JENKINSVILLE (Feb. 23, 2017) – A vague water rate increase passed earlier this month by the Jenkinsville Water Company’s board of directors still has no specific numbers attached to it while the board president has refused to respond to inquiries on the matter from The Voice.
During their Feb. 6 meeting, the board voted 5-1 to pass along Mid-County’s rate increases, but without providing any numbers for the public. Board member the Rev. Leon Thompson voted against the rate hike.
“Mid-County has passed it, but we just didn’t have the paperwork in front of us to actually call out a certain number,” board president Gregrey Ginyard said after the meeting. “We’re going to look at the number from Mid-County and it will come out. So we voted to actually look at what the numbers are with Mid-County and stuff to try to keep pace of them.”
However, the board did not vote to “look at what the numbers are.” The board voted “that the rate increase be accepted as discussed,” Ginyard said, reading out the motion before the Feb. 6 vote.
After the meeting, Ginyard said the rate increase had been discussed at previous meetings.
But Mid-County Water has not passed along a rate increase to the Jenkinsville Water Company since July of 2016. That increase – of just 1.4 percent – reflects the increase passed to Mid-County from Winnsboro when Winnsboro’s 2016-2017 budget was adopted.
Ginyard has twice hung up on phone calls from The Voice without answering why the JWC board waited eight months before passing Mid-County’s rate increase on to its customers.
According to the water operator’s report delivered to the board Feb. 6 by James Green, the JWC purchased 1,840,000 gallons of water from Mid-County last month.
