18% Du Quoin water/sewer rate increase Jan. 1 in Du Quoin

The Du Quoin City Council Monday voted to invoke an 18 percent rate increase on water/sewer bills effective Jan. 1.

The increase would raise an average combined water/sewer bill of 3,100 gallons from $39.19 to $46.26.

According to Mayor Rex Duncan, the city is faced with an annual $414,000 payment toward retiring the debt on the city's $7 million wastewater treatment plant from years ago. There is another $1.1 million in debt on Main Street and Washington Street water line replacement projects two years ago. The Rend Lake Intercity Water District will raise the wholesale price of water to the city by between 3 and 4 percent later this year.

And, although unspoken, the city is probably looking at a reasonably large settlement with wrongfully terminated water employee Drew Porter. That settlement is expected to approach what he would have earned had he not been fired, minus what he received in unemployment benefits and any other employment during the year and a half he did not work for the city.

You do the math--probably $60,000 in wages and benefits a year, minus the amount of money he earned after being fired. An arbitrator recently ruled in Porter's favor, saying that alleged drinking before he was called into work, then scraping the city's truck trying to get it out of the storage shed, warranted no more than a five-day suspension, not termination.

With the arbitrator's decision in hand, Mayor Duncan has invited Porter back to work while the final details of the settlement are being worked out. The city--not the city's risk management insurer--is expected to be liable for the cost of the settlement. "We are not done yet. We are still in mitigation talks with him," Duncan said.

The city will try to keep Porter's replacement water employee Cody Greenwood on the city's payroll by not replacing public works director Doug Bishop, who retired last year. Duncan said Greenwood has proven to be a very hard-working and valuable employee to the city, but the details of if and how the city can make room for both Greenwood and Porter on the payroll have not been worked out.

Mayor Duncan said the city remains fiscally sound, but it can no longer afford to take money out of the general fund to cover any expense overages in the water department. "The 18 percent will cover theirs (the Rend Lake water increase) and what we feel like we have to do," he said. In recent years the city has simply passed along whatever the Rend Lake increase was, then picked up some extra revenue by carrying that increase over to the sewer side of your monthly bill.

Mayor Duncan: "Unfortunately this (the rate increase) is one of the tougher decisions to close the gap." Water commissioner Yvonne Morris: "We have cut everything we can. Our budget is lean for next year. We have to be able to repair lift stations and maintain the water treatment plant."

In other action, the council approved the sale of a 1954 fire truck and 2002 Ford pickup truck. A trailer that was to be in the sale has been withdrawn so it can be used by Emergency Services. The sale will be through sealed bids. You can obtain more information by contacting city hall at 542-3841. The city will also advertise the sale and minimum bids in this newspaper.

The council placed the 2015 budget on display. Mayor Duncan said it is a budget "barely in the black." In fact it is an $8 million budget less than $40,000 in the black." It is a budget that will "require financial discipline."

The council also proclaimed December as Drunk and Drugged Drivers Preparedness Month.

Lastly, the council heard an explanation of something called the Homesteading Program which allows a city to accept proposals from the public for the purchase of a derelict or surplus property at a minimal price and sell the property with an understanding that the money that would have been used to buy the property will instead be used to rehabilitate the property. A property on North Division Street recently gifted to the city by Wells Fargo Bank along with $10,000 to either make repairs to the house or demolish it is a good example. The house is said to be a good, solid house that needs a lot of work. This program would save the house and recycle it back into the community.

Details will be the subject of a separate story on Wednesday.