Water, sewer rates will rise as 2010 starts

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SENECA – Water and sewer rates are on the rise.

Starting Jan. 1, 2010, village water and sewer users will pay $11.50 per month for up to 1,000 gallons of water, and $5.75 per month for each additional 1,000 gallons of water above the minimum.

Water and sewer users living outside the corporate limits will pay $17 per month for the first 1,000 gallons of water used, and $6.90 per each 1,000 gallons used over the minimum.

Foot draggers will find an additional 10 percent late fee tacked on to their unpaid bills 15 days from the date of billing.

The water and sewer rate increases are the first for the village since April 1, 1991.

“It’s been a long time,” Mayor David Spicer noted on Tuesday evening, during the regular bi-monthly Seneca Village Council meeting.

Based on a water rate study by Larry Good of Chamlin & Associates of Morris, the proposed changes were decided by the council at a special meeting on Oct. 13. It also was decided the village will no longer apply senior citizen discounts to the water billings.

Additionally, there are about 20 water customers outside the corporate limits, the council noted in suggesting an increase of 20 percent for these billings.

The council approved the amended water and sewer rate ordinance Tuesday. There was no discussion. Only two members of the public were in the audience.

On the other side of the coin, however, the village’s annual tax rate for fiscal 2010 will go down for homeowners from 1.78 percent to 1.52 percent for each $100 of assessed real estate valuation.

There are several reasons for this decrease. For one, a $70,000 water department update bond is being lowered to $35,000. Also, the water tax levy is being lowered, and the fire protection tax – which stems from the fire district consolidation a year ago – is decreasing from $60,000 to $35,000. This tax is expected to keep decreasing annually, Spicer said today.

Village attorney Michael Mason noted the tax levy of $734,000 for fiscal 2008 will drop to $672,000 the current fiscal year, which will be used to compute tax bills payable next summer.

“This will save homeowners about $100 on a house valued (for tax purposes) at $150,000,” Mason told the council.

The ordinance shows a total of $110,000 to be raised by the tax levy in the Corporate Fund; $22,000 in the Working Cash Fund; $66,000 in the Police Fund; $35,000 in the Fire Fund; $22,000 in the Public Benefit Fund; $22,000 in the Street Lighting Fund; and $750 in the Civil Defense Fund.

Also, $6,000 in the Audit Fund; $14,652 in the Comfort Station Fund; $7,040 in the Waterworks Fund; $10,000 in the Sewage Fund; $1,000 in the Garbage Fund; $8,800 in the Chlorination Fund; $88,000 in the Parks and Recreation Fund; $26,400 in the Storm Water Management Fund.

Additionally, $5,500 in the Harbor Fund; $63,000 in the Insurance Fund;$3,000 in the Unemployment Fund; $30,000 in Workers Compensation Fund; $30,000 in the Liability Fund; $75,000 in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund; and $54,000 in the Social Security and Medicare Fund, for a grand total of $637,142.

The rest of the appropriated amounts in each fund are to be made up from other sources
 

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