This from the Kokomo Tribune: BUNKER HILL – Grissom Air Reserve Base and the Miami Correctional Facility are facing steep hikes in water rates that will more than double their bills and lead to the prison paying nearly $200,000 more a year for drinking water.
Peru Utilities is proposing to more than double the water rates for customers in the area that formerly housed Grissom Air Base before it realigned as a reserve base in the 1990s.
The city-owned utility took over the area’s drinking water after that and now operates 1,175 meters there, including the base, the prison, businesses located on the Grissom Aeroplex and the large subdivision of Eagle’s Pointe that contains 1,125 housing units.
Peru Utilities General Manager Josh Chance said the steep rate hike is being proposed because customers in the area haven’t seen a rate increase in 17 years, which has led to residents and businesses having one of the lowest water bills in the state.
Residents using 3,000 gallons of water currently pay $12.60, along with an 83-cent charge for fire protection. Under the new rate, residents would pay $17.85 for the same amount of water. However, the fire protection charge spikes to $12.59. That means the total water bills jumps from $13.43 to $30.44.
Chance said the current rate has now led the utility to operate at a loss for years around Grissom. He said they need to generate $567,000 in additional revenue every year just to break even.The lack of funding also has led to the water treatment plant and surrounding well houses to fall into disrepair, causing concerns that the plant will simply stop working or end up contaminating customers’ drinking water.He said the rate increase will allow the utility to launch a $3.5 million renovation of the 76-year-old treatment plant, which is housed in a former federal military building. The money would also pay to update the treatment equipment, most of which is old and outdated.
The money would also go to repairing the four well houses, two of which were built in 1943 and have boarded-up windows and large cracks on the walls. Inside, the electrical equipment is corroded and so outdated that no replacement parts exist if they stop working.Neither the base nor prison objected to the rate increase after inspecting the water treatment facility and witnessing the slew of structural issues and outdated equipment, Chance said.The Peru City Council will vote next month on whether to approve the rate increase, but council members during the recent meeting seemed on board with the proposal after Chance presented the rate increase.