SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) — The City of Spring Hill reminded residents that they will start seeing a rise in their utility bills this August.

It's part of a multi-year city-wide plan passed last year to raise capital to increase water and sewer capacity.

“In June 2024, a three-year plan was put in place to increase not only the user rates, but the impact fees that new development pays as well — to increase it in a stair step fashion,” Spring Hill Mayor Matt Fitterer told News 2.

While Spring Hill resident Greg Groninger already knew about the raised rate, he acknowledged the rate hike still may have caught some residents by surprise.

"This is not unexpected, but I realized — it's arresting to get hit with it all of a sudden, like a month before,” Groninger told News 2.

Starting July 1, residents will see a 30% increase in water and sewer rates as well as a rise in stormwater and sanitation rates.

"It's not easy," Fitterer added. "I don't expect it to be easy. I'm a utility user too, so my bill is going up, right?"

Fitterer said the gradual yearly rate increases are necessary to meet the city's growing needs. He also points out state law requires utilities need to be run as enterprises, and if they are not self-supporting, the state could step in to raise rates.

"This is the appropriate way to operate a utility: staying ahead of things, not getting into fiscal problems, and not getting into situations where you can't make capital investments into your system,” Fitterer said.

In the meantime, some residents said they may make some adjustments in their utility usage this summer to keep their costs down. Groninger told News 2 that he and his wife started looking into rain barrel networks.

"My wife even found out that in Davidson County, the county government subsidizes your water barrels … to help water your lawn [and] garden — to kind of take the strain off Metro Nashville Water, so we're gonna look at that and I was going to float that to some city administrators,” Groninger said.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/spring-hill-utility-bills-to-rise-multi-year-plan/