DES MOINES- City council unanimously approved a rate hike for the city’s sewers on Monday night.
“This is something that we need to get done, and we have to show some discipline,” said city council member Chris Coleman.
Pushed by June’s flash flooding, the city council will start the process of overhauling its current sewer system.
“That’ll get us we hope, $25 million to accelerate the programs that would probably take another ten years and be able to put something in our neighborhoods, so we don’t have the same types of results that we had just recently,” said city council member Bill Gray.
Council unanimously approved a plan that will bump up sewer rates for the next five years,
It’ll upgrade aging infrastructure and create better drainage all around town.
“We want to make sure that our neighborhoods are safe, our people are comfortable and we can do so at a manageable level,” said Gray.
Gloria Hoffmann is one person who is pretty pumped.
“I’ve been nagging, let’s put it that way,” she said. “I feel very good about their dedication to what needs to be done.”
The summer floods showcased the worst that can happen. But Gloria says flooding out here is pretty routine.
“I have a storm sewer that empties into a lot behind my house, which then backs up because the lot cannot hold the water,” she said.
Even though she lives on a hill, Hoffmann says the waters flow right up the hill and into her backyard, eventually flooding her basement.
It’s why council felt her sense of urgency, and similar sentiments from her neighbors and acted.
“I think these are rational people,” said Gray. “They kind of see that yeah, i don’t like paying a little extra, but i want this done now. My house means everything to me,”
The city will bump up rates by 6 percent for each of the next three years, then it’ll be 5 percent for one year and then 3 percent. They hope after that, rates will only go up consistently with inflation.
