City raises fees to pay for treatment plant upgrades

MARENGO — The Marengo City Council will raise sewer rates over two years rather than in a single year to pay for improvements at the wastewater treatment plant.

The city has $1.2 million cash to put toward the $7.64 million project, said City Administrator Karla Marck during the Marengo City Council’s last meeting.

Another $500,000 will come from a Community Development Block Grant. The city will take out a 20-year loan for the remaining $5.8 million, said Marck. It will take $411,000 a year to pay off the loans, she said.

Marck offered the council two options for funding the state revolving fund loan for the wastewater treatment facility improvements and force main project. Option one would have increased the minimum bill from $4.31 to $5.65 in fiscal year 2026, the base rate from $11.28 to $14.78 and the debt service fee from $34.50 to $40.50.

Option two implemented the increases over the course of two years. The council voted unanimously for that option. Councilman Travis Schlabach was absent.

Under option two, minimum usage rates per thousand gallons would increase from $4.31 to $4.44 in fiscal year 2026 and to $5.65 in fiscal year 2027. The base rate would rise from $11.28 to $11.62 in fiscal year 2026 and to $14.78 in fiscal year 2027, and the debt service fee would increase from $34.50 to $40.50 in FY26 and remain $40.50 in FY27.

“It’s a mandated project,” said Marck. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is requiring the upgrades, she said, and this is the only way to pay for it.

“We don’t have the capacity to bond for it,” said Marengo Financial Manager Ellen O’Rourke. The city started collecting for this four or five years ago knowing it was coming, she said.

The council set a public hearing for July 9 at 6 p.m. to hear public comments about the rate increases.

The council will also conduct a public hearing for a resolution to increase water raters by 3%, as prescribed by city ordinance.

The ordinance was created shortly after O’Rourke was hired, she said, because the city was struggling to pay the expenses for the water treatment plant. The ordinance requires the city to increase the base rate and per 1,000 gallon rater on water usage by 3% or by a percentage determined by “the annual CPI-U for the Midwest region as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” whichever is greater.

It’s the city’s ordinance, and the city needs to follow it, Hinshaw said. The city has to keep up with expenses.

“Their salaries and everything are coming out of that,” said O’Rourke.

“We don’t like doing it. It is what it is,” said Hinshaw.