By james art LAREDO, Texas (KGNS) – Even though the boil water advisory has been lifted for more than two weeks, officials continue to chart Laredo’s course for recovery.
On Monday, October 28, at City Council, officials discussed at length the possibility of reducing people’s water bills.
It’s been weeks of press conferences and meetings discussing the possibility of a discount on utility bills for Laredo residents, and city officials are finally close to making it a reality.
A citywide boil water notice lasted 11 days, preventing people from using their water freely, leading many to believe the discount was deserved.
Laredoan, Jose Guerrero, found the notice embarrassing, leading him to believe the discount was fair.
Noting, “Well, it would be great, hopefully they decide to do it because it would be really good for the community.”
Guerrero was one of many who chose to turn on their water for 15 minutes for the citywide flushing schedule.
Adding: “We were wasting water, we were actually throwing it away, so it would be really good if they could take this activity that we’ve done into account. Hopefully they’ll give us a good discount, somewhere between 10 and 20% would be great.”
The Goodwill discount program will take into account private and commercial customers. The discounted amount has not yet been decided.
District 3 Councilwoman Melissa Sigaroa agrees with the need for a rebate, but has concerns about creating too much credit.
One of the proposed council credits could be 33% of the utility bill, which could cost approximately $3 million.
Sigaroa mentioned, “If we give millions of dollars back to the taxpayer in the form of a rebate, then that’s millions of dollars that the utility department doesn’t have access to to help solve the problem. If we’re going to move forward, we have to find a balance.”
The city manager is tasked with finding a way to fund the program without dipping into utility funds.
He would present the city council with estimates of how much the program would cost based on the percentage cut from the October bill.
From there, the council will have the final say on whether or not to approve the program.
Boiled water refunds for October will likely be reflected in December’s bill as the council has not yet approved an amount.
In the latest notice, the City of Laredo reduced 35% of the utility bill for affected customers for the month.
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