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Consultant recommends sizable gas-rate increase to close operating shortfall; council briefed on options
Summary
A consultant told the council that Elizabethtown's municipal gas base rates have not been adjusted since 2012 and recommended rate increases to restore cash flow. Scenarios presented would raise typical residential bills by about $17.80 to $23.16 monthly depending on the option; the consultant favored a middle scenario to replenish fund balance.
Elizabethtown ' A consulting presentation to the Elizabethtown City Council on Sept. 22 concluded the city's municipal gas base rates have not kept pace with non-gas operating costs and recommended raising facility charges and base rates to stop multi-year cash deficits.
Scott Heath of Magnolia River Services, which acquired much of Heath and Associates earlier in 2025, told councilors the last base-rate changes took effect in February 2012. His cost-of-service review found non-gas operating costs rose from about $2.5 million in 2009 to roughly $4.2 million in fiscal 2024, and that the gas utility experienced cash-flow deficits in recent years ranging from about $927,000 to more than $3 million annually.
Heath said the gas supply (the commodity) is a pass-through; the…
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