Wood County Commission votes in favor of PSD rate increases

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (WTAP) - Customers of the Lubeck and Claywood Park Public Service Districts will soon be seeing their bills go up. The Wood County Commission voted on May 22 to approve rate increases for both PSDs.

Lubeck requested an 8% increase for sewer service and a 9% increase for water. Claywood Park requested an 11% increase on sewer service and a 6.19% water rate increase spread over the next two years. Representatives from both PSDs have said the rate increases are necessary to fund projects and account for the impact of inflation on chemical prices.

Commission president Blair Couch proposed offering financial support from the commission to the PSDs to help lower the rate increase. “I tried to ask Rocky McConnell (the general manager of Lubeck Public Service District), ‘if we gave you 100,000 or 150,000, how much would that reduce your rate? And Zach Dobbins, their accountant said, ‘I’m not sure, but it would.’ And then I said the same with Claywood Park, ‘What if we give Claywood a direct contribution?’ And Zach said, and I followed up with an email already, asking them to look into that and let us know.”

Couch said he would’ve liked to iron out those details before voting during the May 22 meeting. “My hope is that we can work towards reducing their rate, and we’ll do everything we can to do so,” Couch said. “But Commissioner Tebay and Colombo were in favor of the rate increase and I joined them. It’s best to have a united commission.”

Nonetheless, he said future meetings could be scheduled to adjust the rate increase if the commission finds a way to get it lower.

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