Athens Electric Department provides service to more than 45,000 customers in Limestone County.

The Athens Utilities Department department has approximately 145 employees, a number that fluctuates from 140-150 at any given time during the year.

“We’ve grown gradually, but we haven’t added any in the last few years. We’ve only added about 10 total positions in the last five years,” said Athens Utilities General Manager Gary Scroggins.

Athens Utilities services 45,220 electric customers (meters), 11,000 water customers, 7,770 sewer customers and 9,320 gas customers.

When those customers pay their electric, gas, water and sewer bill, the money is allocated differently, depending on the department.

Gas

More than 50 percent of money collected from customer utility bills goes back into purchasing more gas to service the community. Department payroll makes up approximately 15-17 percent, while another 15-17 percent goes toward capitol expenditures.

Those expenditures include the purchase of new equipment or building new gas lines. It also includes any purchases to keep the system running or updated.

About 8-10 percent goes toward administrative costs, which are shared by the three departments.

Electric

Like gas, a large portion of money collected from electricity bills is funneled back into the system to purchase more power. In the case of the electric department, approximately 80 percent goes back into purchasing more electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Payroll and capitol expenditures account for about 5 percent each with 10 percent going toward shared administrative cost.

Water and Sewer

Unlike the electric and gas departments, which expend a majority of their budgets purchasing gas or power, most of the Athens Water Department’s budget is spent treating water and pumping it to their customers.

For this reason, employee payroll accounts for approximately 30 percent of a customer’s water and sewer bill while capitol expenditures account for about 10 percent.