Newton City Manager Bob Myers has said at many a city meeting that no matter where you live, you think the utility bill is too high.
Apparently, he is right — as residents of the city of El Dorado were recently questioning their city hall about utility rates. Enough so that city staff of El Dorado turned to creating a graphic to show the average utility bill for eight different cities in the region and posting it on social media Feb. 13 for all to see.
Of the eight selected, El Dorado showed as the second lowest. Newton was credited with the highest bill at 146.64 per month, according to El Dorado’s estimates.
“This is an issue I hear about, and people want to know what we can do about it,” said Kathy Valentine, mayor of Newton. ”… This will promote some hearty discussions between commission and staff, and the city and residents.”
The City of El Dorado estimated average utility bills for a family of four using 3,800 gallons of water for the cities of Bel Aire, Andover, Augusta, Towanda, Wichita, El Dorado, Newton and Hesston.
According to David Dillner, city manager of El Dorado, the cities on the list were selected at random.
“The intention was not to stir things up in Newton, it was more for our residents,” Dillner said. “Unfortunately your rates are higher than ours, but this was an effort to communicate with our residents. Sometimes you get blinders on and think ‘our rates are really high,’ but when you look at the outside world, and one would not necessarily do that unless asked, you get a better understanding of where your rates are.
(Read more: Newton Kansan)