Gas rate hike is on council agenda

A natural gas rate hike of $3 on the first 1,000 cubic feet of gas is on the agenda for the Eunice city council meeting Tuesday.
A public hearing is scheduled at 6:15 p.m. in the council chambers prior to the start of the council meeting at 6:30 p.m.
Mayor Rusty Moody said last month basic gas rates would rise from $7.20 to $10.20 a month.
“This is going to generate a half million (dollars) to $600,000 a year,” Moody said. The money is to be used to repairs to the gas system, he said.
“It cost about $100,000 to do a block,” he said. “It is very expensive.”
Jackson Burson, alderman at-large, said “The thing about it is if you’ve got leaking gas lines in the ground you are paying for gas that is not going to customers.”
Burson said the gas system’s condition is a “terrific safety issue.”
The agenda item was one of several placed on the agenda at a meeting Thursday at City Hall.
A resolution to sign a development agreement with Walmart also is on the agenda.
Moody said of the agreement, “I think we’ve been discussing this for months.”
Walmart is planning a Neighborhood Market Store at St. Mary and U.S. 190.
The store will employ about 55 people, Moody said.
Burson said Walmart has asked the city annex the site into the city limits.
“I wish other businesses would take notice and consider,” he said of the annexation.
Burson said he expects construction will begin soon.
The site brings a grocery store back to the east side of Eunice for first time since there was a National store.
Also on the agenda is reinstatement of Mike Arnold as fire chief.
Arnold was fired in January after he was accused in October of slapping a female volunteer firefighter on the buttocks.
Burson said the reinstatement is pending appeals.