Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke says he has passed along complaints about CenterPoint Energy bills to the company. WNIN’s John Gibson reports:
Speaking to the WNIN Lawmakers program, Winnecke suggested he shares residents’ concerns about recent skyrocketing gas and electric bills:
"We have been I would say inundated with complaints about CenterPoint bills. We have passed along our concerns to the local leadership of CenterPoint about the rates and the tenor of the complaints."
Winnecke notes the city has no legal power to change the company’s rates but it does control water and sewer bills.
His administration has secured a pause in sewer rate hikes through 2023, but water bills will rise to pay for a new treatment plant.
WNIN asked Winnecke why the city didn’t pursue a smaller, less costly plant:
"We have to have the ability to grow. We have wholesale customers outside the city of Evansville. We serve Toyota, as an example. They continue — thank goodness — to make large investments in our community. If we have a smaller plant we're saying hey, this is as big as we can be."
Winnecke said a smaller facility would have had minimal impact on the current water capacity and customers’ bills.
Parts of the existing water plant date back to the 1890’s.