State bill filed to transfer ownership rights of Central Heights water system to Angelina and Neches River Authority

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KTRE) -A state bill has been filed to transfer ownership rights of the Central Heights water system from the city of Nacogdoches to the Angelina and Neches River Authority.

The city of Nacogdoches took over the Central Heights water system in 2000.

General Manager for ANRA, Kelly Holcomb says ANRA will only acquire half of the system. The city of Nacogdoches will own the portion at U.S. Route 259 and U.S. Highway 59 intersection along with everything south of that. ANRA will own everything north. He says filing this bill speeds up the acquisition process.

“We collectively thought that it would go better the legislative route, because it is kind of complicated. To have the bill separated like it does just made a lot of sense. And it leaves, there’s some details that the regulatory agencies will have to work through with us, but the legislative mandate is clear,” Holcomb said.

Sen. Robert Nichols for district three and House Rep. Travis Clardy for district 11 both filed bills for this transfer to happen.

Clardy says they believe this local bill can be passed and moved to the governor’s desk in the next 60 days. He says it will go faster because all stakeholders are in agreement that this transfer should happen.

“It’s filed, it will be referred to the proper committee, I’ll lay the bill out in that committee, and Sen. Nichols will be running a parallel program in the senate and I think we’ll get it to the floor through the local consent calendar because again it doesn’t create any financial obligation to the state, and its local,” Clardy said.

Holcomb says with ANRA acquiring the system, they will be borrowing funds from the Texas Water Development Board for a $3.5 million project for the system.

Holcomb says this will cause water rates to increase. The water bill for that area is currently under $30, ANRA estimates it will be around $50 to $55.

“There will be a rate increase that’s going to be a bit of a sticker shock to some folks, because they have been paying an artificially low rate for 20 years now,” Holcomb said.

The transition from the city of Nacogdoches to ANRA is targeted to be official September 1. They anticipate the borrowed funding to take place in spring of 2024, the project will start soon after that.

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