BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WIAT ) – Over a dozen concerned Birmingham Water Works customers came out to a town hall Wednesday night to get answers from the board on the proposed water rate increase.
The town hall was hosted by Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson, who says forums like these need to be held 4 to 5 times a year.
Many people were looking for understanding and clarification. Last Monday, the BWWB held a public hearing on the rate increase but people could only speak for three minutes and questions could not be answered by the board at that time so the town hall aimed to remedy that.
“I talked to the citizens [Wednesday night] and they said that they didn’t like the answers, but they got the correct answers,” Tyson said. “That’s all they wanted.”
One of the biggest questions on many BWW customers’ minds is this:
“When will this end?” a customer in attendance asked. “Because it keeps going on and it appears to us that somebody has figured out a way to put this burden on the people so that we can take care of all of this.”