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pressure without paying distribution cost as everyone else in the City was <br />paying. <br />Mr. Ross stated that there has been a movement started in the last few months <br />to create Paris and Lamar County as a retirement community for North Texas <br />and DFW primarily. Mr. Ross said he feels we have got to control our cost on <br />our water and sewer and other expenses. Mr. Ross stated that there is no way <br />we can sell this City and County as a retirement community if they hear that we <br />are going up 5% a year on a residential, 1 % to 3% on businesses, and 40% on <br />our industry that uses a lot of water. Mr. Ross said those big industries and <br />water supply people is getting to the point where they can build their own water <br />plants, and produce water cheaper than what we are selling water to them. It is <br />a major concern for this City and County to somehow get a handle on our cost. <br />Gary Nash, came forward telling the Council that he operates several small <br />businesses in Paris that use a water volume of 50 to 150 thousand per month, <br />and he was present to find if that rate increase is 5% or 10% or 20 %. <br />City Manager Malone advised that the increase would be between 5% and 5.3% <br />if you are a commercial customer. <br />Mr. Nash reminded the Council that these rate structures were done in 1993, and <br />then you phased it in over three years. It was spiked and a lot of people got _ <br />upset, then the Council backed off, and it became a gradual increase. Mr. Nash <br />stated that his rate in the car wash industry has gone up 54% from 1994 to 1997. <br />Don Stuckey, 2350 Ballard Drive, came forward telling the Council that his rate <br />has been the same for the last three months, it has not changed, and we are <br />talking about a 25% increase over the next five years. Mr. Stuckey said that <br />people are getting tired of raising rates. Mr. Stuckey said he came to the <br />Council in support of the annexation, but we have let a lot of people leave Paris <br />and get on the outside, and now we annexed them back in, and they keep getting <br />further out. If you keep running people out of Paris, and there are a lot of <br />