GREENWOOD – Indiana American Water President Matt Prine announced the company’s acquisition of the Sunset Village water system in southeast Indiana. The purchase of the system, serving a small community along the Ohio River known as Bushman’s Lake, adds approximately 100 water customers to the company’s customer base, which represents a population of approximately 270 residents.
“The acquisition of this system will help hold future rates down for Sunset Village customers as needed investments are made and also provides access to operations and capital management water professionals and a number of customer service options and payment methods,” said Prine. “Indiana American Water already provides water service to several nearby communities, so this is a good fit for us and a continuation of our efforts to expand our presence across Indiana.”
The acquisition of the Sunset Village water system for $150,000 was approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on Aug. 2 and closed by Indiana American Water and Tina Beckort, the previous owner, on Oct. 31.
According to Beckort, “Sunset Village customers will benefit from Indiana American Water’s experience and expertise and the company’s large customer base across the state will provide much greater economies of scale and future rate stability by keeping water rates lower than they would have been as a small, stand-alone system.
“The business of providing water is getting more complicated every day, especially for smaller systems like ours that struggle with evolving regulatory issues and not having the scale to gain efficiencies in our operations,” said Beckort.
“The sale will also facilitate much needed future improvements to the system and ensure that area residents have the service and water quality they need and deserve.”