May 13, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
The City of Smithville and the DeKalb Utility District have amended a mutual aid agreement between the two utilities to sell water to each other during times of need.
Under the agreement, as amended, each utility will sell water to each other at the DUD’s established wholesale rate at the time of purchase since Smithville does not have a wholesale rate. City officials say the DUD wholesale rate currently is $3.20 per 1,000 gallons but that could change over the life of the new five year agreement.
The Smithville Aldermen approved the new agreement as amended Tuesday night during a special meeting. The DUD board of commissioners have already adopted it.
The original agreement, approved in 2017, called for the city and DUD to sell water to each other at a rate of $2.67 per 1,000 gallons. The rate was later increased.
Last month attorneys for both sides proposed an amendment to the agreement which called for each utility to sell water to the other at a wholesale price but didn’t define an actual cost or how the wholesale rate was to be determined. The aldermen, though not opposed to the concept, asked for more specifics at that time before taking action.
For decades, the DeKalb Utility District had purchased water from the city to serve its customers but in 2017 the DUD opened its own water treatment plant. Since then the two utilities have operated independently of each other.