Blue Mound turns the tap on a new city water department

Eight years ago, fed up with sharply increasing water bills, Blue Mound Mayor Alan Hooks took on the city’s private water provider, Monarch Utilities. At the time, he had no idea that he would be involved in building a municipal water department from scratch.

But that is exactly what is happening in this blue-collar town of about 2,400 residents northwest of downtown Fort Worth. Blue Mound’s purchase of its water and sewer system for $5.9 million from Monarch, a subsidiary of California-based Southwest Water, was finalized Sept. 11.

“I felt happy, nervous, glad, crazy. ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ ” Hooks said last week.

City officials didn’t waste much time celebrating as they had to get the new department — to be housed at 1817 Fagan St., near the city park — up and running in time to start issuing bills in October.

The prefabricated building is surrounded by piles of dirt and gravel, with paved parking and landscaping still to come. Phone lines were being installed last week, and computers and billing software were on the way.

City employees even paid a visit to The Home Depot to purchase supplies: they need everything from tools to different sizes of pipes.

Public Works Director Dee Brewer, who will also oversee the Water Department, said he has gotten calls from residents asking if their bills will be lower.

The answer is yes, by a few dollars. A customer using 5,000 gallons, the average amount used by Monarch customers, will see a drop from $167.64 a month to $143.77, according to the city.

The new bills will include Republic Services’ $15 monthly charge for garbage pickup, a change from quarterly billing.

But Hooks said residents won’t see rate increases “for quite a while” unless something unforeseen happens.

“This is a test year for us,” he said.

Plans call for replacing aging water lines and the city’s water tower.

Brewer said he also plans on talking to Fort Worth and Saginaw about installing an interconnect in case of an emergency. Blue Mound gets its water from three wells.

Although things were a little chaotic, Hooks said he wouldn’t have it any other way

Hooks, 62, moved to Blue Mound in the late 1990s, before the water system was purchased by Monarch in 2005. After that happened, Hooks said, his bill went from $58 to $88 a month, and the rate increases kept coming. Blue Mound residents were paying around three times the amount that residents of neighboring cities paid.

Monarch officials told the Star-Telegram previously that the former owner did little to maintain the system and that Monarch spent $900,000 on improvements to it.

But Hooks wasn’t buying the explanations, and a long fight ensued, involving the courts and the Legislature.

Blue Mound sued Monarch, seeking to condemn the water system, and state Rep. Charlie Geren R-Fort Worth, and state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, introduced legislation that would have allowed Blue Mound to take over the certificates needed to operate the system if Blue Mound had won its lawsuit. But the city lost, and former Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the legislation.

Last year, Geren asked Blue Mound and Monarch to work out their differences, and the agreement was reached for the city to buy the water system.

“I am just hard-headed. I never take ‘no’ for an answer,” Hooks said.

This story was originally published September 20, 2015 at 10:43 AM with the headline "Blue Mound turns the tap on a new city water department."