Water is becoming more costly in the Northern Neck. Last month, both Montross and Colonial Beach town councils decided to raise their water rates.

In the case of Colonial Beach, this decision was not taken lightly, but became necessary as part of handling the budget.

The first ordinance in question, 782, saw the annual flat charge for Colonial Beach residential water services bumped up to $422.56 from its previous rate of $413.72, and the flat charge for residential sewer service shoot up from $1,008.72 to $1,094.48.

Ordinance 783 addressed commercial fees and service charges and saw the annual rates and service fees increase identically to the residential use, going up to $422.56 from $414.72 and from $1,008.72 to $1,094.48 annually.

Councilman David Williams attempted a motion to postpone the vote until the June work session, saying they could go through the general fund and budget to see if there were ways to cut back on increasing the water and sewer rates. Councilman Rick Wood, however, noted that the matter had been discussed plenty of times already.

“We’ve gone through this in excruciating detail,” stated Wood. “Realistically, we’re talking about voting yes or no. They’re principled ideas either way, but it’s not as if we’ve had insufficient information on which to make a decision. So, I would hope that we get to a vote on the resolution to vote it up or down, and after that, if voted down, we have another resolution to take it as it’s written, if that makes sense.”

“We’ve heard from a lot of citizens about how worried people are about the increase,” replied Williams. “I’m trying to find ways to help maybe lighten that a little bit. I realize that we’re in a tight spot, and there are potential ways we could go through the general fund budget to find some one-time stopgap funds so that we can get things straightened out in the coming months. That’s the main reason I suggested this.”

“Hopefully that’s the last year we have to do this for a while—that’d be a relief. Nobody is happy about having to do this,” commented Mayor Robin Schick.

Montross Hikes Fees

The Montross Town Council voted to increase water connection fees, primarily because costs had been increasing.

“We got phase one of our water system out of the way, we’re on phase two now, and phase three will be coming up later,” Montross Mayor Joey King stated during the meeting. “And what we’re finding out is that the costs we have to pay come from the water control boxes. We’re using electronic readers, and all of those things cost additional funds. It’s probably time for us to look at going up on the rate and being somewhat comparable to everyone else.

“The number we kicked around after looking at other localities was $1,500 in total. It’s definitely a time to move up because the costs have changed—everything’s changed, but we’re keeping up with it.”