Marietta residents will pay 6 percent more for their utility bills next year after the city council on Wednesday night approved the increase request from the city-owned utility company.
Customers using 4,000 gallons of water and 850 kilowatt hours per month can expect to pay $7.65 more for water, sewer and electric usage.
Marietta Power & Water general manager Bob Lewis said the increase was necessary to cover infrastructure repairs and an $8.8 million rate increase to the city from utility wholesalers. The council decided to use $2.9 million from reserve surplus to offset the increase for 45,000 power customers and 18,000 water accounts.
Lewis asked the council at a Monday work session not to dip too far into reserves to cover increases. The city’s power board requires keeping $21 million to $22 million in operating reserves.
“We need to guard our reserves for bad situations,” Lewis said. “We had the second-hottest summer in 40 years and that’s not likely to happen again.”
The utility company took in $7.1 million between July and October because of high power usage during a hotter than normal summer. Usage was also up last winter.
Councilman Grif Chalfant agreed with the increase though he said the city needs to hold down costs and do everything possible to tighten budgets.
Councilman Anthony Coleman, who cast the only dissenting vote regarding the rate hike, said he also voted against utility increases a year ago.
“People are struggling to pay the bill they have and seniors are living on fixed incomes,” Coleman said. “We need to look at all the options.”
The council also voted for the second year to contribute $1.25 million to a generation trust fund through MEAG, a public power company. Power customers will pay about $1.40 a month to cover the expense. Lewis said the fund will help the city pay down costs of the nuclear power Plant Vogtle expansion starting in 2037. Marietta will have a 65-megawatt share of the plant expansion in 27 years.
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