, when he recommended the rate increase to the board. “I don’t see an end to (inflation) any time soon.”
Bates agreed that the rate increase was necessary, noting that in order to continue putting money into improvements to the water system, the board would have to actually have some money. He said he did not want the HWWSB to accrue a debt of $57,000-$60,000, which is the estimated annual additional cost of UBCWA’s rate increase.
Haleyville water customers inside the city limits who use the minimum of 2,000 gallons per month or less will seen an increase of 98 cents on their January bill. Customers outside the city limits who use that minimum amount or less will see an increase of $1.20 on that bill.
HWWSB will also pass on the additional cost to its wholesale customers, the towns of Lynn and Double Springs. The towns will be charged an additional ten cents per 1,000 gallons of water.
Lynn will pass this increase on to its water customers and also to the town of Nauvoo, to whom it sales water wholesale, starting with their January, 2023 water usage.
Double Springs is not yet raising its customers’ water rates, according to Mayor Elmo Robinson, who said the Double Springs Water and Sewer Board would probably discuss the UBCWA rate increase at its next meeting at the end of November.