Pontiac residents to see sewer rates go up by 32% over next two years
Residents of Pontiac will see their sewer rates go up by 32% by April 1, 2026.
The Pontiac City Council unanimously approved the rate increase Monday, March 3, with a vote of 8-0. Alds. Bill Kallas and Scott Cranford were absent.
The increase will come in two parts — from a minimum charge of $12.38 a month to $14.24 a month on April 1, 2025, and from $14.24 a month to $16.38 a month on April 1, 2026. Additional charges will apply depending on usage.
City Administrator Jim Woolford said the rates need to be increased to help cover the costs of operations and the most recent loan from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. The loan helped pay for the city's $42 million wastewater treatment plant update, which was completed last year, and is scheduled to be paid off in December 2042.
'Since the upgrade of the sewer plant and the closing of that project, we have our new EPA loan rate,' Woolford told the council. 'Annually, that's about ($2.14 million). For the next three years, it will be ($2.14) million and then it drops $200,000 as one of those EPA loans falls off.'
More: Pontiac completes 4-year, $42M treatment plant project under budget
The city is paying on three loans two times a year. Payments on the first loan, which ends in October 2027, are $236,144 annually. The second loan ends in April 2032 with annual payments of $224.026. The third loan payments are $1,680,570 annually. and it will end in December 2042.
City of Pontiac residents currently pay $12.38 per 200 cubic feet metered and an additional $6.19 per additional 100 cubic feet used. On April 1, the cost for an additional 100 cubic feet will be $7.12. On April 1, 2026, it will go up to $8.19.
'I think in the beginning, our projections showed two 15-year increases and then we may need either 5 to 7 percent,' Woolford said. 'If things are looking OK, we drop back down to what the ordinance requires, which is what the CPI uses for PTELL each year. We'll know coming out a little further in the operations.'
Woolford told the Daily Leader that rate increases are supposed to take place every year, but it was skipped in 2024. The last increase came in 2023.
Erich Murphy is a reporter with the Pontiac Daily Leader.
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Pontiac sewer rates to increase by 32% over next two years
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