Toccoa Raises Water, Gas Rates

By Charlie Bauder, WNEG Radio, Toccoa

Utility bills for City Of Toccoa water customers who are not city residents will be going up, as will utility bills for Georgia customers of Toccoa Natural Gas.

Monday, the Toccoa City Commission unanimously approved two rate hikes that will take effect with the start of a new fiscal year, july 1.

Water rates for Toccoa water customers in Stephens County will go up to 1.25 times the rate of a city water customer.

Toccoa Mayor David Austin said the rate increase for water is actually going back to what had been done in the late 1990’s.

Austin says  it is still in accordance with a previous SPLOST agreement between the city and county.

“Originally in the SPLOST II agreement, we were allowed to raise the outside (the city) water rates because of the service delivery necessitated by water lines being outside of our jurisdiction,” said Austin. “Somewhere along the line, it got changed. Most cities have a two times rate (for) outside the city or 1.5. We decided to go to the original SPLOST agreement which was 1.25.”

According to city officials, the rate hike will result in an increase of $4.28 per month on an average county residential water customer’s bill, assuming average monthly water usage of just under 4,300 gallons.

The water increase is expected to net the city about $457,000 in additional revenue yearly.

Gas customers will see a 3-cent per unit increase on their bills.  That means for the average gas customer their bill will increase by about $1.50 to $1.75 per month.

Austin said revenue from that increase will pay for moving utility lines as part of the widening and relocation of SR17 in Stephens County.

“That necessitates spending several hundred thousand dollars, so we put in a three-cent rate for that and as soon as that is paid for, and we think it will be paid for in less than a year, that rate will come off,” said Austin.

The gas rate increase is expected to net the city about $300,000 in one year and the DOT project is expected to cost the city about $264,000 after the city receives partial reimbursement from the DOT for the work.