Staff report
news@wbcowqel.com

Bucyrus water consumers will get an early Christmas present on the back of their December bills indicating a coming increase is only a quarter of what it was going to be.

A letter from Bucyrus Mayor Jeff Reser and Safety-Service Director Jeff Wagner will accompany the bill and states that a scheduled increase of 20 percent to city water rates will be limited to 5 percent. The reason for the drastic reduction of the increase, according to the letter, is that the city’s construction costs and interest rates for the new water treatment plant are much lower than originally anticipated.

In addition, the letter indicates city officials will also be looking at scheduled increases for water usage in 2017 and 2018 to see if those increases can be reduced as well. The letter to Bucyrus water consumers accompanying December bills can be seen below in its entirety.

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December 2015
Dear Fellow Bucyrians,

On behalf of the entire Bucyrus City Administration and staff, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! There is much for which to be thankful, as we reach the end of another year. Our unemployment rate continues to be historically low, new business are opening and we broke ground on a new water treatment plant—just the third water treatment plant in the history of Bucyrus. Next year we begin long awaited work on our sewer separation project which was recently approved by the Federal EPA. Schines Art park is scheduled to open in June of 2016—a new gathering place for our historic downtown business district.

We have more good news to report. The scheduled increase of 20% in water usage rates for 2016 has been reduced to 5% because of lower than expected costs of construction and financing. Our administration will be taking a hard look at future rate increases that are planned for 2017 and 2018 in order to see if those rate increases can also be reduced. Please be assured that our administration is aware of the burden that rate increases can cause to our residents, especially those on a fixed income and we work hard to make sure that our water usage rates are as low as possible.

Once again, we wish you a Happy Holiday Season and abundant blessings in 2016! Believe in Bucyrus—we do.

Mayor Jeff Reser Safety-Service Director Jeff Wagner