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ECUA Approves Water, Sewer And Sanitation Rate Increases
August 26, 2021
The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority board has given final approval to increased sanitation, water and sewer rates.
For the average water and sewer customer using 6,000 gallons per month, the added cost will be $1.06. Much of the increase will go to fund a Brownsville sewer expansion project. The increase passed unanimously.
The cost of a single 90-gallon sanitation container, with included recycling and bulk service, jumps $1.85 from $24.54 to $26.39 per month. The increase is intended for pay increases for sanitation workers, include CDL drivers. The increase passed 4-1.
ECUA board members have said the utility is having trouble hiring and retaining personnel, including those in-demand CDL drivers.
Editor’s note: ECUA bulk service has returned as of August 25. It had been suspended for about a week.
Pictured: The Tuesday afternoon meeting of the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority. NorthEscambia.com image, click to enlarge.
Comments
25 Responses to “ECUA Approves Water, Sewer And Sanitation Rate Increases”
K- Stephens, you LIED to the people, you got to go now not tomorrow
I’d just like my trash picked up when it’s supposed to be. Then maybe yet another increase wouldn’t be so bad.
I see Frank’s comment that makes it sound like they will be raising the starting pay for new hires? If that is the case how long will it take to get them trained. I would assume they would want to retain the current Driver’s by increasing the wages for each driver by the amount they change the starting wage. So if they go from $14.36 to 16.36 then every driver that is currently there should get a $2.00 bump as well to stay competitive. If not expect your service to change for the worse until new drivers are trained. That is if they have any drivers left. So I hope Frank is wrong!
The pay increase will not go towards the current employees. The increase will go towards the new hires. That was told to the workers from the Office Manager in a meeting
Of course they did! Who gets the money?? Our water is the lowest quality in the state…..js
This is a joke to the max. I am single. My bill has went up 3 plus since the first of the year. 1 bathroom toilet has been shut off. No longer use dishwasher which I only used twice a week. Many calls made to resolve this issue. No result other then the water bill has finally got taken care of.
Bill nailed it on the head. ECUA is run by bafoons who do NOT HAVE A CLUE HOW TO COST CUT.
Hey william, I thought all the recycle money was going to bring our bills down….WHERE IS OUR MONEY!!! $14,000,000 plus our recycleable materials we have paid to gather…>WHERE IS OUR MONEY…..
Ecua doesn’t make employees go to the meeting to appear to make more citizens there. Not sure if you have priced metal or pipe but every thing is going up. Garbage truck drivers ( which require a cdl) start out at 14.24$ a hour. That’s not even a competitive pay for this area for a cdl driver. You can find all jobs and pay rates on ecua website. So before you go bashing a pay increase do your research. If a mcdonald burger flipper is fighting for 15$ an hour with no responsibilities than a cdl driver with more responsibilities should be way more than 15.
“ECUA approves rate increase” Of course they did
ECUA needs to be disbanded. How do they have a board that votes on country issues for water, trash and sanitation? Turn it over to the BOCC, which is just as bad probably, but at least the constituents who vote can have a say. It is a monopoly that should be held to the TRUST legislation.
This area is getting rediculous. The roads aren’t maintained. God knows the community just had to deal with the fire and bridge outage. Covid. Sanitation is sloppy and throws cans around and I’ve witnessed them dumping recycling in with regular trash. Id love to see some “sanitation increase” stats considering if more people are using the service they’d already be making more by proxy. What a joke.
@Paying Customer… If you can get disconnected from septic and connected to sewer for $550 do it …. when ECUA did this in my subdivision three years ago the average was $4000 to accomplish this, I paid $4400 and my neighbor was over $9,000 to connect. If you dont connect within the first year you also have to pay an impact fee of over $1600. Since going from septic to sewer my bills are double what they were, now averaging about $100 per month. ECUA needs some neutral party regulation that does not allow this unbridled pay increases each year.
Thought our District 5 was against rate increases guess not time to start working on getting him out
Sir Prize…Sir Prize…Sir Prize.
Wow they ask every year for a Increase what about a decrease.
Yes lizzz.
You would expect all these services to be getting cheaper.
The way gas, food and everything else is.
This is getting way out of hand. ECUA sucks. I wish I could move way away from their territory. I have believed for along time they were crocks and I still believe there is something going on with these people. They need to be audited by the state.
I was there.. its a sad day that employees are required to come to the meetings so it looks like “citizens” are there.
Smoke and mirrors.
The board has yet to address the high levels of enterococcus that is surrounding the Tanyard commuity and is dumping into Bruce Beach. Not one safety sign has been established to warn people of the bacteria
November 2021 bill will mark FOUR (4) years I have been paying a “CAP Funding fee” per ECUA employee in November 2017 it is “pre paying for sewer line installation” & past two (2) years I have been paying a “CAP Improvement fee” at a total of $4.00 a month with no sewer lines being installed. ECUA did come out five (5) years ago mark out all the homes with septic tanks & inform us it will cost each home owner approximately $550.00 to discount septic and connect to sewer…still waiting..
It is a shame this organization does not have a management staff in place that could improve service and efficiency, instead they throw increases out here thinking it will fix a long standing problem.
Where there any doubts about the increase happening?
what is the use of having elected
officual when they do what the want
and not respect the wishes of those
who elected them ?????????
just like the other {so called elected} ones
It figures !! I wish I could call a get a pay raise EVERY YEAR . The Utilities in Escambia County go up every flipping year, with the same sorry service. This can not keep going it will be pay you people and go hungry or I eat you get no money which means I’ll have no service.
This outrageous !!
…….”The increase is intended for pay increases for sanitation workers, include CDL drivers……”
“INTENDED” good Scrabble strategy