Amendment 5: Dissolving Prichard Water Works

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The Nov 6. general election is a little more than a week away, and Alabama voters will have 11 amendments to vote on in addition to the candidates on the ballot.

One of those, amendment five, will likely affect Prichard residents: they and the rest of Alabama will have the chance next month to vote for or against the dissolution of the Prichard Water Board.

Some who live in Prichard are unhappy with what they pay for water.

Amendment 5, if it passes, proposes a constitutional amendment that would transfer the assets and liabilities from the Prichard Water Works & Sewer Board to Mobile Area Water and Sewer Systems.

Outgoing Prichard city council member Alberta Young says it's taken a long time and a lot of work to give residents the opportunity to vote for this change.

“It's really oppressing the people, people are making decisions whether they want to buy medicine or go to the doctor, and they’re making these decisions because the bill is much too high,” said Alberta Young.

Young said residents may see a change in their water bills, should the amendment pass.

“We already buy our water from Mobile at one rate and it's sold back to us at another rate. So I see that as a savings right there,” said Young.

Prichard resident Jimmie King Jr. says his water bill can be as high as three hundred dollars. He had several statements that were more than $200.

“I'm concerned, we have some people in our city who have low bills, and some have high bills and the ones that have the low bills don't look like they care about the ones with the high bills,” King said.

Another Prichard resident who said she plans to vote "yes" said she knows people who can not afford to pay their water bill.

“There are only two of us in the house and we're not using that much water for the water bill to be so high,” said Stephannie Smith.

The amendment, based on Senate Bill 466, says rates for current Mobile County water users will not increase to pay for the cost of the transfer from the Prichard water authority to MAWSS.

Keep in mind, a majority of voters in each water district must vote in favor in order for the amendment to pass.

We tried contacting representatives for the Prichard Water Works & Sewer Board on Monday, but did not hear from them in time for this report.