On Tuesday, December 15, 2020, the Avon Lake Board of Municipal Utilities (the Board) approved Avon Lake Regional Water’s 2021 Operating Budget. As part of this operating budget, there will be no water or wastewater rate increase for 2021.
“The Board is pleased with the performance of our revamped management team through 2020, despite the difficulties COVID-19 has presented for everyone, and feel comfortable in freezing water and wastewater rates at this time as something of a break for ratepayers,” said John Dzwonczyk, Chairman of the Avon Lake Board of Municipal Utilities.
The 2021 Operating Budget is a balanced budget, without using any reserve funds. As part of budget, Avon Lake Regional Water will focus on enhancements to maintenance, operations, and asset management to the completed critical infrastructure improvements.
“Avon Lake Regional Water has been focused on ensuring our customers have seamless water and wastewater services. The critical infrastructure improvement projects that occurred over the last several years were critical to maintaining these services. Now that we have these critical infrastructure improvement projects complete, we can scale back on construction projects and hold rates at the current amounts,” said Robert Munro, Acting Chief Utilities Executive of Avon Lake Regional Water.
Since 2013, Avon Lake Regional Water has been making critical infrastructure improvements to its system to benefit our customers. The water and sewer rates customers pay for their water and wastewater services contribute to payment of these projects. These critical infrastructure improvements include:
- Construction of a 2.5-million-gallon clear well that provides an extra 2.5 million gallons of clean water in case of an emergency
- Construction of a 3-million-gallon water tower that provides an extra 3 million gallons of clean water in case of an emergency
- Construction of the West Ridge Interconnect, a pumping station that may provide up to 8 million gallons of clean water to either Avon Lake Regional Water, the Rural Lorain County Water Authority, and/or the City of Elyria in case of an emergency.
- Replacement of waterlines throughout Avon Lake, about 8% of Avon Lake Regional Water’s system, which reduces the chances of water main breaks
- Replacement of sanitary sewer lines as part of the Avon Lake Combined Sewer Separation Project, about 12% of Avon Lake Regional Water’s system, which has reduced basement backups and overflows
- Rehabilitation of the Water Reclamation Facility (wastewater treatment plant), about a $35 million project to enable the plant to treat more water and reduce overflows
“Water and wastewater services are critical public health and safety services. Having made these critical infrastructure improvements, we are able to continue providing these seamless services to our customers in Avon Lake and across the region, 24/7, 365 days a year,” said Munro.