Bond issue would extend water lines

On Tuesday's ballot, voters in Public Water Supply District No. 2 of Cape Girardeau County will decide on a $1.5 million revenue bond to extend and improve the waterworks system.

More houses have been built in the area from west of Burfordville to Oak Ridge, including Millersville, and the number of users on the current water line has increased from 500 to about 700 since 2001. The board has plans to dig another well, although it does not yet have the money to do so.

"It's getting on the critical side," said Robert Smith, president of the water district board. "If the numbers keep on increasing, we're going to run short of water."

If Tuesday's proposal passes, said board clerk Wilda Peterman, there's no way of determining how much of an increase in water bills the bond may cause. The increase would depend on how much money would have to be spent as more houses are built.

"We do everything we can to keep our expenses as low as possible," Peterman said. "When every other industry passes an increase, it cuts out our profits."

Peterman said the expansion could trigger up to a $15 increase per household on the minimal cost of water from the line. "The district will have to raise water rates whether or not the bond passes because we're not generating any revenue to do any upgrades," she said.

The current minimum for having an active meter in the district is $22 for 2,000 gallons of water per month, and $3.20 for each additional 1,000 gallons. "If you waste water, you pay for your waste. If you conserve, you get by pretty reasonable," Peterman said.

District No. 2 voters will also elect either Gale Crites or Randy Lindgren to the board of directors for subdistrict 5, to replace Michael Thompson, who died last year.

Crites, who lives on Lyndon Road, said his water bill averages $40 to $50 a month.

"I don't want to be so negative. I just feel our rates are too high now," he said. "If our rates were down low, I could see taking on a new bond."

In 1998, voters approved a 30-year revenue bond of $500,000 for expansions. The next year, they approved one for $1.5 million. Peterman said water bills had to be doubled to pay those debts.

Lindgren, who lives on West Ora Lee Drive, said he thinks taking on new customers will only decrease the rising cost of water for each individual user. "It's no frivolous thing," he said. "I don't look at it in terms of water going up. They're not looking to improve on the system we already have in place."

tkrakowiak@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137