As of July 1, 2024, if your household in the Town of Farmville used 5,000 gallons of water per month for 12 months, you would have paid $43.85 more per month or $526.20 more per year in water and sewer than households using 5,000 gallons per month from the Greenville Utilities Commission (GUC). Farmville’s $121.31 per 5,000 gallons is far above Greenville’s $77.46 and Winterville’s $80.49, and significantly more than the state median of $95.14.
This gap has widened dramatically since July 1, 2021, when the Farmville household paid $28.18 more per month for water and sewer for 5,000 gallons than a GUC household, or $338 more per year.
Use this UNC School of Government dashboard to compare Farmville’s water and sewer rates to those of other municipalities around the state.
https://dashboards.efc.sog.unc.edu/nc
If your family is like ours, most months you have paid the Town of Farmville significantly more for your water and sewer than for your electricity.
In 2015 the Town of Farmville entered into an agreement to become a wholesale customer and to buy water from the Greenville Utilities Commission. The cost per 1,000 gallons would go up by 10 cents for four consecutive years. The starting rate was $1.61 per 1,000 gallons, then it went to $1.71, $1.81, $1.91 and $2.01 in the succeeding years. The agreement was that starting in 2020 there would be an annual rate analysis.
Quoting the increase of the cost of the actual water as only a PERCENTAGE compared to the PERCENTAGE of the increase in our total water bill is misleading. The cost of the actual water we get is only portion of our residential water bill. The Town has to maintain infrastructure, run operations and pay personnel in the water department and in billing. Just because the cost of the actual water might go up by 3%, it does not mean that all of the other costs of parts of the water bill have increased by that same percentage.
The proposed Town of Farmville budget beginning on July 1, 2025 includes a 3.5% increase for water rates, 3.3% increase for sewer rates, 3.5% increase for electric rates, and a 2.4% increase for solid waste collection.
We must understand that the Town of Farmville has to get out of a bad financial situation. There currently is very little money set aside for the construction of a much-needed fire station. The projected cost is over $8.2 million. Farmville’s financial woes go back several years. Some who had a part in getting us in this trouble are no longer in the same positions of power. There are newer faces who are trying to help us get out of problems they had no hand in causing.
celiastone 