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Trezevant’s city council met in their regular monthly session Tuesday, October 9 with a number of different items on the agenda and a decent audience on hand for the meeting.
No action was taken on a presentation from Tennessee American Water. Two men, Casey Allen and Drew Watson,were in attendance from the East Tennessee based company to introduce their company and what they do for municipalities that are having issues with their water systems.
According to Allen, Tennessee American Water is one of the largest privately-owned water and sewer companies in existence and are the fourth largest water system in the state of Tennessee. Their biggest customer in Tennessee is the city of Chattanooga where they invest approximately $20 million annually into that system. They have had no violations and have a good safety rating with the state. Allen indicated that American Water is a community oriented company giving back to the communities that they have investments in which include large and small communities.
Allen stated the reason they were in the area was that four communities within an hour’s radius of Trezevant had approached their company about assisting with water system issues. He indicated how they work is if a community was interested in selling their water system assets, the company would come in and do their due diligence checking the financials and physical condition of the system and make an offer to purchase either water assets or sewer assets or both. If a purchase price is agreed upon, any monies in the prospective community’s water department accounts would go back to the community. He also stated that the company would become a taxpayer just like any other business in the community and also would pay franchise fees to the community.
Allen advised the council that the company is heavily regulated to the point that they have to go before the state to get any water rate increases approved. The council took no action other than thanking the men for coming from Chattanooga to make their presentation and indicating they would like to explore options before committing to anything in regards to their water system.
Trezevant council members rejected a $500,000 home grant after hearing from City Attorney Charles Trotter that under certain conditions the city could have to repay the grant to the state. The grant funds were to refurbish homes in Trezevant in need of repair. Trotter advised the council that new language in the contract indicated that if the homeowner didn’t meet certain guidlelines, such as keeping their property up and having property insurance on the property, that the city could be held liable to repay that money to the state. The council unanimously voted not to accept the grant.