Water Rate Hike Planned
Mackinaw City
By Paul Gingras

A new rate structure for water and sewer service in Mackinaw City would raise prices through 2012 and will be the subject of a public hearing Thursday, February 7, at 7 p.m. at the municipal building. The village council also agreed to change the way residents and businesses are billed for water and wastewater in the village, outlined by Village Manager Jeff Lawson at the Thursday, January 17, council meeting.

Residential users may see price increases ranging from $5.53 to $10.93 per quarter, while bills for a typical large business would be likely to rise by about $47, Mr. Lawson said in giving examples of typical use. Under the new rate structure, high volume users such as large hotels would pay higher rates per gallon. After the initial restructuring, all rates would rise by 3% a year through 2012.

This would be the village's first rate increase since 2000.

Mackinaw City needs more revenue to pay for water and sewer upgrades, which are expected to cost more than $874,000 over the next five years. While new connections from large developments paid for most system improvements in the city for more than 10 years, the village now projects less development over the next five years and will have to raise rates to come up with needed revenue.

There are now three main categories for water and sewarage services, up to 100,000 gallons a quarter, 101,000 to 200,000 gallons, and 201,0000 or more gallons.

Quarterly, customers in the 100,000-gallon bracket will pay $2.41 per 1,000 gallons of water and $4.58 per 1,000 gallons for sewage treatment. Customers using 101,000 to 200,000 gallons of water will pay $2.51 per 1,000 gallons of water and $4.94 per 1,000 gallons for wastewater treatment. Customers using more than 200,000 gallons will pay $2.61 per 1,000 gallons for water and $5.14 per 1,000 gallons for wastewater treatment.

Village water and sewer bills will now be added together, and residents who use 10,000 gallons of water will see their quarterly bills go from $68.70 to $74.23, an increase of $5.53. Residents using 30,000 gallons will see bills increase $10.93 a quarter, from $203.10 to $214.03.

Village-wide, Mr. Lawson said the rate increase should raise about $60,000 a year.

In other discussions at the January 17 meeting, Council asked for a written opinion from city attorney Tom Evashevski to clarify the method by which the municipality is to appoint village department heads.

At a question-and-answer period December 20, Mr. Evashevski revealed that, according to the village charter, the village manager should be making the recommendations to appoint the police chief, the fire chief, and the village superintendent. The council's role is to choose to appoint or not to appoint them, he explained.

Traditionally, the president made the recommendations annually and the council voted on them, board members noted.

"If we have been acting improperly in the past, we should remedy that, hopefully by the next meeting," said Village President Ronald Wallin.

The ordinance committee is still working on developing a draft business license ordinance to govern business practices in the city, and has studied 10 such ordinances from municipalities around the state, including Mackinac Island, Trustee Jeff Hingston said.

The committee has been discussing the draft for about three months. It is important to the community to ensure that businesses are behaving ethically, Mr. Hingston said. Once the ordinance is in place, a violation could result in losing the right to conduct business in the village for a period of time.