City council approves budget with water, sewer rate increases
By Melissa Rollins, editor@newsandpress.net
After a public hearing and a special meeting, Tuesday, June 27, Darlington City Council gave final approval to their 2017-2018 budget.
Included in the budget is an increase on water and sewer rates.
Water rates inside and outside the city limits will increase for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Inside the city limits, water and sewer rates will increase 3 percent (25 cents) per unit, going from $8.75 to $9 per unit. An additional 3 percent increase will be added each year until 2020.
Outside of the city limits, the increase will be 5 percent and an additional 5 percent will be added each year until 2020. The increase will bring out of city water and sewer rates for the next fiscal year to $19.87 and $21.67, respectively.
Residential and commercial charges for sanitation will each increase to $23.
Freddie Kinsaul, Director of Utilities, said that while some residents might get upset about the rates being raised the city still has relatively low rates compared to the surrounding cities.
“We are in the bottom 25 percent of rates in the state,” Kinsaul said. “This is the beginning of trying to go somewhere, to set a long-term goal for rate increases. If not, we are going to have to look at options, some way, to fund stuff. Right now, we are having to drop grants because we can’t afford to match the grant. Cash flow in the water and sewer department is not going to be like you saw in 2013 when it was doing so good for years. I think this is necessary.”
Kinsaul said that a lot of places have rates that are ten dollars more than those in Darlington.
The city will get a slight reprieve from the expected increase in the employer share of state retirement costs, according to City Manager Howard Garland.
“The state had a two percent increase for retirement for employer contributions,” Garland said. “Well they rebated one percent of that back. So instead of 13.5 percent for SCRS for 2017-2018 it is 12.56 percent. For police and fire retirement, it will be 15.24 percent.”
Garland said that the city will have some savings from that rebated one percent that can now be used for operations around the city.
“Our savings for general fund was $31,980; savings for water and sewer as $4,126,” Garland said. “We added $4,126 to water/sewer for painting water tanks. In our General Fund Budget, we added $16,980 for paving. We added $15,000 that we recommend for housing demolition.”
Councilman Coleman Cannon said that he is concerned about departments in the city going over their budgets.
“We need to stick with what is in the budget,” Cannon said.
During the public hearing, former city councilwoman Dyan Cohen asked several questions about items in the budget. One question she had what the need was for the $36,000 in the budget for paving. Garland said part of that cost would come from the city paving the tennis courts near city hall. He said that patching was not an option anymore because of the extent of the damage. The Darlington County School District shares use of those courts and will be paying half the cost of the repairs.