{"id":14657,"date":"2024-04-12T15:07:56","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T19:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=14657"},"modified":"2024-04-12T15:07:56","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T19:07:56","slug":"surging-prices-could-hit-decatur-water-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/12\/surging-prices-could-hit-decatur-water-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Surging prices could hit Decatur water rates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Surging prices could bring an increase in water rates to Decatur customers in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At its latest meeting, the city&#8217;s board of works and safety approved a request by Clerk-Treasurer (and former water department director) Kevin Hackman to have a rate study done by Crowe LLP, a consulting firm which has four offices in Indiana, including one in Fort Wayne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"316\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/00952D28B4274B5BB8AA92B908E7FE51.jpg?resize=640%2C316&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/00952D28B4274B5BB8AA92B908E7FE51.jpg?w=694&amp;ssl=1 694w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/00952D28B4274B5BB8AA92B908E7FE51.jpg?resize=300%2C148&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Rates were hiked in 2018 and 2020 due to the construction of two new water plants, but a rate study has not been done since 2016, Hackman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prices are continuing to rise, Hackman pointed out. As an example, two chemicals used by the water department cost around $210,000 in 2020. The price of the two is now in the vicinity of $405,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPrices for pipe, everything is going up,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, the city lost its second largest user, Deans Foods\/Driggs, a few years ago, and the revenue from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crowe will do the rate study for $16,000 to $18,000, and it will take six or so weeks to complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe really need to do this,\u201d Mayor Dan Rickord said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Surging prices could bring an increase in water rates to Decatur customers in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-14657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}