Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Yorkville says latest bids for parts of Lake Michigan water project coming in $28 million under projections

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Yorkville says latest bids for parts of Lake Michigan water project coming in $28 million under projections · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Yorkville says latest bids for parts of Lake Michigan water
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  project coming in twenty eight million dollars under projections that
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  i'd written by Joey Weslow. This article is being read
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  by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. When
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  prices came in around one hundred million dollars higher than
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  expected for the first leg of the Lake Michigan water
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  sourcing project, the sticker shock had Yorkville officials concerned about
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  the rest of the project. To cover the rising costs,
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  the city had to reapply for one hundred and seventy
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  million dollar loan from the US Environmental Protection Agency, thirty
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  million dollars higher than the city's initial loan. Mayor John
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  Purcell said while the initial bids for the first section
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  haven't decreased, the most recent bids for separate legs of
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  the project have been a string of good news. The
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  last two bids we received came in around fifty five
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  million dollars and the estimate was for eighty three million dollars,
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  Percell said during the February tenth City Council meeting. The
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  numbers are definitely coming down. It's still a substantial amount
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  of money, but not the high numbers we were thinking
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  about after that first bid opening. After the initial sticker
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  shock of the first bid, a subsequent round of bidding
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  by the DuPage Water Commission that was expected at forty
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  million dollars came in at twenty three million dollars. The
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  first bids higher than expected cost is likely due to
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  scheduling issues and the engineering complexities of the first leg,
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  Purcell said the subsequent legs are much easier construction. City
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  administrator Bartelson said the last bids for the large construction
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  project should open in the middle of March. He said
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  after that the city should know around ninety nine percent
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  of the project's official total costs. The Lake Michigan Water
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  Sourcing project is a joint venture between Yorkville, Oswego, and Montgomery,
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  hooking up to existing water mains near Naperville owned by
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  the DuPage Water Commission. The three county communities will share costs,
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  as city officials have said, the project is necessary because
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  the region's underground aquifer is being used at an unsustainable
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  rate from the region's booming population. To receive water down
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  the pipeline. By the summer of twenty twenty eight, the
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  city needs to have all parts of the project, including
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  new water receiving stations, storage tanks, and water mains, completed
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  by twenty twenty seven. As it currently stands, the city
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  is eyeing about two hundred and twenty four dollars and
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  four million dollars in total project costs. The EPA loan,
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  through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act WIFIA, can
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  support up to one hundred and seventy nine five million
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  dollars of those costs, leaving the remaining twenty percent to
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  be financed through Yorkville's bond issuance. In Illinois, EPA loan
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  proceeds to help offset the costs for the water infrastructure,
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  The city recently approved higher water rates for users. Residents
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  will face about twenty eighty percent annual increases for at
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  least five years. The WiFi loan has a thirty five
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  year payback from the time of substantial completion, which will
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  take it through twenty sixty five. In consideration of any
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  future water rate hikes. The city must cover one hundred
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  and forty five percent of the WIFFI loan debt and
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  the three point five percent interest rate to meet the
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  obligations of the loan. City staff favor using WiFi loans
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  to cover the project's costs because they carry low interest rates.
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  They also allowed deferred repayment, with interest payments postponed during
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  construction and up to five years after, according to city documents.
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  But like the future water, the Wifilan proceeds will take
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  some time to come in to cover infrastructure costs for
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  the project. In the meantime, the city approved a fifty
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  million dollar debt certificate. This fifty million dollars is essentially
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  a bridge. This is not in addition to the money
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  we've already borrowed. It just allows us to get there,
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  Sell said, and we are going to save a fair
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  amount of money in interest on it. Rob Frederickson, the
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  city's finance director, said the funds could help cover the
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  costs for things like the new watermin transmission and other
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  already completed projects. He said the money could be stretched
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  through most of this year and potentially twenty twenty seven
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  as well. Frederson said the debt certificate has a rate
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  of three point eight three percent, which is lower than
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  the Wiffiest loan rate of four point eight two percent.
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  He said that means by using this financial bridge, the
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  city will save around two million dollars in interest costs
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  over the life of the debt certificate, which goes to
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  December thirtieth, twenty twenty nine.