A Chancery Court hearing is scheduled for Friday, February 28 on the DeKalb Utility District’s petition for a temporary injunction to keep the City of Smithville from imposing it’s higher water rate to the DUD pending a final ruling on the utility’s lawsuit against the city.
Chancellor Ronald Thurman will have that hearing Friday, February 28 at 1:00 p.m. in Cookeville. That’s where Chancellor Thurman is holding court that day.
Officials of the DeKalb Utility District are turning to the Chancery Court for relief from what they call an unreasonable water rate imposed on the utility by the City of Smithville.
In the lawsuit, the DUD is asking the Chancellor to find that the city’s new water rate to the utility of $5.00 per thousand gallons, which went into effect January 1st, is unreasonable; that the rate be set at $2.25 per thousand gallons, which the DUD believes is the actual cost of providing water services; that the city be enjoined (prohibited) from charging any rate to the DUD in excess of $2.67 per thousand while this litigation is pending; and that the city be enjoined (prohibited) from disconnecting the DUD from its water system while this lawsuit is pending. The DUD also wants the court to order a speedy hearing on this action for a declaratory judgment and to advance it on the court’s calendar.
In the hearing Friday, the Court is being asked by the DUD to enter a temporary injunction while this litigation is pending. “The rate of $5.00 per thousand gallons charged by the City to the DUD effective January 1, 2014 has caused and will continue to result in immediate and irreparable injury, loss, and damage to the DUD and its customers. The issuance of the temporary injunction will not cause undue inconvenience or loss to the City of Smithville, but will prevent irreparable injury to the DUD,” according to the lawsuit.
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