Malta Council increases rates after 7 hour meeting

What started with a regular Malta City Council meeting and ended with the passing of three resolutions increasing of garbage, water and landfill users in Malta will now pay, lasted nearly seven hours and included public hearings, discussions and disagreements.

The meeting was moved from the Malta City Hall Council Room to the building’s gym to accommodate the crowd of 32 city residents who showed up for the public hearings (also in attendance were the six council members, Malta Mayor Shyla Jones and several City of Malta employees.)

The first of the three public hearings covered landfill increases with an ordinance intending to change how much people would be charged when dumping at the City Landfill. Those charges included demolition materials, tires, tubes, appliances and metal items (the entire ordinance, as it ran in the legal section of the PCN, can be found at the PCN website under “Land Fill Rates” or read them at City Hall.) One of the needs to increase rates at the landfill includes the opening of a new cell for garbage at the location. During the discussion on landfill rates, Mayor Jones encouraging audience members to approach Phillips County Commissioners and encourage them to bring County garbage to the City Landfill instead of trucking it out of Phillips County.

“That would make a big, big difference,” said Mayor Jones. “And we have tried so I don’t think that is an option right now.”

The increase in landfill rates were approved hours later – following 52 minutes of public hearing on the topic -- when the City Council meeting commenced following the hearings.

The second public hearing of the night was on the topic of garbage rates and increasing those rates $84 per year and also proposed to change how the rates on empty lots and cold-storage garbage is charged. One of the hottest topics of concern by audience members was the empty lots and cold storage increases Following the public hearing, when the Council met back in the chambers, council members took a closer look at the new charges and decided that the increase for empty lot and cold storage was too high. A motion was made stating that on July 1, 2016, all current rates per unit will increase $84 per year and multipliers will increase by 38-percent. The motion passed 4-0.

The final public hearing on the night was on water rate increases (a copy of the ordinance, as it passed, can be read on the PCN website under Water Rate Increase or at the Malta City Offices.) The ordinance states “It is necessary for the City to increase its water rates to provide adequate funding for the continued operation and maintenance of the System, to pay debt service on the bond, and to establish appropriate reserves.”

Much of the debate from audience members during the meeting had to do with being charged for properties not currently connected to the water system, but that have an existing structure on the property on and properties that have a stub-out located on the property. The City proposed – and approved – a monthly base rate of $40 per unit and 11,000 gallons per month (May through September) and 6,000 gallons (October through April) no extra charge. Once a user exceeds the 11,000 or 6,000 gallons, there will be a charge of $2 per 2,000 gallons. The new monthly charge represents an increase of approximately 92% over the current monthly charge, according to the ordinance.