North Bay Village residents hold on to your wallets. Once again your water bill needs to and will go up! On last night’s commission meeting an environmental financial group made an analysis presentation of how much we would need to borrow and at what rates to fix and bring up to date our failing and aging water delivery system and sewer system which includes our storm water system.
The analysis was based on a 20 year and 10 year bond borrowing 5.625 million for the 2015 target year which the first debt service payments would be due. The 20 year bond would bring a 19.1 % increase on your water bill and a shorter time term of 10 years would bring a 28.6 % increase on your water bill.
This was determined by a 5.9% to stem operating loss and 13.2 to 22.7 % to fund CIP totaling 19.1 to 28.6 % needed now to begin repairs and replacement of our water and sewer system. That’s not all, because we buy the water from the county and the county is increasing their rates that will be passed on to the consumer.
We did receive $ 600, 000 from the state thanks to the hard work of House Representative David Richardson. This money has already been ear marked for repairs. There is no getting around this problem that has been ignored for too long! What worries me is the way this administration has handled this aging and growing problem. This could have been partially avoided if they would have acted responsibly and timely, most definitely before the recent rate increase! Left....example of the water pipe that delivers our drinking water. This administration has been forced into transparency because this problem cannot be ignored any longer! We were informed that water tests were performed regularly and that the water is safe to drink!
Right.....example of our storm water sewer pipes with debris that people maliciously and illegally dump into our storm water drain!
