While Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle heard arguments in the City of Smithville/DUD ratepayers case against the DeKalb Utility District (DUD) last Wednesday, city and DUD officials continue to disagree on the matter of water rates.
The judicial review hearing, held in Davidson County Chancery Court last week, was an appeal of the state Utility Management Review Board’s (UMRB) April 2013 ruling against the petitioners in a DUD rate review hearing. The city and the petitioners hope to block the construction of a new DUD water treatment plant.
Jason Holleman represented the city and DUD ratepayers at the hearing, while Dewey Branstetter, Jr,. presented the DUD’s case, and Jason Hale spoke for the UMRB.
Meanwhile, in the absence of a formal agreement between the city and DUD, water rates to utility district customers have increased dramatically.
In a recent letter to DUD customers, officials of the utility said say the hike was unavoidable in light of the increase in the rate the city charges DUD for water.
The city increased the rate the DUD pays from $2.05 per 1,000 gallons to  $5.00 per 1,000 gallons, an increase from the rate of $2.05 per thousand gallons, effective Jan. 1.
In the DUD’s letter to it’s customers, the blame is placed squarely on the city.
“DUD is now forced, due to the actions of the Smithville City Council, to increase our rates. We therefore provide notice that beginning with the January billing, that an increase of $4.30 per thousand gallons (42% increase) will be assessed to our customers who receive water purchased from Smithville.
At Monday night’s council meeting, however, City Secretary-Treasurer Hunter Hendrixson voiced a different opinion.
“I sent a letter last week to the board of DeKalb Utility District, inviting to attend this meeting to discuss the water-rate increase,” Hendrixson said. “I got a letter today thanking us for the invitation, however, they regret to inform that the board nor their officials will be able to attend tonight’s meeting, so I guess they’re not that concerned about their rate hike, I don’t know,” he continued.
“They’ve yet to come before the board and address this rate hike that they’ve been very public about.I just thought I’d let the board know that they got an invitation, and were not able to attend.
“We had quite a few calls last week from DUD customers, and they were told, I’m not sure by who, but they were told to call city hall if they had any questions on their rates,” Hendrixson told the aldermen. “I explained to several that the City of Smithville does not dictate the rates for customers of DUD. Why they were sent to city hall I don’t know, but we’ve had quite a few calls. We went up $2.95 per 1,000 gallons to DUD, and they went up $4.30 per 1,000 gallons to their customers. If anybody wants to question their increase they’ll have to go to DUD,” he concluded.