MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (WXYZ) — Residents in Mount Clemens are bracing for a double-digit water bill increase. A vote is expected to take place at Tuesday's city commission meeting.
City leaders say the hike is needed to cover a $37 million project that includes switching the city's water source to the Great Lakes Water Authority.
City Manager Gregg Shipman said the residential customers, on average, can expect to pay an extra $13.40 per month. That depends on their water usage.
“It just seems excessive and unnecessary,” resident Mike Switney told 7 News Detroit. “I just don’t see why it would have to amount to that much."
That monthly cost equates to about $160 a year give or take, depending on water usage.
"Some amount, maybe, I could see. (That) may be fair. Maybe half of that,” Mount Clemens resident Jerry Perry said.
The city said anything less isn’t adequate to meet the funding needs and instead of upgrading the city’s water system, the mayor said it’s less costly to switch to GLWA.
“(The project cost) $37 million for a community where we have a $14 million annual budget. So, we had to come up with creative way to fully fund this project," Mount Clemens Mayor Laura Kropp said.
She said the state granted $20 million in loan forgiveness.
“It’s never a good thing, right? Having to raise rates, but we want to have safe water," Kropp explained.
City Commissioner Spencer Calhoun told 7 News Detroit, “I’m really nervous because we have to go through with the switch. We’re just in that position.”
He said it’s unclear what the increase would look like for businesses.
"Residents are concerned about water rate increases with the prices of everything going up, utilities, groceries. So, it’s something that we’re really concerned about. But also people want, they want clean water here, and so we’ve really got to balance those two things,” Calhoun explained.
City Commissioner Erik Rick said, "Generally, the feedback I’ve gotten is nobody wants to pay more when they’re not making more, and we have a lot of folks on fixed income here. We’ve got a lot of folks on low income here.”
“We have to spend the money. It’s just a question of how exactly we adjust the rates and what programs we’ll be able to leverage to help our residents. That’s why for me, I’d like to see us do a 10% this year, a similar one next year and then whatever we need to stay on track," he explained.
Stay with 7 News Detroit for the update on how the vote turns out.
