MARION — Residents of the Town of Marion will see their water and garbage bills rise in coming months after the board of aldermen on Tuesday voted to pass on increasing costs to the customers.

Mayor Larry Gill said the town had been using some of its tax dollars to subsidize what residents pay each month for garbage. While residents have been paying about $8 per can per month, the town is being charged a little over $14 per can per month.

“We have to make sure that the citizens are paying for the services that are being provided,” he said. “And so we went up on the garbage rates today to make sure that we’re receiving the revenues in order to provide the service. Of course I don’t want my garbage bill to go up, but at the end of the day it’s something that had to happen.”

The board voted to increase garbage rates $6.25 per month to match what the the town is being charged. The new rate includes an additional fee of $1.31 charged by Waste Pro to pick up all garbage and not just what is in the garbage cans.

Board member Stacey Blalock said she thought adding the additional service would help lessen the cost adjustment for residents as they would not have to worry about extra bags or boxes being left on the curb.

“From their view, we’re increasing the garbage rate, and if they leave something beside their box that doesn’t get picked up, you’re going to get a lot of angry people,” she said.

Alderman Norman Coleman disagreed with the extra service. He said he made a trip around town before collections on garbage day to see what was put out on the curb, and the amount of extra trash wasn’t a big issue.

“I don’t feel like the need is great enough for an increase,” he said.

With residents paying for the services they receive, Gill said the tax dollars that were being spent on garbage can be reallocated to pave roads, pay police officers and help the town better serve its residents.

Water rates

On the water side, Marion residents will see their bill for freshwater service increase as well. The board of aldermen voted to raise the rate per 1,000 gallons and lower the amount of water the base fee will cover.

The cost for sewer service will remain the same.

Town Engineer Shawn Miles said the previous rate was set at $3.79 per 1,000 gallons up to 3,000 gallons. At the new rate, residents will pay a base fee of $15.25 for the first 2,000 gallons. After that the cost will rise to $5.50 per 1,000 gallons.

“That’s still pretty cheap,” he said.

Miles said Marion’s water department is similar to Mississippi’s rural water associations as it is a small department with fewer customers than larger towns and cities throughout the state. Both rural water associations and Marion’s water department struggle to balance the costs for customers with having enough money to maintain and improve the system.

“The smaller the town, the harder it is to pay for the expenses,” he said. “That’s still pretty reasonable rates for water.”

Gill said the town needed to raise water rates to make sure it was able to maintain the staff and equipment to provide the safe, clean drinking water residents need.

“The bottom line of it is, what is costing us to operate in the water department has not been what we’ve been receiving,” he said.

Gill said the town has had to pull funds from other departments to cover water department expenses. The water department, he said, needs to to be able to stand on its own.

“Water should take care of itself,” he said. “It should be independent of any other services that we provide.”

With the Town of Marion seeing more people come to the area, Gill said it’s also important for the town to look at future plans and start budgeting for unexpected expenses. Raising the water rates will help the town be prepared when a pump goes out or a pipe is burst, he said.

“We’ve got to make sure we’re making enough in the water department so when we do have something come up, when we need a new backwash board or something else that’s a major cost, we’re not twiddling our fingers wondering where that money comes from,” he said.

Once both the garbage and water rates are factored in, Gill said the minimum bill, which is what most households receive, would rise to $49.65. That would be an increase of $10.04 over the current minimum bill of $39.61.

Gill said he wanted residents to understand the board was not raising taxes, and both the garbage and water rate increases were existing costs the city was passing on to its customers.

Miles said any rate adjustment for customers more than one mile outside the town limits would need to be approved by the Mississippi Public Service Commission, and he would need to check the maps to see if Marion would need to go down that road.

Depending on the need for PSC approval, residents should begin to see the new rates on their December bills.

The board plans to hold a town forum at the Hamasa Temple Shrine in the coming days to hear residents’ questions and concerns about the rate increases. Gill said he wanted to hold the forum before November 1, but needed to confirm the shrine’s availability before setting a date.