Shannon Village Passes Commercial Water Rates

By JOHN HUGGINS | For The Prairie Advocate News

SHANNON – At the February 5 meeting the Shannon Village Board passed an ordinance to increase water rates for commercial properties by 20 percent. The village board has been working on the new rates for several months.

In January, the board passed a two dollar increase to water and a two dollar increase to sewer for all properties.

Village President Bonnie Foust asked if any of the committees needed to meet to discuss the recently completed Capital Improvements Plan (CIP). No one spoke up.

“I’m going to give you all homework,” stated Village President Bonnie Foust. “You all have copies of the (Capital Improvements Plan). We need to look through that and at the next board meeting bring up some ideas of what you thing we should be working on.”

Water Meters

The village will be putting water meters on a few businesses to monitor how much water those businesses are using. Village Trustee Wayne Gaul spent some time researching water usage for the village over the past month.

Gaul reported he tested the car wash to see how much water was used keeping the water running constantly, when no one was washing a vehicle. He figured out that it came to a total of 160,000 gallons per year for the three bays.

He found out that the average residential person in Lena, who has water meters, uses approximately 1,500 gallons per month. Using those numbers, Gaul figured that there was about 2.2 million gallons used over and above the residential usage.

Foust added, “That’s a lot of water going down the drain. I’m really glad we are doing something about this. Thank you for checking that all out. I think that shows us how important it is that we get this situation under control.”

Gaul said, “Regardless of what the Advocate says, I’m still going to put (my own water meter) in and pay for it myself.”

The article titled “Shannon Village Continue Water Meter Discussions”

in January 9, 2013 edition of the Prairie Advocate stated:

Trustee Wayne Gaul had offered at the prior meeting to purchase one with his own money to use as a test at his business. He quickly rescinded the proposal after he heard the price. “I figured they would only cost a couple hundred dollars when I made that offer,” stated Gaul.

Writer John Huggins reporting for the Prairie Advocate responded, “I record every meeting, so I only wrote what you said.” The room had a good chuckle.

In Other Business

Received new water and sewer maps from Fehr-Graham Engineering.

A resident contested a parking ticket. The board overturned the ticket because, according to zoning ordinance, the person was not in the wrong.

Heard annual financial report.