Increasing costs for maintaining their water plant brought heated remarks from council members during the regular monthly meeting of the Evarts City Council on Tuesday.

“I want to know why the gas bill for the water department is so high this month,” said council member Wilburn Pryor. “It’s as high as the police department’s gas bill. The water department’s gas bill is $687 and the police is $655. Could someone explain this to me?”

Evarts Mayor Burl Fee said due to increased fuel costs at the pump, and the fact the water department has to do water maintenance every day increase the costs.

“We have to check every pump station all the way to Holmes Mill and Black Mountain,” said Fee. “We read every meter. We have three master readers doing this, using three different vehicles.”

Pryor inquired of the council if money for fuel was allowed in the water grants the city had received.

Fee advised the water grants the city had received paid only for the wells and other water projects, and gas was not included in those grants. Fee added that the city now has 26 miles of water lines that have to be maintained.

“Men are running up and down the road doing maintenance work that the city is paying for,” said Pryor. “We’re having to pay for this every time we take on a new grant. The city is paying wages and gas bills for maintenance people to upkeep people up the river.”

Fee said there is a water project getting ready to begin that will provide water to the Holmes Mill area.

“That’s going to add 200 more people on our water system,” said Fee. “Black Mountain Utilities will be responsible for it as far as putting the system in place, but we’ll be responsible for the meters because we sell Black Mountain the water. We are presently billing 1,026 water customers per month. We read the meters of all these people. It’s what we have to do.”

Pryor said when grants were offered in the future, the city needs to consider the costs of maintenance. He further added new water rates should be considered also.

“Actually, rural development, right now, wants us to raise the water rates again,” said Fee. “We’ve got a bond payment coming up Jan. 1 in the amount of $57,000. That has to come out of this water project.”

Pryor said it was situations such as that causing the city to go in the hole.

“You can’t just pay labor, gas, upkeep on trucks and stuff and get ahead,” said Pryor. “We can’t raise water bills either.”

Fee reiterated because of the bond payment, water rates may have to be adjusted. He said the bond payments were scheduled to end in the year 2033.

“We pay $82,500 per year in bond payments,” said Fee. “Then they want us to have that much money in a depreciation account, but we just can’t do that. We don’t have enough money coming in to do that. They don’t say you’ve got to do it but if they wanted to recall those loans, they could. We’re not the only city that doesn’t do it either. We just ain’t going to have enough money to have that kind of an account.”

Council member Larry Caudill said the city needed to keep an eye on things such as fuel and maintenance so that things did not get out of hand.

“We can’t sit here and expect local people to keep this water system going,” said Pryor.

The Division of Water directs the placement of waterlines Fee explained to council members.

“We don’t just sit here and decide what to do,” said Fee. “They don’t care how we collect that money or if we’ve got enough money to operate it on. They just do it and we’re on our own. We have to get by. We don’t go in the hole, we just break even.”

Pryor suggested the water system be turned over to the county so they could collect money and provide maintenance.

“We need to get out of the water business,” said Pryor. “Let the county start carrying this responsibility. We’re supposed to be running a city not a water works.”

City attorney Otis Doan explained to the council it was not legally possible to turn the water system over to the county. He said the grant money for the water system was provided by the federal government, not from the citizens of Evarts.

“If it hadn’t been for the taxpayers from the state of Kentucky and the United States giving you that grant money, you’d be out here in the river getting water with buckets,” said Doan.

Pryor said he was worried that people at the head of the river would disconnect from the water system and go back to using their wells, causing more problems for the city.

“They can’t disconnect, no sir, you are wrong, that’s mandatory, city water is mandatory,” said Doan. “If they disconnect they can be fined. When citizens sign up for water, they sign a legal contract.”

Doan said when the city received grant money they were required to fulfill obligations to the Division of Water.

“You can’t dictate to the Division of Water,” said Doan. “These people dictate to you because the city of Evarts could not have built these plants without federal money and believe me the Division of Water will make sure people have water. They don’t shut water plants down because they won’t take people’s water away from them. The city of Evarts has received numerous grants for water projects, not just one, but numerous. The grants were not intended for just the city of Evarts but for everyone in the area surrounding Evarts, that’s why you have a plant capable of producing 750,000 gallons of water per day.”

Doan said the million dollar grant the city received for this plant was a gift to everyone in the Evarts area.

“So what the city is doing is selling their soul to the Division of Water so they can tell us how to run our business,” said Pryor.

Fee reminded Pryor he was on the council in 1999 when Fee took office as mayor. He said at that time the state was planning to give the operation of the water plant to a private contractor in Kansas City.

“If they had turned it over to a private contractor, I guarantee you, your water rates would be triple what they are now,” said council member Preston McLain. “Private contractors want their money, that’s the only reason they would do it. So, I think the citizens are lucky the city is involved instead.”