The city council unanimously approved an increase in the discounts offered to senior citizens through the 2026 Water and Sewer Senior Discount Program at last week’s meeting.
Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley introduced the motion calling for a 10 percent increase in the discount for qualifying senior citizens. The new discounts would come in at 40 percent for consumption of up to 30,000 gallons; 30 percent for consumption from 30,001 up; and, 20 percent for consumption of 70,001 gallons or more.
“This is just trying to give the seniors another little bit, anything we can do to help them with the burdening bills they are being faced with,” said Kelley. “The 10 percent came from the recent water increase that took place. It is trying to offset that, it is not going to correlate 100 percent, but it will be a step in the right direction.”
Kelley said she spoke with the city’s water department and city finance director Richard Viscay and they stated that there were about 1,000 qualifying applicants for the program last year.
“Mr. Viscay did not seem to think that this would be something that would be out of the question,” said Kelley. “As an aside, I also want to point out that I did speak to him about getting the exterior water deduct meters for qualifying seniors qualified under the senior home improvement fund, and I am getting details on that as well, which will be another help.”
Kelley said voting on the additional discount as soon as possible was helpful for the senior citizens who qualify for the program.
“There hasn’t been an increase in this, from speaking with the water department, in quite some time,” said Kelley.
