While the bag fees for trash in the City of Washington will remain the same cost, water and sewer rates are set to increase July 1st. The Washington City Council unanimously approved the first reading of the 5% increase at their meeting Tuesday. In addition to the usage charge going up, the minimum charges will also see an uptick. City Administrator Brent Hinson said if your bill is usually $100, it’ll increase $2-$5. Hinson explained for years rates weren’t increased, “We’re trying everything we can to keep it as small as possible, that’s an effort every time. But again, the way we got here was years and years and years of not touching utility rates because of concerns about how much it costs people. And we ended up with them having to pay much, much more than they would’ve had to pay if we would’ve just done it slowly over time and maintained our systems.”

The new rates will be $17.85 for water minimum charge and $3.84 for water usage, the minimum charge for sewer will be $31.50 while usage will be $3.83. Garbage stickers and bag fees will stay the same, $90 and $2 respectively, but the monthly charge will increase 35-cents to $7.35. The council will consider a second and third reading of the ordinance prior to it going into effect.