Greendale Considering Water, Sewer Rate Hikes

Monday, October 22, 2018 at 8:59 AM

By Mike Perleberg @mikedup84

A November 14 public hearing is scheduled when city council could vote to approve the increases.

(Greendale, Ind.) – Turning on the tap may soon cost Greendale residents and businesses a bit more.

A water and sewer rate increase has been proposed for customers of Greendale Utilities. The increase is about 33 percent for both sewer and water over the next five years.

Greendale City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed rate hike on Wednesday, November 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Greendale City Hall.

The proposed increase to start January 1, 2019 will be 16 percent for water, followed by subsequent increases of four percent each year from 2020 through 2024. Sewer rates will jump by 22.75 percent in the first year, then about 2.5 percent each of the following four years.

Greendale Mayor Alan Weiss says that although the percentage increase sounds like a lot, most customers will only see increases of a few dollars per month. Based on a typical customer’s monthly usage of 5,000 gallons, a monthly bill will be about $4 more for water and $4 more for sewer in the first year.

The city has not raised water rates since 2006 and sewer rates have not gone up since 2008. It’s rates today are in the bottom-third when compared to cities of similar size.

A recent rate study determined a rate hike was needed due to higher operational costs and declining riverboat revenues over the last 10 to 12 years.

“It is time that our utility department become less dependent of Riverboat Revenue,” says Weiss. “It is time that we begin setting money aside for Capital Improvement Projects rather than depending on unreliable sources such as Riverboat Revenues.”

Also, the city expects to pay an additional $189,000 to the South Dearborn Regional Sewer District each year for its share of helping the district meet a new federal requirement for phosphorous removal from wastewater.

The city has already tried to lower expenses, reducing the utility department staff from five employees down to four.

Weiss says it is a difficult decision to increase water and sewer rates, but it is necessary in order to prevent even larger increases in the future.

“The Greendale City Council and I have decided to do the right thing,” he says. “We want to continue to provide reliable and dependable utility service to our customers. This increase will put us on the right track and accomplish that goal. Also, I have advised Council that we need to put a process in place to do a rate analysis every three to five years to protect our customers from huge rate increases in the future. A Rate Analysis is just a check-up, to see how the utility is doing financially. We will do everything we can to maintain a lean but efficient utility.”

Weiss says the proposed water and sewer increase would not be impacted by a potential merger of Greendale and Lawrenceburg’s electric utilities. The two cities are currently conducting a feasibility study on merging their electric services.