Yorkville prepares $11 million bond sale for water projects

YORKVILLE – The city of Yorkville will sell $11 million in bonds to finance this year’s infrastructure projects to bring Lake Michigan water to the community.

With a public hearing before the Yorkville City Council now completed, the bond sale is scheduled for mid-July, and the city may expect to receive the proceeds in August, Finance Director Rob Fredrickson said.

“Issuance costs would be paid and the city would receive $10 million in new bond money proceeds to finance water improvements,” he said.

The city already is running up bills for the $10 million in water system work taking place this year. A $4 million project to replace leaky water mains is underway.

The goal of the water main replacement project is to get the city’s water loss rate down to less than 10%, which is a requirement for communities getting their water supply from Lake Michigan.

The city currently loses about 14% of its treated water supply through aging pipes that date from the 1970s.

This year’s budget also includes about $3.5 million to rehabilitate a well and another $2 million for other work directly related to the engineering plan to connect the city with the DuPage Water Commission’s pipeline.

The new pipeline will extend from the current terminus in Naperville to bring Lake Michigan water to Oswego, Montgomery and Yorkville.

The aquifer serving the three communities is rapidly being depleted, as their populations continue to grow. The three municipalities expect to be connected with the DuPage system by 2030.

For Yorkville, the total cost of the multi-year project is now estimated at $120 million.

Last year, the city hiked water rates and more increases in the coming years are certain.

Water rate-payers will get a break this year however, as aldermen appear to have decided that they will forego another rate increase and instead impose a 1% tax on restaurant meals.

The “places of eating tax,” which also includes drinks in restaurants and taverns along with delivered meals, is expected to produce about $700,000 a year.

Fredrickson said the city will need to produce about $625,000 to 675,000 a year in revenue to pay off the bonds over 30 years.

Aldermen are expected to approve the meals and drinks tax in July, with implementation coming later in the year.

When increasing the water rate last year, the city’s base water rate for the first 350 cubic feet of water consumed went from $17 to $24.

A “volumetric” rate for every 100 cubic feet of water over the first 350 was increased from $4.30 to $4.80.

The typical residential household uses about 1,200 cubic feet of water for each 60-day billing cycle, for a total cost of about $64.80. One cubic foot of water is about 7.48 gallons.