Cape Girardeau residents may see their sewer and water bills change again, but this time they may go down.
Voters approved a bond issue and quarter cent sales tax in 2011 to finance construction of a new wastewater treatment plant. That led to an average $19 per month increase on residential bills, and an $80 per month increase on commercial bills.
Contractors have completed the new plant’s foundation, and city manager Scott Meyer says that gives city staff a clearer picture of the project’s final cost, which will be somewhere around $54 million.
“Foundations that may be estimated at a few million dollars can go over a few million dollars very quickly. We are now through with the foundations and so that gives us a lot more confidence in our ability to hit the targeted price,” Meyer said.
The increased rates generate about $4.5 million per year for the city.
Meyer is currently working on a study to determine what that rate should be.
“The closer we get to completing the project, we believe that we can look at the rates and adjust them, hoping we can adjust them down a little bit,” Meyer said. “It’s not going to go back to the way it was before. But every little bit helps, and we’re really conscious of that. We’re not going to charge anything more than we have to.”
He will present it to City Council at a retreat on April 26.
The city had to build the new wastewater treatment plant to come into compliance with federal and state regulations.
