RURAL RESIDENTS QUESTION COST OF SCOTT CITY WATER

SCOTT CITY -- A group of Scott County residents believe the Scott City Council is telling them to come into the city or pay.

On Sunday Betty Jackson and Joyce Dover headed a gathering of more than 20 people who own property adjacent to the Scott City limits and have contracts with the city to provide water. Recently, the Scott City Council informed them that they signed new contracts that include a 175 percent rate increase, although few of the 100 people involved said they remember signing the contracts, said Jackson.

Orley Jackson said the city is trying to force them into the city limits.

"All I've been hearing from those people is, 'Why don't you just join the city?'" he said. "They've got homes in town that they can't provide sewer service to, so what do they have to offer us?"

In 1989, the same group sued the city when the council voted to add a $15 user fee to water buyers outside the city. The litigation ended in a compromise, and county residents who hook up to the city's water system are required to pay a $7.50 user fee. After that case was settled new contracts with the city were signed.

The contracts state that the non-city user fees will not rise unless city user fees also increase. Those contracts are automatically renewed every two years unless one or both parties decide to end it and give 60-days notice.

Betty Jackson said her notification came when she approached the City Council about the rate hike and was informed she had already signed the new contract with the 175 percent increase.

The new agreement also stipulates that property owners will install a master meter, at an approximate cost of $2,500, at the junction where their pipes connect with the city's main line. The meters will monitor water flow out from the city and will be checked against the individual meters. If the amounts do not correlate, the property owners will be responsible for paying the difference.

"None of us has a problem with putting a master meter in," Dover said. "The problem is it's $2,500. The property owners can share the cost, but if there's only one or two people on that line it's still going to be expensive."

Dover said the city is now requiring a $2,500 water hook-up fee plus a $2,500 sewer hook-up fee for new users.

Scott City Public Works director Harold Uelsmann said the higher hook-up fees have been in effect for more than a year.

"The taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for running those lines out there," Uelsmann said. "It's getting real costly to treat the water and pipe it out of the city limits, and the people out of town are not paying any (property) taxes."

John Richbourg, finance director for the city of Cape Girardeau, said Cape Girardeau requires a $200 hook-up fee for water to houses outside the city limits, just like they do for city residents. Betty Jackson said that when she brought that up to the Scott City Council she was told she should relocate.

"(Councilman) J.T. Gulley said, 'Well Betty, why don't you just move to Cape Girardeau then,'" Jackson said. "That's the kind of answers we've been getting."

Darrell and Sherry Welter, who have lived outside Scott City on Route 1 for five years, don't remember signing a new contract or receiving that contract in the mail.

"I think the city is trying to get back at us because we had taken them to court one time before," Darrell Welter said. "That was where this whole thing started."