Columbus Light and Water board members are looking into options for generating more revenue, one of which includes acquiring new customers for water services.
Last week, board president Andrew Colom named himself and fellow CL&W board members Micheal Tate and Jimmy Graham to a three-person committee to review expansion of its territory. This will include hiring an outside consulting firm to review the feasibility of purchasing customers and how to best approach the utility providers CL&W would be purchasing them from.
The two providers mentioned were East Lowndes Water Association and Prairie Land Water Association.
There are roughly 2,000 Columbus residents, primarily in the northern portion of the city limits, whose electrical and sewer services are provided by CL&W but are provided water by East Lowndes, CL&W General Manager Todd Gale said. CL&W serves about 12,500 electric and sewer customers and 10,500 water customers.
Prairie Land Water Association provides water services to residents west of the Tennessee-Tombigbee River and none in the city limits, Gale said.
During last week’s meeting, Colom said it would be advantageous to at least bring customers in the city limits that are being provided water by East Lowndes under CL&W’s umbrella.
“There are people who live in the city who could be our customers who are customers of East Lowndes Water Association who are paying 30 percent more for no reason,” Colom said. “If they’re not interested in selling, we want to let them know that we will let their customers know through advertising, through writing letters…that they are currently charging their customers 30 percent more and they’re not offering a better service than we can.”
Graham suggested hiring outside help to provide exact figures on how many customers CL&W would be acquiring and help define the best ways for CL&W to approach the other providers.
“I think we need to do our homework and get down how many customers there are,” Graham said. “You need to approach them diplomatically. If you get down to hardball, it’s going to be contentious and a harder sale. Let’s be sure that we can afford it and that it’s good for us.”
East Lowndes Water Association General Manager Grant Mitchell noted that CL&W previously approached his utility provider about selling customers. The answer then was ‘No,’ and the same answer would be given if approached again, Mitchell said.
“We would help them any way they need help other than we’re not interested in selling customers,” Mitchell said. “We have a mutual aid relationship. We’re here to help each other. As far as buying and selling customers, I know that’s a position we’ve taken in the past and I don’t see that changing. They’re looking for revenue and we need to retain our revenue as well.”
A representative for Prairie Land Water Association could not be reached as of press time.
CL&W charges a minimum monthly bill of $11.80 plus tax for residential customers, Gale said. Prairie, according to its website, charges a $10 minimum monthly fee. East Lowndes does not have a minimum monthly fee.
CL&W sells water in units, which are 100 cubic feet or 748 gallons. A minimum bill currently provides a customer four units of water. Each additional unit on top of the minimum four units costs a customer an extra $2.95 per unit. CL&W charges $3.94 per 1,000 gallons.
East Lowndes and Prairie sell water by every 1,000 gallons. Mitchell said East Lowndes charges $5.25 per 1,000 gallons. On top of Prairie’s fee, residents pay $6.85 per 1,000 gallons.
Colom said with more customers not only comes more revenue for CL&W’s water budget, but better efficiency in services as well.
“I want to try to do this,” Colom said. “If it doesn’t work, I want to know it failed because there was nothing we could do and we tried all avenues.”
Mitchell said his utility provider has worked with CL&W in the past to provide better fire protection, including upgrading water line sizes and fire hydrants. But he referred to customers inside of the city limits as some of East Lowndes’ longest tenured customers.
“If we couldn’t provide the service, I could understand we need to release them,” Mitchell said, “but we provide excellent service at a fair rate, so it wouldn’t be an advantage to the customer to go to the city.”
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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