With a 3:1 vote, the Natchitoches City Council approved an ordinance at Monday night’s meeting, Aug. 14, to increase the current rate schedule for water and sewer use.

The City has had increases in water and sewer department expenditures, maintenance costs, capital improvement costs and operating expenses since the last rate increase was implemented in 1990 for sewer and 2011 for water.

The new rates should go into affect in 60 days.

Councilman-At-Large Don Mims asked a very important question: “What’s gonna happen when your water turns brown?” If nothing is done the situation will only worsen. Director of Utilities Charles Brossette said there have been 291 recorded water leaks since January, 2016, not counting emergency repairs. Minus weekends and holidays, this equates to about 1.5 leaks per day and a lot of the pipes in question are being patched over and over again.

The Council tabled the ordinance at the July 24 meeting after a public hearing was held. Residents voiced their concern about the number of low-medium income residents in the City that would be unable to afford the proposed rate increase.

Residents came back to Monday night’s meeting with the same concerns. Mayor Lee Posey assured them that the new rates would still be less than the average other communities charge. The increase will help replace water lines in the downtown area in an effort to improve the City’s fire rating, which was recently bumped down. The new lines would increase the flow of water, which is one of the graded criteria for a fire rating inspection.

“Our water is deteriorating to a point where it’s poisoning people with iron and rust,” said Mims. “If we wait to increase rates, the cost of materials and labor will continue to rise and then the future rate increase would need to be higher to compensate.”