With the recent approval of the wastewater treatment facility improvements by the Perry City Council, there could be increases to sewer rates. 

City Administrator Sven Peterson says  the wastewater treatment plant has reached the end of its life cycle and it must be repaired and improved. With a price tag of $27 million, which is $7 million over the original cost estimate, Peterson says they are pushing forward with the project.

“They usually have a useful lifespan of about 20 to 25 years old. This one is at that 25 going on 30 in some parts. So, definitely time that we need to reconstruct most of that plant and get it up to par.”

Peterson tells Raccoon Valley Radio the bid coming in high is due to uncertainty in materials, which doesn’t have a good outlook for the near future. Peterson says now is the best time to move forward with this project, but sewer rates are likely to increase 

“We are going to be looking at some rate increases to help get the project going and finance the project. I will say that we are looking at rate increases again anyway so this isn’t really something that wasn’t on the horizon.”

Peterson says for sewer rates the potential could be a roughly eight to ten-percent increase but that depends on how this and other projects unfold.