By ALEXIS ZOTOS
WATE REPORTER
HALLS (WATE) - Residents in the Halls and Powell community are fighting back over constantly increasing utility rats. Customers have started a petition to change demands.
A petition is circulating the Internet among customers of the Hallsdale Powell Utility District. The company admits their rates are higher than other companies, but say it's all part of running a business. Customers though have had enough.
"When I moved here in 2006 I was paying around $30. It continued to raise. I received my bill last month and it went up $10 to $85. For one person who hardly ever cooks, who does two or three loads of laundry a week, who doesn't water the lawn, who doesn't wash her car at home," said Kristen Lane, a concerned HPUD customer.
Lane has been a HPUD customer for six years and for six years she's seen her water bill increase.
"I understand things are going to increase over time, definitely with the economy, they're going to increase but not like this," Lane said.
Lane is among the nearly two thousand people who turned to the Facebook community to vent about the overpriced bills.
"I found out I wasn't the only one, it's pretty much everyone in this district," Lane said.
The utility company says they're aware of the complaints.
"We understand that, we've been looking into it," Darren Cardwell, the president of Hallsdale-Powell Utility District.
"That's why we felt the brunt of it, a lot of capital projects over the last 10 years have led to rate increases going up , in a staged manner not just all at one time," Cardwell said.
According to the company's rate history, in 2007 they had their largest increase, a whopping 24 percent. In 2008, it was a 15 percent. The continues to increase over the years, but by a smaller amount, this year it was a three percent increase.
"It's ridiculous to pay that much just for water," said Anna Collins, a HPUD customer of 10 years.
Collins has had enough and plans to join in on the petition.
"We need at least 10 percent of the customers to get a rate study done and that's the first step. It doesn't mean it will lower the rates but they'll come out and review the rate," Lane said.
They need nearly 3,000 signatures on the Change.org petition. They have 406 signatures, but Lane says she's confident they will meet their goal.
"We definitely have hope and were not giving up until this is resolved."
The utility company says they are taking the complaints into consideration and are looking into a rate study of their own.
