The Cabot Lore Repository

Cabot, Arkansas

The Cabot Lore Repository

A narrative topic page compiled from council records, the Arkansas Leader, and the other sources listed at the bottom of the page. Resident discussion from Facebook groups is paraphrased into themes; no posts are quoted.

Cabot's water and sewer rate increases

The story

Cabot's water and sewer service is run by the Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission, which does business as Cabot Waterworks. The commission operates the system, but state law (Ark. Code Ann. § 14-234-214) leaves the actual rates to be fixed by the city council, by ordinance. At the end of 2024 the utility served about 27,500 people through 11,127 metered connections, led by utility manager Tim Joyner, P.E. For most of two decades, its rates barely moved — which is why the increases of 2025–2026 landed the way they did.

The long freeze. Cabot's base water rates — a flat monthly charge plus a per-1,000-gallon charge — were set by Ordinance 102 of 2005 and were still in force twenty years later: $13.50 a month for an inside-city home, plus $3.20 per 1,000 gallons for the first 5,000 gallons and $4.20 per 1,000 above that. The wastewater (sewer) rate chart dated back even further, to Ordinance 52 of 2001: $5.10 covering the first 2,000 gallons, plus $1.57 per 1,000 gallons above that. A typical sewer charge for 5,000 gallons was $9.81 a month. The one significant change in between was structural, not a general increase: Ordinance 18 of 2019 (May 20, 2019) extended wastewater service and charges to properties that use sewer but not city water, and reallocated the utility's administrative costs across customer classes.

The state steps in. Arkansas law requires water providers to justify their rates with periodic engineering rate studies (Act 605 of 2021; the commission's 2025 wastewater study also cites Act 925 of 2025). In 2025 the commission had Crist Engineers, Inc. prepare both studies: a water rate study dated August 2025 and a wastewater rate study dated September 3, 2025. Both concluded that the old rates could not carry the systems much longer.

Sewer goes first (fall 2025). The council took up the wastewater ordinance through September 2025 (second reading September 22), held the required public hearing, and adopted it on October 6, 2025 as Ordinance No. 28 of 2025. The new chart took effect in two steps:

The timing compounded the sticker shock: the same September 2025 meetings changed the city's trash contract (the low compliant bid worked out to $24.50 a month against a $17.95 rate that had held for 13 years), so as the Leader put it on its September 24, 2025 front page, Cabot residents were looking at increases on their garbage and sewer bills at the same time.

Then the water itself (2026). Cabot historically pumped most of its own water from wells in the Alluvial aquifer and bought only about 0.3 million gallons a day — roughly 12 percent of its supply — from Central Arkansas Water (CAW). The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission has mandated that Cabot Waterworks discontinue its groundwater wells by 2026, which means buying essentially all of its water from CAW, at CAW's wholesale rates, which are themselves on a scheduled multi-year rise. On May 4, 2026, the council adopted Ordinance No. 15 of 2026 (sponsored by the Water and Wastewater Commission; passed 8–0, with no emergency clause). It left the 2005 base water rates untouched and instead added a separate purchased-water charge on every 1,000 gallons used:

The rate study projects what that does to a typical bill: an inside-city home using 5,000 gallons paid $29.50 a month for water in 2025, rising to a projected $44.10 in 2026 and $54.05 by 2032 — an 83 percent increase over the study period, driven, in the study's words, by the pass-through of CAW's rising purchased-water fees.

The echo in council politics. The increases also produced a transparency fight. On April 20, 2026, Councilman Corey Spangler's Ordinance No. 16 of 2026 — which would have required the commission to send customers a sample December bill showing the coming charges — was tabled on Spangler's own motion, and the rate question has continued to surface in council debate since.

Where it stands (October 2026). The first sewer step has been in effect since January 1, 2026 (Cabot WaterWorks' published rate page shows the $5.68/$2.35 chart), the second sewer step arrives January 1, 2027, and the water purchased-water charge began October 1, 2026, with annual steps already adopted through 2032.

What critics said

Resident reaction concentrated less on the percentages than on the product and the process:

Notably, the Facebook mining found no organized campaign against the increases comparable to the 2026 Flock camera fight — no petition drive or sustained thread — and the Leader's coverage of the October 6, 2025 meeting records the ordinance passing without reporting a public-comment confrontation at the hearing.

What the record shows

Sources