By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Decatur’s upcoming huge water project has become a little easier on the financial accounts of residents!
It was announced at Tuesday night’s city council meeting that the upcoming increase on water bills will be 11% rather than the 15% originally expected.
Ben Adams, project manager with Commonwealth Engineering of Fort Wayne, revealed the lower number.
Adams, who has worked with the city as well as Adams County on a number of projects, explained at the meeting the details of a reworked project financial package provided by Indiana’s State Revolving Fund (SRF).
The original setup called for a $14 million loan at 2.83% interest while the new number is a $9 million loan at the same interest. Also, a loan of $2.5 million at 0% interest has been boosted to $5 million.
In addition, an original $5.5 million grant with no payback has been increased to $8 million with no payback.
“So, Decatur received another $2.5M in grant funds and $2.5M in additional zero percent interest loan funds which ended up reducing the overall financing costs and therefore translated into a reduced increase to existing rates from 15% hike to 11%,” Adams told WZBD.com.
With the change, an average user of city water who resides within the city will see a current monthly charge of $53.48 go to $59.38. Customers outside the city will see the current charge of $68.01 rise to $75.15.
The current minimum charge will rise from $34.85 to $38.45 for in-city residents and the current minimum for an outside-city user will increase from $45.25 to $49.90.
Following a public hearing in which no one spoke, council unanimously adopted an ordinance placing the new rates into effect.
The federally-mandated project, funded through 35-year bonds, will replace over 1,000 lead service lines in the city along with numerous water mains, some of which are 100 years old.
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