Webb City council OKs sewer rate hike w/ proposed texting ban ordinance

By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

WEBB CITY, Mo. — The City Council on Monday night approved a 36 percent increase in sewer rates, effective Nov. 1.

That raises the monthly household sewer bill from an average of $20.60 to more than $27, City Administrator Steve Garrett said.

The vote was 7-1. Councilman Ray Edwards cast the dissenting vote, citing concerns that the city might be overtaxing residents during a recession.

“I know we need this,” he said. “I just hate to add another increase onto the public during these economic times.”

The rate increase is necessary, Garrett said, because of higher operating costs for the Center Creek wastewater treatment plant, which Webb City shares with Oronogo and Carterville.

The plant’s fiscal 2010 budget, about $200,000 more than last year’s, requires more funding for reducing zinc levels in sludge and eliminating overflows into Center Creek, as required by regulations from the state Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Mayor John Biggs. The rate increase would help offset those costs.

Edwards asked whether the rate increase could be put off until spring.

Garrett said that if the city doesn’t start meeting those regulations, it could be fined.

“If we put it (the rate increase) off, it would just have to be larger later to make up the difference,” Garrett said. “I think what we did was the responsible thing.”

The council also gave preliminary approval to an ordinance that would ban text-messaging while driving for people 21 and younger, despite several concerns voiced by Councilman Jerry Fisher.

The ordinance is a mirror copy of a state law that went into effect in August. It would make texting while driving a moving violation for young drivers, excluding law enforcement and emergency personnel.

Police Chief Carl Francis has previously said that prohibiting texting under a city ordinance would allow tickets to be processed more easily through municipal court rather than county court.

But Fisher said that argument might be moot because the ordinance could largely be unenforceable — another point that Francis has previously made.