By Joel Spears
Features Editor

CHURCH HILL - On Tuesday the Church Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen established a sewer rate for the proposed trunk line that will provide sewer service to Surgoinsville Elementary and Middle schools.
    Plans also call for the extension to eventually provide sewage treatment at other locations in Surgoinsville including residences and businesses.
    Mayor Dennis Deal said the rate will be $3.58 per 1,000 gallons of metered flow and may be adjusted. That rate, Deal said, is at the current city taxpayer rate.
    Each customer will be billed separately by the Town of Surgoinsville for tap fees, as well as any additional fees associated with installation.
    The Town of Surgoinsville will also incur all maintenance costs on the lines.
    As a regional sewage treatment plant, Church Hill's facility not only provides sewer service inside the city, but also to the industries at Phipps Bend Industrial District.
    City attorney Chris Raines noted that the rate chosen for the two schools at Surgoinsville is not a special price, but the same price as Church Hill residents pay.
    The schools will receive the city's "Inside Rate" as opposed to the regular "Outside Rate" commonly given to individual outside users.
    Mayor Deal said, "We're adding revenue without having to spend money. "The more flow we get into our sewer plant, the better off [it will be]."
    Church Hill Sewer Treatment Plant currently only operates at 20 percent capacity.
    In other business, the BMA voted to switch employee insurance plans from United Healthcare to Blue Cross and Blue Shield.