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1044 Council President Watkins announced the public hearing portion was now concluded. Councilman Langley gave a power point presentation. He started with Hoosier water bank in 1986. He learned water systems from the ground up,then managed Mooresville for a couple of years. He has worked for 17 years in private water utility. He thinks Indiana American has failed to communicate to the general public about rate increases which is the biggest part of the issue in his mind. American Water is the parent company serving 15 million people in 30 states and Canada. Indiana American Water serves 3600 people in Mooresville. This is not about profits but about what is best for the community. Local control of growth-it takes infrastructure and money. Investor owned utilities rely on developers to pay for infrastructure. For municipal owners this is more of a quality of life issue. Municipal owners can run water operations cheaper because no profit, don't have to pay shareholders, don't pay taxes, and no regulatory issues. Municipal owners can do things more economically, for example Mooresville Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion to double the size of the plant cost 15 million, but did not have to pay for 6 million of that due to an OCRA grant being awarded to the Town. Of that 15 million 1.25 million came from the TIF funds and the rest was financed through low interest SRF loan. Coordinating synergies; We already have employees, would have one labor force which is cheaper, billing consolidation; water and sewer would be billed together at the local level, crews would work together, and coordination of infrastructure. Currently the water has an engineer on projects and the town has another engineer and projects overlap each other. We would have one engineer and one contractor for water and street or sewer. Local control of rates: A big company requests rate increases from IURC. Councilman Langley said what is driving the issue the most is the move toward consolidated rates or single tariff pricing. There are two groups of rates: Group 1 includes bigger cities and towns and Group 2 includes Mooresville, Winchester, and Wabash. Indiana American is interested in combining Group 1 (a lot higher rates)with Group 2. In the most recent rate increase request that was settled on June 15, 2012 the testimony said Indiana American Water is proposing to move Warsaw and West Lafayette to Group 1 and the Group 2 rates closer to Group 1. Also in the testimony was the statement that Indiana American Water's goal is to combine 2 rate groups into 1 group and implement single tariff pricing. Industrial customers-When Indiana American Water bought the water company in 2000 one particular valuable customer was using 3.5 million gallons of water a month and paying $4,000, now they are paying $9,000 a month and will increase to $12,000 a month in 2013 or 2014. Councilman Langley is concerned about keeping big water users in town. Councilman Langley said the Mooresville water system is very efficient. It is a groundwater system. Treatment expense is really low. It is on a good aquifer,there is room for expansion, and has low pumping cost, and is 100%metered. Water is pumped out of the ground, chlorinated, iron removed and sent on to the customer. Capital projects-In the last rate filing by Indiana American Water they identified projects over$500,000 and there were no projects listed for Mooresville. The water bill said a 1% increase for the whole state beginning June 15, 2012. Group 1 decreased by 3.21%. Mooresville increased by 16.25% and no capital projects. Industrial users in Mooresville pay 39%more for water. There is a move toward single tariff pricing. Rates must increase again in Mooresville to fully implement. Industrial in Mooresville will see another big rate increase. Council President Watkins asked how often rate increases can happen with the IURC. Someone answered there are 15 months between rate increases and Indiana American Water will file soon for another increase. The council will take the matter under advisement and put on the agenda for the Special meeting on Friday, August 10, 2012 at 3:30 P. M. at the Mooresville Government Center.