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News
Montgomery votes to hike water rates : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisMontgomery votes to hike water rates
| Board cites operational costs; increases will be phased-in over two years
| by John Etheredge
| 12/31/2009
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The new year will bring with it higher water rates for Village of Montgomery water customers.
Village board members unanimously agreed to a rate hike during a finance committee meeting last week and then made it official by approving it as part of their consent agenda during a meeting Monday evening.
Under the approved plan, village water customers who reside within municipal limits will see their cost for water increase by $1.20 per 1,000 gallons of water used over the next two years.
Effective Jan. 1, rates will increase 70 cents from $3.55 to $4.25 per 1,000 gallons used. Effective Jan. 1, 2011, rates will increase an additional 50 cents to $4.75 per 1,000 gallons used.
Rates for the village's customers in the unincorporated Boulder Hill Subdivision will also rise as of Jan. 1 under the rate hike plan, but not as significantly as the village's in-town customers.
Currently, Boulder Hill residents pay $5.35 per 1,000 gallons of water used. That will increase to $5.53 effective Jan. 1 and to $5.70 Jan. 1, 2011.
Until recent years, Boulder Hill residents had been paying for their water at roughly twice the cost of village residents.
Jeff Zoephel, the village's finance director, noted Boulder Hill residents were charged more for their water in part to help the village cover the costs for frequent water main breaks in the subdivision. When the subdivision was developed from the 1950s into the 1970s, contractors used cast iron piping for water mains which has proven more susceptible to breaking over time. In recent years, the village has been appropriating about $250,000 annually to pay for the replacement of break-prone sections of Boulder Hill's water mains.
The increased rates will be reflected on the utility bills village water customers will receive in April.
Board members unanimously agreed the increases are necessary to cover rising costs for operating and maintaining the water system.
Zoephel said the village's current rate structure is providing enough revenues to cover the water system's operating costs, but not generating enough to cover any ongoing maintenance or expansion work to the system.
If the board were to maintain the current rates, Zoephel said the village's water fund would soon show a deficit.
Village president Marilyn Michelini acknowledged that she expects to hear complaints about the higher rates from the village's water customers. Michelini recalled that the last time the village increased water rates by 50 cents she and other village officials received numerous complaint calls.
Board member Denny Lee noted that cost projections by the village's engineering firm estimate that rate hike will cost a typical village water customer an additional $2.50 per month, or an additional $5 on their bi-monthly village utility bills.
"The thing that may get lost here is that this isn't a revenue generator for the village," said board member William Keck, adding, "This is a direct, pass-through of cost to provide this (water) service. It's not like we have an account here that we are putting extra money in to get this service. This is what it costs to provide water."
Board member Andy Kaczmarek, who had previously voiced opposition to a rate increase, said he was willing to support a hike after reviewing the village's costs to maintain the water system.
"What you have to do is convince everyone that it is only $2.50, probably, a month for the average water customer," Lee told Kaczamarek.
Keck noted that even with the increased rates, the village will still have to put off its water system capital improvement program for a full year.
Referring to the pending delay for the improvements to the water system, Keck said, "I'm wondering if we are not shooting ourselves in the foot here."
Board member Robert Watermann said the rate hike reflects the village's "actual cost to maintain this portion of our infrastructure."
Watermann added, "All we have to do is look at what has happened with the other area municipalities like Oswego and Moecherville that have put off increases. Moecherville is bankrupt."
The approved rate hike plan was one of three prepared by the village's engineering consultants, Engineering Enterprises, Inc., and considered by the board during a finance committee during a meeting Dec. 9.
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