First Posted: 2/18/2015
LIMA — With a waterline system showing its age, the city of Lima is looking to water customers to help fund repairs.
The city of Lima Utilities Department will be implementing two water rate increases between now and Jan. 1, designed to fund three capital investments related to the city’s water supply. Effective March 1, average customers using 500 cubic feet of water per month will see a rate increase of $1.91 per month, with an additional $2.15 increase beginning Jan. 1.
“The most significant is the replacement of our water system, which is over 100 years old,” utilities Director Gary Sheely said. “There are parts of it that are consistently failing, and we need to address that.”
Evidence of the deteriorated condition of the city’s waterlines has been seen with many recent waterline breaks, including one in early December in Lima’s Town Square. The cost for upgrading this system includes a $250,000 asset management study along with a $1.5 million investment per year for the next 30 years. Other investments include the city’s water meters that are overdue for replacement.
“Our water meters are over 23 years old, and they have a design life of 20 years,” Sheely said. “We have to ensure that the accuracy is there, plus we’ll be providing some additional customer service with the type of meter we’ll be putting in.”
The new meters will also send a wireless signal with the customer’s water usage and any leak information to a remote module that can be accessed directly by the water department. Those meters will come with a $3 million price tag, which will be paid by a loan to be repayed over 10 years.
Additionally, the city must perform maintenance on the two elevated water tanks located at Mumaugh Road and Paul Street, with a cost of about $90,000 per year for 10 years.
For Sheely, making these investments now will prevent worse problems in the future.
“If we don’t make these investments, it’s only a matter of time before the reliablity of the water system will be compromised,” he said. “These are the investments we need to make to prepare ourselves for the next 100 years.”
