Town of Grantsville Utility Customers are Not Happy

An uprising has once again occurred in the Town of Grantsville following the customers receipt of their February water usage. Several of the local residents had a large increase in the amount owed, some as high as double their previous bills. In an economically depressed and oppressed area, any increase can be devastating to an already tight family budget.

The problem is what is truth and what is fiction on the issue? I attempted to reach out to the Town of Grantsville office staff, but received no response. Knowing what I (the Ridgeview Publisher) knows about the way the Town and PSD’s operate with regard to their billing, I wondered if the recent sewer rate increase, which was supposed to raise the citizen’s rate on average $15.00, might have been incorrectly entered causing the bills to soar in error. But no answer came.

There is a Town Council meeting on Monday evening at 6:00 p.m., but now that I’m on the wrong side of the city leadership, they’ve taken a lesson from the County Clerk’s office and stopped providing an agenda to the news.

The result of Government offices refusing to cooperate with the News and community is misinformation and unnecessary anxiety in the lives of good people who deserve better.

In hopes of clearing up a few rumors I have researched the rates state wide after being informed that Mt. Zion PSD had the highest rate in the State for water. When you read the results of what I found you must understand that the rates are based on 4,500 gallons of usage and most water bills are based on a 2,000 gallon minimum, but not all. So the rates can be confusing. Both Mt. Zion and Pleasant Hill ranked on the higher end of the spectrum, but not the highest.

Although I have listed the entire water utility ranking for the State below, for comparison sakes I’ve used 18 comparable communities in the next chart. In the full comparison the Water Utilities are ranked from 1 to 388 with Alpine Lake Utility as the highest in the state with 4500 gallons costing $90.00 .

Below the water rankings is the complete list of sewer rates for the State. Mt. Zion currently ranks at 113 with a 4500 gallon sewer rate usage rate of $35.91, while Grantsville ranks at 175 with a 4500 gallon sewer rate usage at $42.22. There were 320 ranked in the sewer usage category.

It’s not a question of whether or not the cost of producing water and treating sewer has increased. Like everything, it has. But the question of raising rates is how are municipalities and PSD’s managing the funds they receive? What kind of service do they provide to their customer,is there transparency in how they operate, and for me personally I would like to see a little empathy for their customers who are struggling with the decisions made for them of increasing their expenses.