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VIDALIA, La. — Concordia Parish Sewerage District No. 1 plans to raise water rates for customers beginning Nov. 1. However, the Concordia Parish Police Jury voted Monday to send a letter to the sewer board to put a halt on the increase, questioning its legality.

“I think they’re breaking the law,” said police jury member Cornel Lewis on Monday. “It’s absurd.”

Lewis was formerly on the sewer board before he was elected to the police jury.

It was advertised in the Concordia Sentinel, the official journal of the parish, that residential rates would increase from $40 to $50. These rates are different from commercial businesses, which vary based on their size, said Kristie Sherbia, the branch manager for the district, on Tuesday after the police jury meeting.

Sherbia said the change was voted on at the last sewer board meeting on Sept. 17, which was open to the public. The district hosts and open meeting starting at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at 23 Mack More Road, where customers can come in and voice their concerns, she said.

“We went up on rates because our materials and equipment were doubling on us, so to keep our company afloat there had to be an increase,” she said.

The cost per customer is based on a rates study conducted with the Louisiana Rural Water Association, which was last done two years ago, Sherbia said.

Lewis said during Monday’s meeting that some commercial businesses were “not sure exactly” on what they would have to pay but for some thought their rates “would go from $60. to $160.”

“I’m very concerned about this,” Lewis said, adding he looked through the published minutes of the sewer board and could not find where they held a public hearing to adopt the increase.

“I would like for Miss (Ariella) Carter to actually send a letter to the Sewer District letting them know that they cannot proceed with this increase until they have a public hearing and they need to have a feasibility study or rate study approved by LDH.”

Lewis also asked to include the letter a request for the sewer district’s financial statements and “to make sure that they don’t start taking or collecting those increases” without those things.

A member of the audience at Monday’s meeting also asked “who do we report to” when there is a spill because there are “ditches full of raw sewage right now that need to be addressed.”

Lewis said those issues are supposed to be reported to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and become public record.

“They’re supposed to report every spill,” he said.