Little opposition to plan to triple Prospect Heights sewer rate

A plan to triple sewer rates for many Prospect Heights residents appears to be headed toward approval after city council took initial action Monday on the rate hike, setting up a final vote in two weeks.

Under the proposal, rates for homeowners would increase to $20 per month from $6.50. Businesses would pay $24.50 per month. If passed in a second vote July 24, residents' upcoming quarterly sewer bill for the months of April, May and June would reflect the new rates, officials said.

The rate hike faced little opposition Monday, with just one resident addressing the city council with questions about it. The city previously hosted a town-hall meeting to discuss sewer rates.

In 2015, state lawmakers passed a bill dissolving the Old Town Sanitary District, and the city absorbed the sewer system, which served a majority of residents and businesses.

The sanitary district had been charging an artificially low rate, city officials say, because it had not completed infrastructure improvements or built up reserve funds.

"It wasn't taking in enough money to sustain itself," Alderman Scott Williamson said.

While residents have continued paying the same rates, the city has been maintaining the system at a loss of several hundred thousand dollars annually.

Rates would likely decrease for residents in special service areas, because those homes would be consolidated into the system. Those residents pay about $25 monthly.

The rates build in plans to place cameras along the aging 44-mile system, built about 60 years ago, to study trouble areas in danger of collapsing.

City Administrator Joe Wade said the city will save money in the long term by completing these rehabilitation projects proactively, rather than paying for more expensive repairs to a broken line.

Mayor Nick Helmer made a last-ditch effort to sell the sewer system to Illinois American Water Co. for $7 million. The company would have operated the system and set rates. But he failed to gain broad support from aldermen, who argued the company would charge higher rates than the city.

While the city would have gained a windfall of cash, residents would have paid about $26 a month under the company with the possibility of more increases, Williamson said.