Hawesville discusses increasing fees

A light agenda greeted Hawesville City Council members at their December meeting Tuesday evening. The only topic of discussion was a proposal by Hawesville Mayor Charles King to craft an ordinance to increase the water deposit fee on rental customers, and to require new homes to pay a $150 fee.
“We are running into problems with our deposits,” Mayor King said. “We are running into problems with people paying their bills as a matter of fact.”

King said the problem started several years ago, and steadily become worse. Currently, the city charges rental customers a $100 deposit for the water system. King said people run up anywhere from $300 to $500 water bills then move out of Hawesville without paying the large water bill. The $100 deposit is not enough to cover the bill, which costs the city money.

“I would like to raise that (rental deposit) to $200,” King said. “Right now we are losing a lot of money.”
In addition to raising the rental deposit, King said he wanted the proposed ordinance to specifically stipulate that the rental property owner is ultimately responsible for the water bill if the renter leaves owing a large water bill. King said this measure simply codifies what the city already does: make the property owner responsible for the bill.

Council member Kevin Linn said he opposed making the property owner responsible for the bill. Linn said he thinks the city needs to craft a contract that makes the renter responsible for the bill. Linn said he thought making the property owner responsible for the bill makes it difficult on the property owner to rent the property. King said he respected Linn’s position, but the city needed to do something because the city is losing a great deal of money due to people absconding while owing a large bill.

King said he also wants the proposed ordinance to start charging new homeowners a water deposit when they build a home and contract for city water. Currently the city does not charge at all. King said he wanted a deposit of $150.
“These are fees that would help us some,” King said.

By Ralph Dickerson