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Galesburg Water Rate Increases Met With Some Opposition
It's possible the City of Galesburg's proposed water rates for the coming calendar and fiscal years won't make it past the proposal stage.

The city presented the proposed fee structure to aldermen Monday night. City Manager Dane Bragg says the fees, estimated to boost water revenues by 15-percent, are a result of a continued flattening of rates. Bragg says that includes increased facilities fees, and increased usage fees that, for the average homeowner, equate to 10-cents more per day.

Bragg says the fees are needed in order to pay for ongoing water system overhauls. And if aldermen decide not to up the fees in two weeks, "We have a water system project underway of $18 million," Bragg said. "We've issued bonds for $10 million. So it's pretty easy to figure out that we're going to run out of money at some point if we don't issue additional bonds. In order to issue the additional bonds, we have to maintain the rate structure that we laid out in 2007. So, we have to be able to maintain that rate structure in order to pay the debt service on the bonds."

The rate increases, and the proposed issuance of 10-million dollars more in bonds Bragg referred to, were discussed on first reading Monday night, and will be acted upon in two weeks.

Some aldermen suggested renegotiating the contracts the city has with other municipalities like Knoxville in order to get them to pay more into the water system, other than just passing the costs on to Galesburg residents.
10 06 08 by Newsroom
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