Berryville council OKs rate increase for water, sewer

Users of Berryville’s city water and sewer systems will soon be paying a little more.

At its regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 21, the Berryville City Council unanimously approved the second and third readings of a proposed ordinance that will increase water rates by 10 percent and sewer rates by 15 percent.

The council also voted unanimously to invoke an emergency clause, which will make the rate increases effective immediately.

In addition, the council approved a separate resolution that would increase deposits and fees associated with water and sewer accounts. The meter deposit will increase from $75 to $100, while the city is also initiating a transfer fee of $25 for users who want to move their service from one location to another. The city also will increase the charge for insufficient funds payments from $20 to $30 and the reconnection fee from $30 to $50. The city also will increase its tampering fee from $50 to $75.

“You’d be surprised how many people tear something up whenever they try to turn their water back on,” said mayoral assistant Jay Lee. “That’s basically just to discourage people from doing that.”

The sewer tap fee will increase from $150 to $250, which Lee said “is still way, way cheaper than anybody around.”

“We looked at other water departments in our area and we’re just trying to get our things in line with them,” Mayor Tim McKinney said. “And that’s pretty much what we did, is looked at our fees that we hadn’t looked at in several years.”

Police chief Robert Bartos presented his department’s monthly report for January to the council. Bartos said Berryville police wrote 103 citations, with 67 offemse reported — both increases over January 2022. The department’s clearance rate for January was 88 percent, Bartos said, and the department collected $185 in fines and bonds. Berryville police responded to 18 accidents in January, up from 12 a year earlier.

Also at the Feb. 21 meeting, the council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance that would rezone multiple parcels of land on the south side of Eureka Avenue from C-2 Highway Commercial to R-O Residential/ Office.

The council also approved a request for use of the Berryville Public Square submitted by the Carroll County Cruisers for their monthly “Cruise-In” events for the 2023 calendar year. The events are held from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the last Friday of each month from March to October.

In his mayoral comments, McKinney told the council that a crew from KY3 television station in Springfield will be in Berryville to broadcast weather and record an upcoming 30-minute segment on Berryville that will air March 9.