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Fox River Grove board agrees to draft ordinance for $250,000 loan to water fund to hold base rate flat
Summary
The Village Board reached consensus to direct staff to draft an ordinance for a one-time $250,000 contribution from the General Capital Fund to the Water/Sewer Capital Fund, with a long-range payback and a 3% increase in the rate charge while keeping the base rate unchanged.
The Fox River Grove Village Board on March 18 directed staff to draft an ordinance for a one-time $250,000 contribution from the General Capital Fund to the Water/Sewer Capital Fund intended to hold residents’ base water rate steady for 2025 while applying a 3% increase to the variable rate charge.
Administrator Soderholm presented several rate options and a financial forecast for 2025; Trustees discussed the tradeoffs of a general-fund infusion versus maintaining the water-sewer utility as an independent enterprise. Trustee Steve Knar suggested using red-light camera revenue to help the utility. Trustee Jennifer Curtiss said she would support a one-time transfer only with a required payback, and Trustees Devin Hester, Andrew Migdal, Melissa Schladt and Kirsten Wall likewise signaled support for a transfer that includes repayment terms.
Village President Marc McLaughlin reiterated the village’s obligation to treat the utility as an enterprise and stated any infusion should be structured as a loan with a commitment to repayment in the long-term forecast. The board’s general consensus was to authorize staff to draft an ordinance providing for a $250,000 transfer with a payback requirement in the far-out years of the forecast, around the 20-year mark.
The direction is procedural at this point: the Board did not adopt the ordinance at the meeting but asked staff to prepare formal language for future consideration and action.
Why it matters: the plan temporarily reduces immediate pressure on ratepayers by holding the base charge steady while preserving a path for the utility to be reimbursed over time; final legal structure, repayment schedule and formal approval will appear in a future ordinance and vote.
