Gatesville Council Approves Notice Letters to Wholesale Water Customers Over Rate Disputes

Faced with several wholesale water customers refusing to sign revised contracts reflecting updated rates, the Gatesville City Council voted at its March 10 meeting to send formal notice letters to those customers, escalating what has become a standoff over the city's water pricing structure.

The council's decision targets wholesale water customers, known in municipal utility parlance as WSCs, who have declined to execute updated agreements tied to a rate revision process that city documents indicate is still underway. Municipal records note that water retail and wholesale rate studies are in progress, suggesting the council moved to enforce compliance even as the broader rate framework continues to take shape.

The council also took up what the Gatesville Messenger described as "publishing a notice of intention" during the same meeting, language that aligns with the user-provided title indicating approval of a Notice of Intention for a water system bond, though the full details of any bond action were not available in documents reviewed for this report. The Messenger's full coverage of the meeting remains behind a subscriber paywall.

The rate dispute arrives against a backdrop of active infrastructure and utility planning across Gatesville. City Manager Bradford Hunt brought an interlocal agreement before the council in January 2025 addressing joint responsibility for sanitary sewer and roadway improvements near the Coryell County Leon Street Annex, a project that had its origins in Commissioner Weddle's March 2024 public comment requesting the city help offset sewer line upgrade costs. That same period saw the council unanimously pass Resolution 2024-139, with council members Joe Patterson and Jon Salter leading the motion to advance annexation of property along Coryell City Road toward a public hearing.

The names of the wholesale water customers who refused to sign the revised contracts, the specific rate figures at issue, and the precise consequences outlined in the notice letters were not available in documents reviewed for this report. The vote tally on the March 10 notice-letter approval was also not confirmed. City Manager Bradford Hunt would be the primary point of contact for those details.