Joliet wants more people to know about Lake Michigan plan

The city plans an outreach meeting in June with East Side community leaders as it looks for ways to spread the word about its Lake Michigan water plan.

Joliet in January approved a plan to spend up to $810 million to switch off of the city’s deep wells and buy Lake Michigan water from Chicago by 2030.

The project is expected to be a contributor to a tripling of water bills to $88 by the time Lake Michigan water comes to Joliet, a part of the project that may need to get more attention for people to become more interested, one councilman said.

“At the end of the day, what the public cares about most is how it’s going to affect them, which is the increase in cost,” said newly elected Councilman Cesar Guerrero, who made the water project an issue in the April 6 election.

Uitlities Director Allison Swisher told the City Council last week that the city will initiate new community outreach measures.

“We’re going to be hosting a meeting in June with leaders on the East Side to get their feedback on how we can best reach out to that community,” Swisher said Monday.

She also said the outreach “is really a continuation of the work we’ve been doing the last two and a half years.”

Joliet hired a public relations firm as it began its search for a new water source.

City officials went to events and neighborhood meetings, which were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, created a social media campaign, put notices on electronic billboards, and used a new website, rethinkwaterjoliet.org, to post detailed information about the water plans.

Still, Guerrero contended repeatedly during his campaign that too many people in Joliet knew nothing about the city’s water plans by the time the City Council approved the Lake Michigan project.

Guerrero said the challenge is to get the word out to people who aren’t paying attention to city business.

“There are more public meetings intended, which I think will be helpful,” Guerrero said. “My only concern is that the public meeting strategy might plateau.”

At some point, he said, it could be the same people getting the city message about the water project.

“The hardest part is reaching the people who aren’t attending the meetings, who aren’t following these stories closely,” Guerrero said.

For those who want information, Swisher said, one of the best ways is to visit rethinkwaterjoliet.org and sign up as a stakeholder. The city plans to continue holding virtual stakeholder meetings every four months to share information about the project and get feedback from residents.