The Helena-West Helena City Council on Oct. 29 adopted ordinances changing water and sewer charges and approved an emergency clause setting a Jan. 1, 2025 effective date for the initial changes. Council members said the changes are needed to qualify for loan-forgiveness and to shore up the utilities' finances.

City staff read the water ordinance in full before the council voted. The ordinance sets initial meter charges by meter size (for example, a 3/4-inch meter at $16.74 and a 1-inch meter at $27.47) and a volume charge of $5.06 per 1,000 gallons for in-city customers. Outside-city customers would pay 25% more. The ordinance also lists a wholesale rate that remains $5.06 per 1,000 gallons until 07/01/2025, when the wholesale rate is written to increase to $7.58 per 1,000 gallons in the ordinance language. City staff said the current rate study also identified a $7.39 per 1,000-gallon benchmark as the longer-term break-even figure; council agreed the city would reassess with a new rate study in 2026 before raising to higher wholesale levels.

Councilors debated timing and indexing language. The draft ordinance initially included an automatic annual adjustment of 3% to account for inflation; staff noted an alternative to tie adjustments to the U.S. Consumer Price Index for Water, Sewer and Trash (CPI-WST). The city attorney recommended leaving a specific date in the ordinance so the city would meet administrative windows required by state loan programs and avoid missing a mandatory action window. After discussion the council modified effective dates for the two-step phase-in and kept an emergency clause with an initial effective date of Jan. 1, 2025, while reserving later increases for 2026 and 2027 depending on rate-study results.

Sewer rates were considered in a companion ordinance. Staff noted a legal difference for sewer: state law requires a public hearing before sewer rate increases are adopted, so the city cannot unilaterally impose an automatic annual increase without a hearing. The council adopted the sewer ordinance with the same phased timing and an emergency clause to set the initial effective date.

Votes and process: the council moved to suspend rules to allow third-and-final reading with the agreed amendments and then voted to adopt both ordinances and the emergency clause as amended. The clerk conducted roll calls during the suspension and adoption votes; the motions passed with multiple yes votes and at least one recorded no during the emergency-clause roll call. (Individual roll-call statements were recorded in the meeting minutes.)

Why it matters: Staff said the ordinances are intended to bring the city's water and sewer rates in line with the rate study and with Arkansas Department of Agriculture guidance so Helena-West Helena can qualify for loan-forgiveness or grant programs tied to median household income thresholds.

The council also asked staff to schedule a new rate study in 2026 to evaluate the impact of the adopted structure and to reconsider the timing of any subsequent wholesale or volume increases.

What's next: The city will finalize ordinance language and the administration will implement the Jan. 1, 2025 effective date for the first-phase changes; staff will pursue the recommended rate study in 2026 and follow the sewer-public-hearing requirement before any additional sewer increase.