RUSSIAVILLE – A referendum to sell Russiaville’s town-operated water utility to Indiana American Water easily passed during Tuesday’s midterm election.
Residents voted 228 to 65 to sell off the utility, which the town has run since the 1960s.
Town Council President Jeff Lipinski said the utility has been losing money for years and residents were facing a more than 30 percent rate hike.
He said the town had been forced to spend money out of its general fund just to keep the water utility operating.
The town council was set to sell the utility to American Water before the election, but the issue was placed on the ballot after the Utility Workers Union of America garnered more than 30 residents’ signatures opposing the sale, Lipinski said.
“We would have had to cut public services if this hadn’t passed,” he said. “It’s not an easy thing to sell our utility, but in this day and age, it’s difficult to sustain it without making rates exorbitant.”
American Water is set to pay the town $1.8 million for its utility. Lipinski said half of the money will pay off the town’s debt on the water facility. The other half will help pay off the debt on the town’s new community center, fix roads and increase the town’s savings.
He said the sale should be complete within eight months, after which time residents should see an initial decrease in water rates. Those rates will likely increase by a small annual percentage after that.
“This type of issue isn’t uncommon in small towns like ours,” Lipinski said. “We felt at this point we were running out of options, and this is a viable option.”