BROWNSBURG — Due to rising costs in equipment and natural inflation that saw the town here lose $20,941 in revenue last year, the town council voted to a small increase for new taps at a Thursday meeting.
The measure will not change water bill rates for existing town residents.
“Ninety-five percent of it is your new development, new businesses, anyone hooking onto the system,” Town Manager Grant Kleinhenz explained. “We are currently charging $755.85 and the cost for those to be installed at 3/4 inch taps is $949.75. Currently, the town is subsidizing that. We proposed to increase that fee for those taps for the amount that we’re subsidizing so we don’t lose those revenues.
“If you’re currently a water customer, you’re not paying this. The reason for this is that the meter pit lids, the rings, and the brass fittings have increased in price over the last several years. We were paying more than we charged for that tap.”
Kleinhenz said the town had 108 new meter sets last year.
The vote to increase the hookup rate was unanimous.
Town Council President Dwayne Sawyer said, “Our charge has gone up. We have not passed that onto our customers over the years. This doesn’t effect current customers, just new development coming in.
“You won’t see a higher bill from a monthly charge, but when you have to set up a new tap fee for a house and the cost is X amount, if the cost of pipe has gone up 3 percent, you pay the 3 percent more.”
Kleinhenz said this would ultimately be a benefit to existing residents. He added that the only way anyone would see an increased cost would be if a resident voluntarily upsized their water meter.
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