San Angelo Residential Water Hookups Now Require $100 Deposit

SAN ANGELO, TX — The City of San Angelo will require a $100 deposit for residential water hookups from now on. This was decided Tuesday morning by unanimous vote by the San Angelo City Council.

Making the case for increasing the required deposit to establish a water hookup were that the current $35 deposit doesn’t cover the average $94.47 monthly water bill. The water bill also includes sewer, trash, and the storm water fees.

Also, the City is carrying $3,367,405 in unpaid water bills on 11,582 inactive accounts and will likely never collect that money. Allison Strube from the water department told council that amount was increasing by $470,000 every year. That’s total amount of the reduction in revenue collected annually.

Councilwoman Lucy Gonzalez asked if the water department can run a credit check and forgive the deposit for customers with good credit. Strube said the water department currently does not subscribe to a credit reporting service. But, Strube relented, if the customer has a good payment track record with the water department, waiving the deposit is a possibility. The deposit is refunded after three years of successful payment history.

City Manager Daniel Valenzuela said that when revenue is lost for non-payment of water service, he has to look at raising the rates for everyone to make up the next year’s budget shortfall.

The $100 deposit is the minimum for residential water meters connected to 5/8” supply pipes, the most common kind of hookup in the city. Larger pipe connections and commercial customers will pay more. See table for details.

The deposit increase passed by unanimous vote. Mayor Brenda Gunter was absent.

Since the increased deposits is an ordinance change, a second reading at the next council meeting is required before the ordinance change is enacted.