Politics & Government
Residents to Receive Water Bill Rebates
After passing the recent ordinance raising the water bill amount and noticing an unclear billing mandate, Mayor James Sexton has agreed to rebate residents who were recently charged at the new water rates for one billing cycle.
The first water bills at the newly increased rate imposed on Evergreen Park by Chicago made their way to residents’ mailboxes recently, and rebates are already in the works.
Some residents said they were surprised to see they had been charged for the new rate from October 2011. As a result, the village has agreed to issue a rebate, since the December ordinance that mandated the raise was unclear to some.
“I don’t mind an increase in the water bill, but I do mind the increase happening earlier than it was supposed to,” said Omar Gobby, a resident in the southeast quadrant of the village who recently received his water bill. To his understanding, and that of some others, residents would be charged the new rate starting Jan. 1, not Oct. 1.
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In December, trustees unanimously voted to approve Ordinance 19-2011, increasing the water rates by 25 percent, a mandate by the city of Chicago, from which Evergreen Park and other suburbs receive their water.
William Lorenz, head of the village’s Public Works Department, said under a normal billing cycle, residents are charged for the three prior months of service, and that the new billing law included the preceding months as it normally would.
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Although the new law didn’t require the village to issue a rebate, Sexton said it’s adhering to residents’ concerns and rebating residents “because it’s the right thing to do.”
Residents in the southeast quadrant were billed in January for October to December 2011 water bill service. In the next quarter, they will be billed at last year’s rate, Lorenz said, to rebate them. Subsequent quadrants will be billed accordingly, however only for the months they were charged at the new rate. Lorenz said since the village operates on a staggered billing cycle with the quadrants, all quadrants won’t receive the same rebate amount, since all will not be charged the same.
The village hand-delivered letters notifying residents of the rebate over the weekend, said Lorenz, and if residents haven’t received one yet, they will soon.
