By ROBIN SHANNON
Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – The St. John Council will consider two measures Tuesday night that parish administrators say will aid a cash flow problem that has been plaguing St. John’s waterworks system.

St. John Public Information Officer Buddy Boe said the parish is looking to re-establish the rates that are charged for water usage among the highest tier consumers. He said the increase would only affect customers who use more than 30,000 gallons of water per month.

“We wanted to affect the least amount of customers as possible with this increase,” Boe said. “The rates in question apply to bigger industries and maybe a large restaurant or two, but not single family households.”

The ordinance calls for a $1 increase per thousand gallons on the two highest rate tiers. This means that customers who use 30,000 to 50,000 gallons of water per month would be charged $3.93 per thousand. Customers using over 50,000 gallons would be charged $3.82 per thousand.

Boe stressed that the increase only pertains to the two highest tiers. All other rate tiers would remain unchanged. He said the new rates are still lower than those of neighboring St. Charles Parish, which charges $4.44 for every thousand gallons used over 10,000.

The second ordinance up for council vote pertains to a change in the method in which the parish calculates the consumer price index (CPI) for parish water services. Boe said the change will bring the water CPI even with the parish’s sewage CPI.

Boe said the CPI affects all parish customer’s cost of living and is different every year, but the year-by-year increase for water was too minimal.

Parish administrators anticipate that the changes would produce about $750,000 for the waterworks department annually. Boe said the amount would go a long way in helping the department emerge from a $1 million deficit. He said the department, which has suffered years of neglect is in dire need of capital improvements to ensure an adequate and safe supply of water to the residents of the parish.

The council meets Tuesday night at the St. John Courthouse in Edgard starting at 6 p.m.