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ECUA Approves 9.5% Sanitation Rate Increase With ‘Free’ Second Can, 5% Hike For Water And Sewer
August 23, 2023
The Emerald Coast Utilities Authorities voted Tuesday to approve a 9.5% rate increase for all sanitation customers and a 5% hike for water and sewer.
The 9.5% increase raises the rate for a 90-gallon container from $27.67 to $29.88 and includes an optional additional trash or recycling can at no cost.
Facing a potential $1.8 million shortball and big problems with the wrong items being placed in recycling cans, staff had proposed a more modest 3.5% rate increase for sanitation customers plus a $3 a month recycling fee.
ECUA staff had proposed a 4% rate increase for water and 6% for wastewater. The board approved an increase to both water and wastewater by 5%.
All of the rates increase passes unanimously. The increase go into effect on October 1.
Comments
17 Responses to “ECUA Approves 9.5% Sanitation Rate Increase With ‘Free’ Second Can, 5% Hike For Water And Sewer”
Lot of good commits on here, a lot of people are thinking. First of all never trust a politician. Most would rather climb a 100′ tall tree stand on the top & tell a lie than stand flat footed on the ground & tell the truth. The recycling problem is found in who is doing the recycling. Almost all plastics are recyclable & there are new & innovative ways to recycle but it requires human sorting, machines can’t do it all. Someone must get their hands dirty. Not repairing vehicles properly or only just enough to get by is inexcusable. It’s a public safety violation. Why was a 9.5% increase put on the table when a 3.5% was recommended? It all boils down to leadership. I know some of the people employed & they are quite competent at their job. Once again its a sign leadership failing. The stupidity is not on the public, the the entire board needs replacing.
@ Give me a break:
Actually, yes, maggots can form within 24 hours.
Look back at Keven Stevens campaign interviews in 2020 to see what promises he made. Didn’t happen. He scammed us, I voted for him, won’t happen again in 2024.
@whatsnext
You could practice basic sanitation on your can
Maggots don’t sprout overnight.
Newsflash: I look around myself every day and I realize that the average customer is indeed just that stupid.
It appears that several people know how to run a business in here. Let’s start with payroll ECUA has to compete for drivers in a market that is paying drivers $22 to $30 an hour. ECUA starts at under $20 an Hour. The cost of the Equipment has doubled something that the board can do nothing about. The cost for dumping the trash has gone up per ton. The contamination of recycling shows that something has to be done. But what charge to recycle or tell customers you have 1 can you pay for and get the free recycling can or now since you chose not to recycle correctly and we know this you can now get a free trash can instead of contaminating the recycling with trash. But our rates are going up either way for the reasons listed above. If you wish to have just 1 can for both we can do that also. That’s is what I am getting out of this. Just look what it cost to eat out or buy groceries.
It was better with 2 day pick up. Now 1 day a week, you still have to put the same weekly garbage in 1 can and in summer it’s so hot, long before pick up day maggots are crawling in & out of can. Disgusting! Also, immediately bring on the 2nd trash can and get this recycle can. See c
We need competition for Gods sake!!! I moved here two years ago and have watched the rates increase both years. This is insane! When Government needs more money they print it or raise taxes and we are all living with the hidden tax called inflation due to the governments inability to reign in spending! Now our utilities are doing the same thing!! Why oh why do we not have competition among utility companies so that these bloated fat cat companies can learn to operate within a budget! I also see in here that drivers are suffering even though the rates are increasing! Again competition within the marketplace will fix this problem as well! I appreciate everyone that works everyday to keep our street’s and neighborhoods clean, but have nothing but disdain for elected officials and governmental habits that take more money out of my kids mouths so they can live the good life!! COMPETITION NOW!!!!
Plastics are hard to sort. Maybe the manufacturers should start making products that are easier to recycle. Who has time to get scissors and cut labels off spray bottles? 90 percent of my recycling volume is cardboard from shipping boxes, and milk jugs. I’d be fine with a community cardboard dumpster or reusable milk jugs like the old day. Seems like hiring some humans to sort easy recycling stuff from garbage would be cheaper than having a whole fleet of recycling trucks.
@Driver. Thank you for what you do. It’s a hard, hot, smelly job made more difficult with equipment and employee shortages and that is super important and you deserve a good wage for it. I appreciate you.
VOTE THEM OUT
Aside from rates for services and fees associated with start/stop, what other revenue sources does ECUA have?
Services could be cut. But which ones? And how?
Or salaries and benefits. But if too deep, they cannot compete with other employment options.
Sounds to me like newly elected officials have visions of sugar plums as candidates, and the voters buy into the sweet flavor. But when the budget balance sheet shows up, real issues require real decisions.
@Jason-
Well, unfortunately, ECUA customers are stupid because of the contamination rates in the recyclables, that cannot be used.
If ECUA had across the board competition, they would learn to live/operate w/in their means like 90% of the folks they dun every week,
All of this will go away if ECUA does away with recycling. We are short trucks, no clue when the new ones will come in. We are out here driving and getting the routes done with no ac! The board or administration cares nothing about us at all, all they care about is getting the route done. We have had at least 3 drivers this summer have heat strokes or heat illness. We are super short on mechanics so they are only patch fixing the trucks. It’s super sad to work here every day, but bills has to be paid! ECUA workers are still underpaid another big problem. You expect drivers and mechanics to start out making the same as McDonald’s we will never get any good qualified workers.
But of course they did. Who didn’t see that coming.
Voters must simply do better in electing their representative for ECUA. There has to be a better way to solve budgetary problems without resorting to raising rates every single year. Growth in Escambia COUNTY is exploding year after year and still with the new income generated by this growth the ECUA has to find a way to dig deeper into the pocket of rate payers and demand more money.
ECUA Districts 1, 3 and 5 are up for re-election in 2024. I voted for Kevin Stephens in his last election and he has been a HUGE disappointment. For someone who ran for office opposed to increasing rates unless absolutely necessary, Kevin has voted to approve every increase that has come before the board.
There is nothing “FREE” about the 2nd can. Customers already pay for two cans – a trash can and a recycle can. Now ECUA wants to sell customers if they give up their recycling can they can get a second trash can for FREE. Seriously, the Board Members – especially District 4 rep Dale Perkins – think that their customers are “too stupid” figure out they are being hoodwinked in believing “the second can is FREE”.
The District 1 rep — Vickie Campbell — thinks customers are “untrainable” on how to use recycling and nothing the board can do will improve recycling efforts.
Yes, your elected reps think the average customer is just this stupid. Not one member rejected to the comments of Perkins or Campbell. The media has chosen to ignore the comments. The whole board has got to go.