El Dorado Water Utilities Loses Biggest Client
By: Alex Hale
Updated: June 24, 2009
And we're not talking chump change here: Pilgrims Pride owes 165,000 dollars to E
When Pilgrims Pride closed in May they not only took over 800 jobs but they also took approximately 30 percent of
It means the city had to increase it's rates, by about forty-six percent. That's a whopping 46-percent increase on everyone's water bill. And even with that increase, the water company can't keep up with needed repairs.
And it's a vicious cycle: when rates go up, customers use less water and the city makes less money. In the past twenty years the city has lost about two hundred home customers because so many people moved away. With Pilgrim's Pride now gone, the city also lost it's biggest customer.
Jack Reynolds, Chairman of the El Dorado Water Utilities said, “It’s an ongoing battle we have with limited funds and a deteriorating water system. Unfortunately the system is deteriorating faster than we can get funds and repairs for major changes.”
