Attorney Miller opened the meeting with a presentation about the water system, and handouts were passed out to the 17 residents in attendance.
The water system was created in the 1940s, which includes the water tower, the stations, and many of the mains. The water system is breaking even, covering costs of water, repairs, salaries, and engineering costs. To make major upgrades the Village will either have to borrow money or sell the system. In 2017 engineers recommended work in four areas: water tower, vaults, water mains, and a new meter reading system. It will cost $1,000.000 to fix all areas. Another consultant hired to assess the situation came to the same conclusion.
The Village had a major increase in the water rates in the fall to have money to start these improvements. To be able to make all these improvements, the Village will have to borrow money, but they are in a good position to so so because they do not owe any money now, and the interest rate would be in the 3% range.
The State of Illinois passed a statute to help out small water systems by awarding water companies that buy small town water systems in trouble. A large company can spread its costs out over all its customers it serves. Also, it is able to buy in bulk so that a fire hydrant that costs the village $2,500-3,000 can be bought by a big company for $700. The same with piping. They buy in bulk and then store the material in warehouses until needed. The Village Board has put out a Request for Proposals for the sale of the water system, and those proposals are due the end of February. The Village can the negotiate the details of the contract, such as requiring that something be fixed by a date. The Board voted to do this at an open meeting. The Village is testing the waters by RFPs to see if a sale would be advantageous to us.
One of the questions frequently asked is: what will this do to my water bill? Pricing from last fall for 4,200 gallons of usage: Sidney, $69.40; Aqua, $56.54; Illinois American, $49.07.
There followed a time for questions.
- If the Village borrowed money, would this affect our rates?
- If it is sold, will we share other towns' expenditures for upgrades? Champaign is getting new subdivisions all the time.
- In Champaign-Urbana, the developer pays for the water and sewer costs for the development.
- Is the Village breaking even or not on the water? It looks as if we will pay a 3% increase no matter if we sell or don't.
- After paying off the loan in 20 years, what will be next, more expenses?
- What about the vaults?
- This sounds like a unique opportunity. How many towns are selling?
- If we didn't sell now, would we have an opportunity to do in the future?
- We are band-aiding the system now. What happens in a catastrophic situation?
- How much water does the Village use?
- The rate for out-of-town, will that change? Will the water tower be moved? How often would we be billed?
- If we sold, how would that affect having a sewer system?
- Will the company take care of the needed projects.
- Looking into the process, what do you think will happen?
- What will the Village do with the money from the sale?
- Is there a certain amount of time that a repair would be made, for example, a major water leak?
- The water mains are in front of the downtown businesses. If they have to fix a main, how would the company repair the street? How about private homes?
- How will the salaries of the employees who do water work now be paid?
- Is the audit report on the web page complete?
- What would a sewer system cost?