Buffalo Grove may hike water rates

Water rates in Buffalo Grove could be on the rise.

Village President Jeffrey Braiman said officials are considering gradual increases to stabilize the cash balance in the village’s water fund, including one proposal that would hike the rate by 35 and 30 percent, respectively, in consecutive years.

Officials say the hikes are necessary because reserves needed to fund infrastructure improvements are low.

Since 2007, officials said, the village has spent nearly $4 million on projects such as improvements to Reservoir No. 7, the Cambridge on the Lake lift station and the Buffalo Creek Water Main. The water fund had a nearly $4.6 million cash balance at the end of 2011, according to the village. The ending cash balance in 2012 is estimated at $1.8 million.

“We’re at a point now where we can’t sustain that. We can’t sustain the costs now, and we may have to raise them,” Braiman said.

As presented at this week’s meeting of the board’s committee of the whole, the options include a 35 percent increase to the combined water and sewer rate the first year, 30 percent the second year and a 3 percent increase in subsequent years. By 2031, the rate would $8.30 per thousand gallons.

Buffalo Grove residents today pay $3 per thousand gallons, a figure officials note is much lower than the village’s neighbors. Residents in Wheeling pay $6.30, and Arlington Heights’ rate is $5.05 per thousand gallons, officials said.

Another option proposed would be a 20 percent increase the first year, another 20 percent hike in the following year and 5 percent each year after that. The final rate by 2031 would be $10.37.

A possible third option would call for a 35 percent increase the first year, 30 percent the second year and ensuing increases that would bring the rate to $10.26 by 2031.

Braiman said that over the past 23 years, the village’s water rates were lower than any of the other communities in the area.

“We’ll still be lower than anybody else in the Northwest Water Commission and the bottom third of the whole area,” he added. “There is a need to protect the infrastructure, and that’s what we’re doing.”