BENTON, Arkansas — On Monday night, the Benton city council amended the proposed Benton Utilities rate increases.
This decision came after a heated public meeting last week had many unhappy residents voicing their disapproval of the rate hikes.
The board was split on whether to make the changes.
While all the amendments passed, there was some back and forth from members on whether they should stay with the utility commission's recommendations or adhere to the public.
Ultimately, it came down to listening to the concerns of the people.
These rate increases will be for water, wastewater, and electric— and the amendments call for less of a cost hike on all three services compared to the initial proposal that was made last month.
President of Benton Utilities Commission, Jerry Ponder, explained that these changes will not bring in enough money, and would cause Benton Utilities to be in the red.
"We are in all likelihood going to run out of the unrestricted cash balance and have to access reserves before these rates take effect," said Ponder. "I don't know how you expect these utilities to function and provide the service that citizens of Benton deserve based on the proposal that's in front of us."
The president also said in the meeting that with the new proposal, Benton Utilities would receive an additional $4 million in the next three years— but with inflation and the cost of electricity going up it's not sustainable.
This means that there will be no new equipment or vehicles and operations will suffer.
After the meeting, we asked Ponder what the average bill will look like for customers if this were to pass and he said he's still working on that answer.
A vote is expected after the final reading at the next council meeting in January.
Here you can read more about the wastewater amendment, the water amendment, and the electric amendment.