A few moments after approving an $8 monthly fee for 24,000 gravity sewer customers, the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Treatment Authority voted 7-5 to increase its rates by six percent.

“The first I heard of this was this morning,” said Bob Privett, an authority board member and Soddy-Daisy mayor. “This (the lack of public notice) was the problem that brought all this down on us with the eight dollar monthly fee.”

The rate increase is meant as a way to stem a $300,000 budget shortfall brought on by increased costs for treatment at the Moccasin Bend Sewage Treatment Plant, personnel costs and asset depreciation, officials said.

Several board members argued that approving a rate increase so quickly would raise public ire.

The issue first came up Tuesday at a special called meeting.

For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.

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