The Bisbee City Council approved a resolution adopting a Notice of Intent (NOI) to establish a six-year rate plan increase for wastewater rates.

Bisbee Mayor Ken Budge said the rate increases higher than he would have liked to see. But that the city is behind in increasing wastewater rates based on a rate study from 2018 by Wildan that recommended the city raise rates from that point at two to three percent a year to cover repairs and maintenance at the aging plant.

Mayor Budge went on to say, because of the pandemic we did not feel good about raising the rates and that prior to that the previous mayor and council made no effort to raise the rates so in eight years the rate has increased by 6 percent while the rate of inflation has increased by 29.8 percent.