Heather Bell
Editor
RADFORD – Radford City Council has set a public hearing for Jan. 12, 2026 regarding water rates for customers in Pulaski County.
The city has an agreement with the Pulaski County Public Service Authority to sell water to customers close to the City of Radford border and will consider raising those rates. Under an agreement that went into effect Feb. 22, 2010, any new rates would become effective on the anniversary of that agreement.
“Once we were made aware of Pulaski County’s actions regarding the Fairlawn revenue sharing agreement, we began to review all of our agreements with Pulaski County,” said Radford Mayor David Horton at the Dec. 22 Radford City Council meeting. “We saw we had not raised water rates in a similar fashion for the county as we had for the city and we do have customers in Pulaski County.”
In September, Pulaski County filed a lawsuit against the city seeking to end a revenue sharing agreement in place since 1978 when the General Assembly approved Senate Bill 547 (“SB 547”) which “authorized the county and the city to voluntarily negotiate and enter into an agreement that would provide, among other things, for the city to relinquish its right to annex the Fairlawn Area and to oppose annexation petitions by county residents; for the county and the city to share in agreed upon revenues from the Fairlawn area and the benefits of its future economic growth; and for the transfer of infrastructure by the city to the county to support the Fairlawn area’s expansion,” according to Radford City Attorney Mike Bedsaul in a response letter to the Pulaski County lawsuit.
