GA_012518

8 | January 25, 2018 | The glencoe anchor news
glencoeanchor.com
Glencoe Village Board
Residents’ water, sewer bills to increase in 2018
Margaret Tazioli
Freelance Reporter
It looks like water and sewer
bills are going to cost more this
year in the Village of Glencoe.
At its regular Jan. 18 meeting,
the Board of Trustees voted
to approve a quarterly water
rate hike from $3.56 to $4.50
per 100 cubic feet. There will
also be a quarterly fixed charge
based on the size of the building
or home’s water meter.
“The fixed charge provides
some revenue stability and the
volumetric charge recognizes
the benefit a customer may experience
through conservation,”
assistant city manager Sharon
Tanner said.
The quarterly sewer charge is
going up 2.5 percent, from $1.002
to $1.027 per 100 cubic feet.
For a low-level water user,
around 1,500 cubic feet per
quarter, the current quarterly
rate is about $54. For that same
user, the new rate will be about
$68 for the volume of water used
plus a $20 fixed charge, which
would be about $88 total quarterly.
That’s $34 more per quarter
for low water usage.
Last fall, after the Village conducted
a water rate evaluation
and determined the present rate
is insufficient to fund the utility’s
operations — let alone pay for
the rehabilitation and eventual
replacement of the Water Treatment
Plant.
“We learned through the rate
analysis that the rate as it is today
cannot fully fund all of our operation
costs and infrastructure
needs,” Tanner said. “Increased
costs the utility has experienced
have been greater than increases
in its revenue through the rate.”
Tanner projected that with the
rate hike, the water fund’s revenue
will be around $2.8 million
this year — a 35 percent increase
from last year.
In a budget with nearly $23
million in projected revenue and
$25 million in projected expenditures,
the water rate revenue
falls under the Village’s charges
for service, which makes up 17
percent of total revenue.
Please see village, 10
Fiscal year 2019 budget gets approval
Submitted by Village of
Glencoe
Following a discussion of
the Preliminary Fiscal Year
2019 Budget at the Dec. 19
Finance Committee meeting, a
formal presentation of the recommended
Fiscal Year 2019
Budget (March 1, 2018-February
28, 2019) was made by Village
staff at the Jan. 18 Village
Board meeting.
Following discussion, trustees
unanimously voted to approve
the budget as proposed.
“The budget really is the
single most important policy
document that the Village
Board reviews and approves
each year,” Village Manager
Philip Kiraly said. “The
projects and programs we
have planned for the coming
year underscore the Village’s
long-standing commitment to
providing excellent services
with a great emphasis on effective
and efficient delivery
of those services. It also provides
resources to fund necessary
infrastructure improvements
and front-line equipment
planned in the Village’s
Community Improvement
Program (CIP).”
The approved Fiscal
Year 2019 Budget includes
$25,018,611 in expenditures
across all funds and departments.
A budget-to-budget
comparison from projected
Fiscal Year 2018 expenditures
to those planned in Fiscal
Year 2019 includes a
decrease in operating expenditures
of approximately
$551,000 and an overall 17.8
percent decrease in total expenditures.
Significant long-and
short-term savings are related
to three major outsourcing efforts
that took place this year:
residential garbage collection,
building permit plan review
and inspection services, as well
as 911 emergency dispatching,
the latter in response to State
mandate.
Other highlights from the
Adopted Fiscal Year 2019 Budget
can be viewed online at
www.villageofglencoe.org.
The budget process begins
in late spring of each year and
involves Village staff working
closely with the Finance Committee
to review capital and
infrastructure needs, circulate
and evaluate a fee survey, develop
a long-range revenue
and expense projections and
create a tax levy structure for
the coming year. This year’s
budget development process
also included conducting a
comprehensive Water Rate
Analysis, from which the recommendation
to change the
Village’s water rate structure
was made.
Glencoe committee of the Whole
In early stages, Tudor Court redesign projected at $1M
Board requests more
concrete cost estimates
Margaret Tazioli
Freelance Reporter
In the latest conversation
about improving Tudor Court —
the street between Writer’s Theatre
and art galleries in downtown
Glencoe — Village trustees
reviewed the project’s progress
and asked the city manager to
keep working on it.
At the Jan. 18 Committee of
the Whole meeting, Teska associates,
an Evanston-based urban
planning firm, presented its
latest designs to the Board of
Trustees. The updated design included
feedback from the public
and some rough cost estimates.
Based upon the initial rough estimate,
the project is looking to
cost around $1 million — possibly
more.
Trustees discussed the initial
cost estimates and decided they
needed firmer estimates and a
better understanding of the Village’s
budget and priorities before
anything more could be
decided.
“The board has to get comfortable
being able to think ‘Yes, we
can justify that kind of investment,’”
Village Manager Philip
Kiraly said. “And one of the
question marks you don’t have
an answer to yet is the cost of the
component pieces of it. This is an
aerial look; we haven’t asked Teska
to generate what these things
might look like. We haven’t gotten
into a design element yet.”
With the board’s blessing,
Teska associates will now draw
up a more detailed list of cost estimates
and some more concrete
plans with input from the park
district.
At minimum, the plans would
leave the existing roadway intact
— apart from resurfacing — and
just add some new site features,
like benches and arches. At most,
Glencoe Drive could be terminated
and replaced with a small
park and Tudor Court could be
reconstructed as a street/plaza.
One of the primary goals for
the space is to be a comfortable
and safe environment for pedestrians,
as well as a gathering
space that is celebratory of arts
and culture without sacrificing
any of the present parking.
One of the primary concerns
merchants raised was about
parking.
“The hard part about parking is
there’s never enough where you
want it when you want it,” Kiraly
said. “The message that rang
pretty loud and clear throughout
all of the public meetings is that
every parking space is valuable.
In what was put together here,
the idea of doing as little harm as
possible is what drove us toward
this concept.”
The board seemed interested
but hesitant to get too excited
without seeing some more concrete
cost estimates.
City manager Kiraly will be
working with Teska to get some
of these questions answered in
coming months.