Minutes 06/19/1975 - Laserfiche WebLink

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THURSDAY JUNE 19, 1975 According to Don Richardson, the city takes 6 samples of water per week and sends the samples to the State Health Department where the samples are checked for harmful bacteria. The State Health Department has cited the quality of Martinsville's water as one of the highest in the state. Most Martinsville Citizens pay a total water and sewer connection fee of $300.00. The same total connection fees in Henry County for water and sewer are $800.00, and $1,200.00 after a notification period of 90 days. A typical Martinsville Citizen who consumes 6,000 gallons of water per month pays $3.85 for water and $3.85 for sewer, a total of $7.70 per month. A typical Henry County citizen who consumes 6,000 gallons of water per month pays $7.00 for water and $6.00 for sewer, a total of $13.00 per month. The Martinsville citizen pats $92.40 per year, the Henry County citizen pays $156.00 per year, a difference of 69%. These are only a few examples of services that Martinsville's citizens have become accustomed to and enjoy. But services are not free, they cost money. The City finances are now at the point where Council must come to grips with budget problems that the City began to face four years ago - and it seems to me that we are out of windfalls. We could go to quarterly billing on real estate, instead of twice a year which would produce a windfall. But keep in mind that the windfall would last one year - the extra billing expense would last forever. The surplus of the Electric Department has been almost depleted, and next year we will begin what I feel is a dangerous precedent - that of transferring money ($47,000.00) from the Water and Sewer funds to the General Fund. The logical question is where will we get this $47,000.00 the following year? There is no appreciable increase in Federal Revenue-Sharing Funds next year. Costs continue to rise. Revenues are declining. And, all this has happened at the worst possible time. Martinsville's citizens are experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression. Now is the time that all of us must decide if we are willing to pay the price for these services and continue our standard of living, or if we want to give up something. And we must make this decision because the whole concept of a balanced budget is that we fund operating expenses as we go. If we don't do this we live above our heads - we get accustomed to a standard of living which is not realistic - and we have lived beyond our means for the last several years.