GRANITE CITY, Ill. – After the city of Granite City sold its sewer treatment plant, residents have raised concerns about their sewer bills doubling.
Regina Buecker is one resident who is facing a spike in bills.
“It went from $20 on Nov. 9 last year to $55.85 this month,” Buecker said. “I think it’s outrageous, I think somebody is sticking the money in their pockets.”
Regina’s husband, Bob, also said it’s too big of a jump at one time.
Granite City Mayor Mike Parkinson said the city sold their treatment plant for $86 million.
“There’s a lot of factors that go into the thought process of having to sell the Granite City Wastewater Treatment Plant,” he said. “The driving force behind it was (that) the city has $100 million in pension liabilities that have to be covered and we’re at a crossroads…the significant amount of money that we could sell the plant for—that we’ll be able to position ourselves to pay that debt off without raising taxes on our citizens.”
Parkinson said he understands the citizens frustration, but the pension problem has been building for a long time.
“I didn’t incur the debt; the policemen and firemen didn’t incur the debt; the previous leaders failed to do what they should have done to make the payments timely,” he said.
Parkinson said residents’ bills would have gone up regardless, and if the plant hadn’t been sold, there would be at least $30 million needed to put into the facility to make improvements.
Granite City is not alone in unloading treatment plants, according to the mayor.
“Alton has already done it… Metro East Sanitary District is selling a portion of theirs,” Parkinson said. “It should not be a burden on the taxpayers to continue to upgrade these plants and pay these things.”