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Could Yorkville hike water rates even higher? City awaiting total costs of Lake Michigan project · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Could Yorkville hike water rates even higher? City awaiting total
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  Speaker 1: costs of Lake Michigan project. Written by Joey Weslow, This
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  Speaker 1: article is being read by an automated voice brought to
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  Speaker 1: you by Everlett. When Yorkville first passed twenty percent annual
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  Speaker 1: water rate hikes over the next five years, one alderman
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  Speaker 1: called it a necessary evil. Then, when bids for the
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  Speaker 1: current two hundred and twenty four point four million dollars
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  Speaker 1: Lake Michigan water sourcing project came in way over estimates,
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  Speaker 1: city officials said they are reevaluating the plan to see
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  Speaker 1: if even steeper hikes were necessary. With just a few
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  Speaker 1: project bids left to go, the city is pushing back
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  Speaker 1: the next planned rate hikes for two months to allow
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  Speaker 1: additional time to evaluate updated project costs. According to city documents,
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  Speaker 1: city council approved holding back the next fiscal year twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven water rate increases from May first to July
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  Speaker 1: first during its June twenty third meeting. Rob Frederickson, the
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  Speaker 1: city's finance director, said the pushback enables the city to
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  Speaker 1: look at the next BID's impact on future water rates
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  Speaker 1: while ensuring continued compliance with financing coverage requirements. The final
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  Speaker 1: construction bids with the du Page Water Commission for the
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  Speaker 1: project are expected in July. Staff anticipates that the two
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  Speaker 1: month postponement will have only a minimal impact on current
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  Speaker 1: year water fund revenues and will not affect the city's
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  Speaker 1: ability to meet operating debt, service or other financial obligations.
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  Speaker 1: Fredericson said in city documents. When the first construction bid
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  Speaker 1: came in around one hundred million dollars over projections and
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  Speaker 1: subsequent bids also ran over, Yorkville re applied for a
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  Speaker 1: larger Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan from the
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  Speaker 1: US Environmental Protection Agency. The city's new one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: seventy million dollars loan is forty t point three million
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  Speaker 1: dollars larger than the city's initial loan. While the initial
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  Speaker 1: plan was to utilize the low interest WITHFI alan and
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  Speaker 1: finance the rest through Yorkville's bond issuance and loan proceeds,
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  Speaker 1: the city recently announced the WITHIFI A loan is stuck
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  Speaker 1: in limbo due to federal staffing shortages and slowdowns. The
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  Speaker 1: federal government did not provide Yorkville with a new closing
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  Speaker 1: date on the loan. City officials said if bills come
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  Speaker 1: due from the du Page Water Commission before the WIFIA
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  Speaker 1: loan is approved, the city may have to issue municipal
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  Speaker 1: bonds to pay for the project. The first bills are
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  Speaker 1: due after this summer. City officials have said the more
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  Speaker 1: recent construction bids have come in more favorably. The second
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  Speaker 1: segment came in at twenty three million dollars, less than
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  Speaker 1: the original estimates of forty million dollars. Another bid came
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  Speaker 1: in around fifty five million dollars with initial estimates of
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  Speaker 1: eighty three million dollars. Yorkville Mayor John Purcell said the
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  Speaker 1: subsequent legs are easier. Construction and engineering complexities and scheduling
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  Speaker 1: issues likely drove up the first bid. The first Lake
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  Speaker 1: Michigan water should reach the city's residence by the summer
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  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty eight. The city implemented the first round
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  Speaker 1: of rate hikes on July first, twenty twenty five. Yorkville
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  Speaker 1: residents received bi monthly billing fees under the current approved
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  Speaker 1: water rate plan. The average Yorkville home experienced a twenty
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  Speaker 1: one percent increase from a one hundred and six dollars
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  Speaker 1: BI monthly rate to one hundred and twenty eight dollars
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  Speaker 1: in five years. They will pay a two hundred and
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  Speaker 1: ten dollars bi monthly rate. Over a five year period,
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  Speaker 1: the average home will pay an average annual bill of
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  Speaker 1: nine hundred and twenty six dollars, for a total of
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  Speaker 1: four thousand, six hundred and thirty dollars over those five years.
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  Speaker 1: Over the five year hike period, restaurants will have an
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  Speaker 1: average annual bill of six thousand, nine hundred and eighty
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  Speaker 1: seven dollars, for a total of thirty four thousand, nine
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  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty six dollars. Large commercial users will have
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  Speaker 1: an average annual bill of forty seven thousand, three hundred
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  Speaker 1: and ninety four dollars, with a total of two hundred
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  Speaker 1: thirty six thousand, nine hundred sixty eight dollars. According to
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  Speaker 1: city documents, starting in fiscal year twenty thirty one and
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  Speaker 1: continuing for the next three decades, the city is adopting
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  Speaker 1: annual increases of three percent to both the minimum fee
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  Speaker 1: and the volumetric rate. In consideration of any future water
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  Speaker 1: rate hikes, the city must cover one hundred and forty
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  Speaker 1: five percent of the Wiffia loan debt and the three
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  Speaker 1: point five percent interest rate to meet the obligations of
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  Speaker 1: the loan. The project is a joint venture between Yorkville, Oswego,
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  Speaker 1: and Montgomery, hooking up to existing water mains near Naperville
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  Speaker 1: owned by the DuPage Water Commission. The three Kendall County
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  Speaker 1: communities are sharing the almost four hundred million dollars in costs.