LG Utility Rates to Rise

The La Grange City Council voted to increase water, sewer and electric rates for customers. The rates will go into effect with customers’ November bills. City Manager Shawn Raborn said the City typically increases rates each year according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of inflation. The CPI stood at 8.5 percent according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Inflation in some sectors rose even more. The energy sector, for example, skyrocketed to nearly 33 percent. Due to the historic inflation levels, Raborn proposed a partial CPI adjustment of five percent this year.

The base residential water rate will go from $29.23 to $30.69 per month. The volumetric rate for water will increase by 12 cents per thousand gallons. He said the average customer using $5,000 gallons a month will see a water bill of $38.40. He said the average bill for customers in cities of a similar size is $41.73 per month. The base residential sewer rate will go from $13.27 to $13.93 per month with a volumetric increase of 19 cents per thousand gallons. Raborn said the average customer will see a bill of $22.09 per month, compared to a state average of $36.06 per month for cities of a similar size.

The base electric rate will increase from $14.50 to $15.50 per month. Raborn said the increase in electric rates will help the City pay for its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project. The project will allow the City to read meters remotely from City Hall instead of sending workers to manually read each meter.

In other business at Monday’s meeting, the Council authorized Police Chief David Gilbreath to apply for a state grant that pays for bullet-resistant shields. Gilbreath said he will apply for enough money to purchase 10 shields. He doubted the state would fund all 10, but he expected to receive enough money to purchase some of them.

Gilbreath said his goal is to equip all patrol vehicles with a shield along with several to be placed at strategic locations within La Grange I.S.D. Police use of bullet-resistant shields has received a lot of attention since the Uvalde School Shooting in May.