FAIRHOPE, Ala. - Local natural gas customers of Fairhope’s public utility got a belated Christmas present this week as the City Council approved a 10 percent reduction in city gas rates at Monday’s council meeting.

“We’ll finally see rates get to go down instead of up,” Mayor Tim Kant said prior to the council’s unanimous vote on the measure.

The council’s approval of the resolution authorized a decrease in the base rate charged by the city’s public utility by 20 cents per hundred cubic feet.

The rate reduction will become effective in January.

Kant requested an additional reduction of 10 cents, which the council did not approve Monday but indicated it might reconsider after evaluating the effect of the reduction on gas revenue to the city.

The rate change was recommended by Robert E. Pender, a longtime Florida-based consultant to the city on utility rates.

Kant said the additional requested rate reduction would make the city be more in line with its competitors.

“I would like us to think about the mayor’s request,” Councilwoman Debbie Quinn said.

Monday’s action was the first time council approval was taken regarding the setting of gas rates under an ordinance adopted in April.

Prior to that ordinance, which created the requirement of council approval for gas rate changes, adjustments to the rates were made by the concurrence of the mayor and city clerk, usually upon the recommendation of Pender.

The April 2010 ordinance was adopted following a March council meeting when it was disclosed that the city had reduced gas rates by more than 50 cents in late 2009 upon Pender’s recommendation.

That rate change was followed by an increase of 50 cents in March to offset a loss in revenue resulting from a “miscalculation” in gas rates, as it was described by a city official at the time.

At Monday’s council meeting, Kant said the gas department expected a $2.4 million profit for the year.

“We’ll be passing through the savings to the customers,” City Council President Lonnie Mixon said.