Like Virginia last week, the Village of Meredosia is facing similar shortfalls in their water department. The board decided last week to raise water rates by $1.07 last week at their monthly village board meeting.
During the meeting, the board revealed that their was a shortfall at the water department. Mayor David Werries details some of those shortfalls and the reasoning behind raising those rates.
“We had replaced some sewer lines and had some other water related issues. Our water fund was getting pretty low. We kept borrowing from our sewer department. Needless to say, our sewer department had plenty of funds. We decided instead to raise the water rates so we aren’t in the same situation as some of these other communities where they have to raise rates by $15. We’re trying to make it easier on our customers by just raising it a little bit so we can get our water fund built back up.”
Werries says that it will prevent the village from having to borrow money on a bond or loan, which would cost the village taxpayers more money in an emergency situation. The village has also begun installing new water meters on the north side of the village. Werries describes the need for the new meters.
“We’ve completed 150 out of approximately 400 new meter installations already. It will change our consumption because the older meters weren’t reading correctly. We are going to start reading exactly what people are using. I would assume some of the bills will go up a little bit because of these new readings.”
In other business, the village addressed burning trash and waste in the village limits and changes to the employee handbook. Werries details some of those changes in the handbook.
“Steve Staake had a committee meeting right before our village meeting. The committee adopted changes as far as the distance for hiring city employees. We’re looking to hire a new police chief. To get the quality of people we’d like to have for our residents, we extended that distance to 25 miles which will give us Jacksonville and possibly Pittsfield to get a better group of people interested in being the chief here.”
Meredosia is still looking to hire a chief of police after the resignation on February 21st of former chief Curtis Williams, which came after domestic battery and aggravated assault charges were levied in Pike County court. The village will approve the changes to the handbook at the next meeting.
The village will also be looking to purchase a generator for the local water plant due to a mandate passed last year by the EPA. The generator will help local water to continue to be pumped during electrical outage situations.
The next village board meeting will be held May 13th at 6PM at Meredosia Village Hall located at 315 Main Street.