GR city water rates may be hiked

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - If you get your water from the city of Grand Rapids , it will cost you more to get a drink of water and flush your toilet next year.

The city is proposing a rate increase, something officials do every year at this time, that would on average cost customers within the city limits just under 2 percent more, and just under 15 percent more for sewer service.

In the suburbs served by the city, rates would increase from over 12 percent for water in East Grand Rapids, to 1.5 percent in Cascade Township.

Ada Township and East Grand Rapids are on the high end when it comes to sewer rate increases, to a low of just under 10 percent in Cascade.

Those rates vary for a number of reasons, including improvement made to systems where the rates are higher.

"The biggest ticket item is the departure of North Kent from the sewer side of the equation," said the water department finance officer Michael Wolski. "But on the sewer side, the defection of several northern Kent County communities from the city system is having an effect."

The North Kent Sewer Authority took thousands of city customers off the system. Fewer customers drive up the cost -- in this case, 6 percent of increases in sewer rates to city of Grand Rapids customers.

Another factor in the rate increases can be measured by the poor housing market. The city expects a certain number of new customers to join the system every year.

"We continue to see an increase in our customer base," Wolski told 24 Hour News 8. But this year, the expected increase is down 22 percent on the water side, 28 percent on the sewer side.