Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Monticello residents will get a modicum of relief on their next utility billing as compensation for any excess use of water during the recent hard freeze.
On Tuesday evening, Jan. 3, the Monticello City Council approved a cold weather sewer billing adjustment, which translates into a charge of 50 percent of the water usage, instead of the standard 85 percent of water usage.
The council action was in recognition of the effects of the recent three-day freeze, which forced residents to run the water continuously to prevent their pipes from freezing and bursting. As it was, multiple pipe breakages were reported around the town.
City Clerk Emily Anderson recommended the action as a nice gesture, given that water usage for most of the city’s 1,400 or so customers rose significantly during the freeze, she said. Not to mention the usage of those whose pipes actually burst, she added.
City Manager Seth Lawless confirmed that water consumption had risen significantly during the three days due to the breakages and the running of water to prevent freezing.
The unusually frigid weather during the Christmas holidays was part of a brutal artic cold front that blasted much of the United States during the period, dropping temperatures dangerously low and into the low 20 and teen degrees in the Florida panhandle.