Business owners in Terrebonne Parish angry about water price increase
Business owners in Terrebonne Parish are shocked after the water district raised prices by $10 per unit.
A group of Terrebonne business owners is protesting the increase by Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Waterworks District 1. According to Mike Sobert, general manager of Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Waterworks, the district only recently became aware of the business owners’ additional units when a disgruntled business owner called and reported them. The business owners are a group of mobile home, trailer and trailer park owners and they are not happy.
Lloyd Poiencot owns a caravan park in Dularge and has had to make changes because insurance costs are too high to operate so far south. He said the combination of rising insurance and additional costs makes it difficult for him to want to stay.
“It’s really heartbreaking. I’m 77 years old and I can’t go anywhere, but I told my sons, ‘Look, the first person who comes along and wants to buy this crap should buy it,'” Poincot said.
He has 22 sites and is converting some of the RV sites into mobile home parks. His bill has gone from $440 a month to $600 a month. He said he can’t just unsubscribe from a meter because the permitting process is a nightmare.
Poincot and other business owners attended a board meeting on Aug. 19 along with their representative, attorney Tanner Magee. The group met at the Terrebonne Parish shooting range on Aug. 21 to discuss strategy.
Sobert said the rate increase began two years ago when Hurricane Ida depleted the water district’s savings account. He spoke to the Terrebonne Parish Water District Council to request a $10 increase so some money could be put in the bank to improve the system throughout the district — such as the 24-inch pipeline that is the main water source for the east side of Houma and all of the south — because they didn’t have the funds to cover the grants from the state Legislature.
Business owners like Kevin Belanger said the price increase disproportionately affects them because the per-unit fee doesn’t take into account how much water is actually used. He owns an RV park where people rent for a year and then use the RV for only a short time each year.
Belanger said the municipality does not have exact information on the number of units, so how can customers assume the prices are fair?
“We really don’t know how much we need or how much this will bring in,” Belanger said. He then asked the board to pause all rate increases and conduct a rate analysis to determine how much money is actually needed and find a “fair, consistent and comprehensive increase in water rates across the community.”
After the meeting, Sobert asked how this was different from an apartment complex, which passes the cost on to its customers. The fee is $20 per residential unit and $30 per commercial unit. The legal definition of a unit was established in 1982, but Sobert put it simply.
“A unit is something that someone is in and can take water from,” he said. It is not defined by the meters, he said.
“If you have four boats lying on one meter, we would consider that four units,” he said. “Each one is taking on water.”
A house, RV, condo, or boat that takes in water, for example, pays the fee and is allotted 2,000 gallons. If the unit exceeds the allotted amount, the owner then pays $3.60 per 1,000 gallons.
“We don’t sell water, we sell the convenience of getting water,” Sobert said.
Sobert said the district does not have an exact number of how many housing units actually exist. He increased the costs without having an exact number based on amounts raised in previous years.
The price increase caught the attention of Barry Fanguy, the owner of an RV park. He said since Ida, he has been helping people by allowing them to accept IOUs, and not all of his sites are filled with RVs. Since the price increase affects every site, regardless of whether it is vacant, he cannot afford to stay in business, he said.
When he called the county to inquire about the change, they explained how the county charged for each unit, so he would have 10 units. He then asked about the many other parks he knew of.
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“I said, ‘What? I should just pay for what comes through this meter,'” Fanguy said. “She was kind of booing me and annoying me, and I said, ‘Well, I know you think this is funny, but I’m about to make you money.’ I said, my sister has a trailer park. I said, my brother has a trailer park. They have a couple of them down at Grand Caillou, and there’s about four or five more.”
Fanguy then asked if he could get a commission for ratting people out. He said the woman on the phone laughed at him and warned that he was about to upset some people.
“It’s okay, we’re all in the same boat now,” Fanguy said.
This updated Sobert’s database. Now that he knows there are many unaccounted units in the community, Sobert said he will send his staff out over the next two weeks to better determine the number of units in the community.
