Water utility rates increasing for residents in one U.P. city

MARQUETTE — Residents of Marquette will be seeing an increase in their water utility rates starting October first.

An increase will be made to the sewer, storm water, and water utility rates. This rate will equal on average, around 8-9 dollars for all the water utilities. This adds up to about 100 dollars extra each year for the average rate payer.

The underlining reason behind the rate increases is to keep the water infrastructure up to date.

“The reason we have to keep the rates going up is costs are increasing and we have to keep the infrastructure current, up and modern. If we were not to keep working on the infrastructure, we would have more problems in the future and then we’d have larger increases,” said City of Marquette Mayor, Dave Campana.

A public hearing was held tonight at the Marquette City Commission meeting, allowing residents to express their concerns for the increase. While several residents mentioned the increase seems unnecessary, commission members mentioned that to repair all the infrastructure in the area, it would be more than 40 millions dollars.

Increasing monthly rates, little by little will assist with at least 20 million dollars worth of repair.