The City of Manchester held a water and sewer town hall Wednesday, March 11 to answer questions and concerns about issues ranging from sewer overflows to the impact of industry and development on the city infrastructure.

Hobbs said following the event that it was a productive meeting.

“We appreciate all the people who made the time to come, who sent emails, or who watched at home. The goal was to give MWSD customers the opportunity to speak with the professionals who work in the space daily. We feel like it was a productive event and look forward to more town halls in the future,” he said.

“We (held) this meeting so that residents could hear directly from the people responsible for managing it and improving the system,” Hobbs said. Our goal tonight is to answer questions honestly and to explain what we know, what we are doing and what comes next.”

The outline Hobbs presented gave an outline of the scope of the sewer system, a quick outline of the operation of the wastewater treatment plant and its capacity and some of the regulatory agencies’ penalties the city is facing.

Hobbs briefly criticized the information that circulates on social media, asking citizens to instead seek answers from those who are responsible for the system.

“This was a perfect opportunity for people to come out, voice what they have on their mind and ask us questions versus just lobbing it out there for everybody to debate with not the correct people.”

Water and Sewer Director Lonnie Foley said that as part of the city’s transparency it needed to be relayed to the public when repairs have been completed.

“Most of the complaints that come to be are about what’s broken. We never take the time to point out that we’ve made all these (multi-million) dollar repairs,” Foley said.

Addressing a controversial water rate increase that went into effect at the beginning of the year Hobbs said the Water and Sewer Department is its own entity.

“It has to sustain itself. If not the state will come in, take it over and set the rates for you. They will make the business viable,” Hobbs said, noting that no city property tax or sales tax money can be used.

Offering insight into the thought process of setting a 36% increase on the water rate, Alderman Julie Anderson said she supported the increase because former Director Jeff Perry (not in attendance Wednesday) developed the amount of the increase with the finance director based on the needs of the department.

Anderson recalled that Perry told the Water Commission at the time, “This is what (he) needed to do to get you moving in the right direction.”

“I am very sensitive to the fact that this is a hard thing for many people. A lot of people are struggling and are on a fixed income and everything is going up all at once,” she said.

Anderson said that water utility consultants advise that not raising rates a small amount every year is a short term solution that eventually will force double-digit rate increases.

Hobbs added that Perry had said the increase should have been 70%.

Local developer Allan Howard voiced support for a developer fee.

“We have to have those fees…to do whatever it takes to make this town right,” he said.

He also said that in his 40 years living in Manchester the city has wanted growth while simultaneously criticizing the growth that’s happening.

He said that developers in Manchester have been shut down for pretty much any growth.

“Right now we are having to go to the county or to Tullahoma, Howard said. “We would like to know what the future growth of Manchester is.”

Hobbs agreed that although large areas have been annexed over the last few years, the vast majority have had little to no construction on it.

He said that slowing the growth to 8-10 new sewer taps per year is giving the city time to catch up on repairs to the infrastructure to get ready for new subdivisions.

The growth rate for Manchester was about 65 houses per year. The county’s restrictions on development have pushed growth into the city and Manchester growth climbed to 95 houses this year, according to Hobbs.