By Taylor Boyd
The Stuart Town Council could potentially raise utility rates to help balance its enterprise fund in the proposed fiscal year 2026-27 budget.
Town Manager Bryce Simmons said the master budget, which balances every fund to a zero, is $2,487,425.
“This includes full funding maintenance of our sanitation vehicles, which was very much about double what we had anticipated prior to last year, and including $50,000 in utility capital funding for water and sewer,” he said.
Simmons said the budget with the increase in proposed utility rates will slash a general fund subsidy by over $157,000 to the enterprise fund.
“This budget, with the utility rate increases, will generate an additional $240,000 based on the rate analysis that was performed,” he said.
The current minimum utility rate for a resident using under 2,000 gallons a month is $53.26.
After doing everything possible to cap the rate at $70 per resident, Simmons said the increase would be $16.74 monthly “to residential customers that use the minimum.”
According to the water bill analysis, roughly 156 of the 405 residential customers use under 2,000 gallons of water monthly.
To help reduce this blow to customers, Simmons said the town could raise the minimum rate from 2,000 gallons to 3,000 or 4,000 gallons.
“To be all inclusive so people wouldn’t see it as often, it’d be one way to sort of cap that if the council wanted to pursue,” he said.
Simmons said it is one option to try to reduce the town’s dependency on the general fund for its enterprise fund.
Council member Rebecca Adcock asked if Simmons had compared the potential increased cost with other localities, “because I know our rates are woefully or woefully under” the average, she said.
Simmons said there were a couple of targets he was trying to hit with the proposed rate increase, including trying to cap subsidization of the enterprise fund at $250,000.
“Which I was slightly unable to do just because I didn’t want to go more than $70 as a base rate for all combined services. I did get our interfund transfer down to $279,000, which we were very close to $500,000 in the previous years,” Simmons said.
Council member Erica Wade asked if Simmons could create a document so the council could see the projected numbers, and Simmons replied that he could.
Mayor Terry Dalton asked when the council would need to make a decision.
Simmons said the council has three months before a budget has to be approved.
Dalton asked what would happen if the cap were raised to 3,000 gallons.
“If we wanted to cap at 3,000, that would affect approximately 73 additional customers based on the analysis. Even if we want up to 4,000, that would be approximately 275 customers that would be paying at that base rate,” Simmons said.
Vice-mayor Dave Hoback asked if Simmons could “noodle the numbers” some more.
“I can only speak for myself. I’m highly blessed that I can pay the water bill, whatever it is. Other people, not as much, and I know how these things go and how these things get reported. If you look at it on a percentage basis, it looks pretty ugly if you look at it that way,” Hoback said.
Wade said the potential increase works out to about a $200 increase yearly. “That could be a lot,” she said.
“The issue that we’re running into for a breakeven for our water and sewer to pay itself, we would have to increase nearly $40 per customer per month. That is completely unacceptable. I wish that we could not charge for water and sewer, but I know that this is going to be something that we have to tackle,” Simmons said.
In other matters, the council:
Approved contributing $2,500 to the Patrick County Music Association.
Heard an unsafe structure update.
Heard an update on the Stuart Downtown Revitalization project.
Discussed the Virginia Retirement System.
Approved the February 18 meeting minutes.
Paid the bills.
Council member Jeff Houchins did not attend the meeting.
