The increase in water rates for Trenton Municipal Utility customers is the fourth and final one in a schedule that the City Council adopted in 2017.
The council chose to raise the water rates by specific amounts during a four year period to pay for infrastructure and water system improvements. This was described then as over five million dollars worth of projects needed for TMU. Trenton’s water treatment plant was built more than 50 years ago in 1966.
In a review of the past, the initial water rate increase in April 2017 was 12 percent. Then the schedule allowed for an eight and a half percent increase in 2018, another eight and a half percent increase in 2019, and the last eight and a half percent increase for this year. The city council of 2017 chose to divide the water rate increases over a series of years rather than imposing a lump-sum increase of 37 percent.
The schedule was set to allow for the city to meet its financing obligations on borrowed money to pay for improvements.
Just two members of the current City Council were serving on the council back in 2017 when multiple water rate increases were put in place. They are Brad Chumbley and Dave Mlika.
