Sara Coffey, member of the Henderson City Council, was on Wednesday’s edition of WIZS’ Town Talk program to discuss the City’s recent meeting with the Kerr Lake Regional Water Partners.

Attendees of the November 27 meeting held at City Hall included representatives from the City of Henderson, the City of Oxford and Warren County.

The KLRW Advisory Board reviewed the system upgrade project, discussed a possible revision of the partners’ rate structure and reviewed results from a recent study projecting water usage over the next 10 years.

According to Coffey, the meeting focused mainly on a potential new rate structure and the partners’ capacity needs.

“No decisions were made at this meeting, other than to move forward with the rate structure discussion,” said Coffey. “We will meet again in December to decide how to proceed.”

Several factors necessitate a rate structure change, Coffey said, including the increase in cost to operate the water plant, the cost of new equipment and the increase in costs of water and water treatment measures.

“We [Henderson] are 60 percent partners, so 60 percent of the debt is on the City of Henderson,” said Coffey. “We need a different rate structure; ours has been the same for a good, long time now.”

Additional discussions focused on the capacity needs of each partner, a task that, according to Coffey, is hard to determine exactly. To help with this process, a study was conducted to project water usage for the next 10 years according to a variety of scenarios.

Plans to change the rate structure are still in the infancy stage, but, according to Coffey, the project will move forward.

“All we came away with yesterday was to know the project wasn’t going to be scrapped. Warren County has $3 million and we [Henderson] have $3 million to use. It does not need to be sent back. It needs to go into the water and water plant.”

To hear the interview in its entirety, including discussion on current and upcoming events in and around Henderson, please click here.