The Marquette City Commission discusses increasing water, sewer and stormwater rates at its Monday meeting. (Journal photo by Jaymie Depew)

MARQUETTE — Marquette city residents will see an increase of about 21 percent on their monthly water, sewer and stormwater bill come December.

For all three utilities combined, an average customer will be charged around $16.78 more per month, or $201.36 annually. Rates will be evaluated at the end of each fiscal year to determine the cost for the following year.

It’s estimated that this five-year financial plan will result in an additional $520,000 in revenues for the city’s water fund, $1.3 million in the sewer utility fund and $201,000 in the stormwater utility fund.

Three public hearings were held at the Marquette City Commission Monday meeting, which resulted in the commission voting to increase the rates after a split vote. Commissioners Sarah Reynolds and Mike Plourde opposed the increases, while commissioner Peter Frazier voted against water and stormwater increases, but voted in favor of increasing sewer rates since the utility’s revenue fund is completely depleted.

“We have old sewers all over the town,” Frazier said. “Right now, we’re in the hole. We need sewers.”

Reynolds said she fears utility increases will push residents out of the city because they won’t be able to afford it.

“I just can’t imagine there’s not another way to do 10 percent for the next 5 years. Why does it have to be this amount? I know it’s kicking the can further down the road but I can’t imagine there isn’t another way,” she said.

Jay Parent, environmental engineer with the Department of Environmental Quality, said there’s been a big push from the state and federal government for municipalities having asset management plans.

“I live in Marquette, I don’t like the rate increase, nobody does,” Parent said. “But I can tell you from going around to other communities in the (Upper Peninsula) like I usually do, these SAW grants have really opened a lot of communities’ eyes on how short they are on either knowing what they got or what shape it’s in.”

After the city received a Stormwater, Asset Management, and Wastewater grant for around $1.1 million in 2015, city staff and various consultants examined the city’s entire utility system.

“It’s been over a decade since the city took a hard look at their water, sewer and stormwater rates,” said Curt Goodman, director of municipal utilities.

Under new water supply regulations, municipalities have 20 years to fix infrastructure issues starting in 2021.

Through the SAW grant, the city hired Raftelis Financial Consultants Inc. to develop water, sewer and stormwater financial plans and rate structure alternatives to meet the city’s pricing objectives.

Tom Beckley, senior manager at Raftelis, said it’s important the city has money aside for emergency situations. Currently, water and stormwater have about 90 days worth of operating and maintenance and debt service fund balances, while the sewer utility is nonexistent.

“We want to make sure that we have some money in our bank account and we’re literally not living paycheck-to-paycheck in these utilities that are critical (to the) wellbeing of any city,” he said.

Several Marquette residents expressed concern regarding the hike, especially since the increases come a few years after the Marquette Board of Light and Power increased electricity rates by 30 percent.

“I don’t have the revenue to draw from to pay for that,” said Marquette resident Diane Dufay.

Mayor Pro Tem Fred Stonehouse said it’s critical that municipalities have clean drinking water, proper treatment of wastewater and a stormwater management plan.

“Some Michigan cities have failed their citizens utterly,” he said. “Flint, Benton Harbor … I was surprised to learn there are 70 other Michigan cities that are worse than Flint in terms of lead. The overflows that are occurring in some of the sewer systems are positively scary.”

Stonehouse said he is going to make sure citizens aren’t put into danger under his watch as a commissioner.

“I’m not going to allow citizens to be put into jeopardy because we didn’t have the political stomach to have a rate increase when we have to have one,” he said. “If we do nothing this year, it’s going to be twice as much next year. It doesn’t go away. We can’t keep kicking this can. We have to deal with it.”

Commissioner Paul Schloegel said rate increases are necessary but it was a hard decision to make.

“Next year is going to be just as a hard. We’re going to be looking at the study and revising, if it needs to be revised,” he said.

Commissioner Mike Plourde, who is running for re-election in the upcoming election, opposed the increases, expressing concern over how small businesses and public schools might have trouble paying the balance.

“This plan, in my opinion, is just too steep,” he said. “I cannot accept the idea that there’s not another idea out there. Just because we didn’t find it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I think we need to look for it.”

Commissioner Jenna Smith, who is rerunning for a seat in the November election, researched for ways around increasing the rates, including cutting the budget, which wasn’t feasible.

She said residents, who were initially against utility increases, told her they didn’t want the infrastructure to crumble. She said her hope is to find a solution for residents who can’t afford the increases.

“I believe climate change is real and I do believe we’re going to have a lot more storms that are a lot more severe and that gives me a lot of anxiety,” she said. “I think living in Marquette, we’re protected for a lot of natural disasters but we need to make sure we stay that way by preventing this type of disaster in our community.”

Mayor Dave Campana said he knows rate increases will be tough for some households.

He explained the upcoming closer of the city’s biggest tax generator We Energies-operated Presque Isle Power Plant and a loss of state revenue sharing will have a significant impact on the city’s general fund, which has been partially supporting the sewer utility.

City commission candidates Jenn Hill and Margaret Brumm attended the meeting and both stated if they were on the commission, they would have voted in favor of the rate increases because of the aging infrastructure.