North Egypt News

The city of Mount Vernon recently reviewed its water conservation efforts and rates.

During the Feb. 21 Mount Vernon city council meeting, officials discussed the Water Supply Contract with Rend Lake Conservancy District. The Rend Lake Conservancy district is currently under contract with the city and typically sends the city a letter detailing the rate prices and increases every five years. The new contract and update would be mostly the same but on a year-to-year basis, so every year they would reevaluate and send out a new rate for the next year. This change comes in the wake of many prices increases for water treatment facilities, chemical supplies, worker pay, and general inflation.

"We don't know what it's going to be over the next five years, but if I were the Rend Lake Conservancy district and I had to project what it would be in the next five years, I might project it high because I certainly don't want to be lower than what my expenses are going to be," Mount Vernon City Manager Mary Bechtel said at the meeting. "So for now and for a little while, we'd like to do it just annually."

Following a discussion, the council approved the change due to the city's current unstable economy, thinking this would help keep increases as low as possible. They also plan to eventually get back to the five year plan once the economy becomes more stable and everyone feels comfortable with projecting out prices that far.

The city hasn't received an increase for this year’s water rates from Rend Lake Conservancy district yet, but they know that an increase of some sort is coming. Mount Vernon has several bulk users that buy water and water services including the Village of Woodlawn, Village of Bluford, Dix-Kell Water Commission, Village of Belle Rive, Village of Waltonville, and Northeast Water Company. The city is obligated to inform all of these entities that they will be subject to increased water rates before March. A resolution was sent out detailing the lack of a final number from Rend Lake but the promise of an increase and a notification for the level of increase as soon as Mount Vernon hears of it. Their city representative on the Rend Lake Conservancy district said that they should not expect a 5% increase, and that the goal is a 3% increase.