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Elmwood Park to vote on freezing water rates
Updated: September 5, 2012 1:35PM
ELMWOOD PARK—A water rate increase approved by the Elmwood Park Village Board may be on hold in 2013.
The village board will review the scheduled 15 percent water increase for next year at Monday’s village board meeting.
The village voted earlier this year to raise water rates during the next four years to reflect a water rate increase that Chicago had imposed on the suburbs.
Elmwood Park Mayor Peter Silvestri said each year they would look at if they would have to institute the increase and this year they saw a way to make it happen.
“We’re freezing water rates because we sat down and worked it out,” he said. “We took a comprehensive look at the whole thing.”
Elmwood Park Village Manager Paul Volpe said the freeze will not hurt the village financially.
“He (Silvestri) asked me to look at this, see if we can avoid another increase with the understanding we have a number of things to do with the village’s water system,” he said.
Volpe said with an aging water system and a $19.7 million water mitigation plan in the works to correct it and alleviate flooding in the village, the village still has enough money in the water fund to give the residents a break on their water bill next year.
“It’s in the water fund,” he said. “We’re not going to burden the people unnecessarily.”
Volpe will show how the village can do all of this without a water rate increase at Monday’s meeting.
Silvestri said he believes he has the needed support from the board.
“It’s about doing what’s right for the community,” he said. “If we can save taxpayers money on their tax bill and their water bill, we will do it.”
Volpe said they will continue to look at village funds to see if residents can continue to get a break on their water bills in the future.
“We’re going to look at it each and every year,” he said.
