Celina officials will move forward this fiscal year with a new budget that includes a 30 percent increase in water rates and no pay raises for city employees.
Mayor Luke Collins said the budget passed its first reading in July and will face a final vote in August.
“You always hate for the rates to go up, you know, it’s never fun because you know that there’s a lot of outstanding people out there in our our water district district, some of them are on fixed income, some of them are just simply poor people, you know, they’re underpaid,” Collins said.
Collins said the city recently hired a certified municipal finance officer to help provide more accurate financial data. Collins said the general fund has historically supported the water utility, but the department needs to stand on its own rather than relying on property taxpayers.
“Well, it’s disappointing, but it’s also disappointing that eggs are twice what they were about five years ago,” Collins said. “Beefs went up probably 50 to 75%. You know, inflation is killing us getting parts or getting anything. You know, it’s just inflation has been difficult in the last few years and I don’t see it I don’t see it getting any better.”
“I sure hate it for the employees,” Collins said. “They’re already underpaid, and then when you add in inflation, they’re making less money every year.”
Collins said the city recently purchased a fire truck for approximately $400,000 using general fund money. Collins said the city also completed a project to clean out the sewer plant for the first time in 40 years to ensure environmental compliance.
“We’re no longer in that lawsuit with Riverkeepers and state of Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is happy with us about the water that we’re discharging in the Cumberland River,” Collins said. “That sewer plant’s supposed to be cleaned out once every five years and it was never cleaned out in 40 years. That’s the first time it’s ever been done. So it’s good to know that we’re not doing harmful things to that beautiful Cumberland River anymore. So I am happy about that.”
Collins said the city is currently working with a nonprofit called Compassionate Hearts to secure a federal grant to reopen the local hospital. Collins said County Mayor Dale Reagan has been an obstacle to the project and expressed hope for a change in leadership at the county level.
“If we can get that back open, that would be I don’t know,” Collins said. “You can’t you can’t put a measuring stick on saving somebody’s life, you know, that golden hour if somebody has a heart attack or a stroke, you need to be able to get them to an emergency room. So that’s been my number one goal when I ran for city mayor five years ago and it’s still my number one goal and I’m still not giving up on it.”
The second reading of the budget is scheduled for August.
