Town

The price of water

Mossy's Milk Soapery

On the bright side, Luther water customers got out of paying for increased water rates for a few months. However, an apparent software glitch that didn’t apply the new hike to customers last September has been fixed. Higher water bills have gone out this month, as evidenced by the increased number of phone calls at Town Hall by water customers asking about the hike.

Utility Clerk Lena Wright explained to the callers about the glitch and that the Town Board of Trustees approved the rate hike last August.

Apple Creek Gang
Paula Fuqua, Realtor
“Yes the rate increase was in September, however when the software company put it in the system, it was wrong. I called the software company on Thursday when I notice that the bills were wrong. They looked over the system and said there was something that was not put in the system right so they fixed it. I then did the bills and checked them by hand myself, and they are right now as of now. In the future, I will be checking the bills to make sure this does not happen again,” said Wright.

Last summer at the meeting when Town Trustees considered the hike, they listened to both water experts and citizens. At the time, Mayor Jenni White explained the water issue to The Luther Register.

“The experts have told us that we have one of the cheapest water rates in the state,” said Mayor Jenni White explaining the experts are with OWRB as well as consultants and engineers who have studied the issue in Luther. She said the last Luther Board of Trustees contracted for a $6,000 study, titled, Town of Luther Hydraulic Analysis/Master Plan Project NO: LUT-14-01, Engineering Report, that was published in September 2016. (Incidentally, she said the study had not been paid for and the current board paid the overdue bill).

Related Articles

That study and plan proposes a multi-phase plan to reflect anticipated growth, replace pipes to increase pressure and water safety, add fire hydrants and even extend water outside of the current water borders from 178th Street to Highway 66 from the south to the north, and west to east from about Cherry Street (by Booker T Washington Park) to Dogwood (by Wildhorse Park).

Leaders in Sediment Control
Boydston-Bailey Funeral Home Boydston-Bailey Funeral Home

“We are an old town, and we can’t expect to grow if we can’t maintain what we have or plan for growth,” she said. “Unfortunately this work should have been done 20 years ago, and so now we just have to rip off the band-aid to work toward improvements as quickly as possible.” From an August 6, 2017, Luther Register.

At the August 8 meeting, the Board compromised on the rate hike for both water and sewer. The hikes were supposed to take effect immediately but when they finally took effect for this current cycle, it took some of the 250 customers by surprise.

Graphics developed by The Town of Luther reflected the new water rates that were supposed to take effect last September.


At that August meeting, many residents voiced concerns about the rate hikes, and the exchange was recorded via FB Live on The Luther Register’s page.

Wright spent quite a bit of her Monday answering questions about the bills. “I’m sorry for any inconvenience this has caused to anyone, she said.

Oklahoma Country Homes


Discover more from Luther Register News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Fields Youngblood Water Well Drilling
Show More
Sam's Tree Service

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button

Adblock Detected

Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker