Jefferson residents and businesses could see an increase in several utilities by December.

The City Council approved at their regular meeting last week to increase both water and sewer rates by three-percent. Water rates would increase its monthly payment by $0.34 on the base rate, while sewer would increase $0.55. Additionally, the proposed residential monthly garbage and recycling rates would each see a $1 increase to $11.45 and $4.70, respectively. Finally, all businesses would be required to pay a monthly recycling fee of $4.70. They currently don’t pay for recycling.  

City Administrator Mike Palmer says they annually raise the water and sewer rates to not only keep the enterprises self-sustaining financially, but they also take a percentage to be used for downpayments on eventual bonds to replace the water plant and make required upgrades to the wastewater plant. He points out garbage and recycling rates have not increased since 2016 and explains why the committees felt it necessary to make that jump.

“We can kind of hold our price for a while on that. There’s not as much movement on – I should say – like on water and sewer where there’s chemicals involved. Where solid waste and recycling – well recycling was very predictable – and things like that. Like I said we try to hold the line, like if we were going to raise it a dollar, we’ll try to hold that for a while. As long as our enterprise can break even and we can set aside some money for equipment replacement, that’s where we would like to be.”

The Council approved the first reading of the ordinances and will need to approve two more readings before the changes take effect.