Large Hinsdale Water Users See Big Hike In Rates

HINSDALE, IL — Hinsdale is changing its water rates, with an emphasis on charging larger water users considerably more.

On Tuesday, the Village Board voted unanimously for the revised rates.

One of the changes includes a $15 flat fee every two months for all customers to pay for infrastructure and water system maintenance, generating more than $500,000 a year, according to the village. Officials said they needed a dedicated stream of money to pay for such improvements.

In so doing, the village is doing away with a $27.52 flat fee every two months.

The rates are based on 100 cubic feet of water, which is known as a unit.

The regular residential fee is set to drop to $8 for every unit of water, down from $8.25.

But water customers that use more than 100 units over two months will be charged $12.38 per unit, a 50 percent increase over the old rate. The village's largest user, the Hinsdale hospital, is set to see its rate rise to $13 per unit, up from $12.38, a 5 percent increase.

At a meeting in July, village trustees said they wanted to see the hospital, known formally as Amita Health Adventist Medical Center Hinsdale, pay more for water. At the time, officials were proposing no increase for the hospital because it was the only entity paying a 50 percent premium.

Trustees at the time pointed out that the village has a practice of subsidizing its water account with dollars from its main fund, which pays for day-to-day operations of services such as police, fire and street maintenance.

"We've been struggling for a while. We've been taking money from the general fund to finance fixing the water system. Really, the water system should be self-sustaining. We've been trying to move to that over a period," Village President Tom Cauley said at the July meeting.

At this week's session, no one mentioned how the new rates would affect that situation.