O'Fallon City Council Approves Water, Sewer Rate Changes

At Thursday night's regular meeting, the voted 6-4 to increase the base rate and usage fees for the O’Fallon water district over the next five years.

The average household will pay about $1.32 more per month starting in January 2012, said Steve Bender, director of O’Fallon Public Works. The increases are being enacted to keep up with rising energy costs and to better maintain O’Fallon’s water system, he said.

Ward 5 Councilman Mark Perkins voted against the narrowly passed ordinance along with Ward 5 Councilman Mike Pheney, and Ward 3 Councilmen John Haman, Jr. and Richard Battelle.

“I just want to be sure the council does have all the answers in regards to why we need a rate increase,” said Perkins at the council’s work session earlier that evening. He said previous water infrastructure projects had been approved in order to conserve water and avoid rate hikes like this one, and yet the city was still losing up to a half-million dollars in unaccounted-for water each year. Perkins said they should clean up the losses before passing the cost onto O’Fallon residents in a difficult economy.

City Administrator Keith Riesberg explained that some money from rate increases would continue to address the lost water. O’Fallon’s water treatment plant needs to replace four of its five water filters with new models that require a fifth of the maintenance, he said. , proposed projects include rehabilitation of deep wells, building a new water well, additional storage capacity to meet state standards and upgrades to one of the city's water towers.

Bender added that without the increases the water fund “would go negative in the near future.” Since 2007, Ameren Electric had raised its rates by a total 28.7 percent, increasing the operating cost of large-scale water purification systems, according to Bender. 

Water users pay a monthly minimum for up to 1,000 gallons, plus an additional fee for every additional thousand gallons and both numbers are set to rise. Rates differ for dwellings in or outside of city limits, but after 2012, the average increase should be:

• $1.20 per month in 2012
• $1.26 per month in 2014
• $1.33 per month in 2015 
• $1.39 per month in 2016.  

The base rate to use the sewage system will decrease by $.95 in 2012 and will remain the same through 2016, according to the five year plan. A full rate schedule and expanded ordinance details are available on the city’s website.

Mayor Bill Hennessey added that the council would review the rates each year as a part of city budgeting and could adjust it as necessary.

Councilman Haman also announced his Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council would begin collecting applications from prospective members at City Hall on August 16. Only juniors and seniors from area high schools are eligible. members sit in on city council and commission meetings, meet as a whole once a month, and plan projects under the direction of Haman, the city council liaison.