Greenfield’s water tower on the city’s west side, near Weston Elementary School, will be retired after a new one is built off Franklin Road on the south side of town.
GREENFIELD — Greenfield water utility customers can expect to see ongoing annual increases in their bills through 2026, in a move city officials predicted last year.
The Greenfield City Council voted unanimously Aug. 9 to implement a three-year increase each year on July 1 — from 2024 to 2026 — with each increase raising rates 45 cents per 1,000 gallons of water.
The ordinance is slated for final approval at the next council meeting Aug. 23.
The rate hike is designed to cover the cost of bonds issued to defray expenses associated with upcoming water utility improvements, which are estimated to cost $18.5 million. That doesn’t include the cost of expanding the current water plant, which is expected to need replaced within the next five to eight years.
The proposed hike comes on top of a three-year annual increase that was passed in 2021, which were scheduled to kick in Jan. 1 of 2022-2024. That increase equaled roughly 15 cents per 1,000 gallon of water each year, which will increase monthly rates by 45 cents over the course of three years.
The newest three-year increase will raise the rate by an additional $1.35 over the course of three years.
Greenfield councilman George Plisinski said that for a typical household like his — which includes himself, his wife and teenage son — the newest 45-cent annual increase that could take effect next summer would bump up his monthly water bill by around $1.80, since they use roughly 4,000 gallons of water each month.
The increased fees are designed to offset the cost of upgrading the city’s water mains and water towers, of which there are three.
Due to increased demand from a growing population, the city plans to build a new 2 million-gallon water tower just south of the Greenfield-Hancock Animal Management Center at 740 S. Franklin St., between Tague Street and Davis Road.
Once the new tower is built, the city plans to decommission and demolish the current blue tower on the west side of town, near Weston Elementary School and St. Michael Catholic Church.
Built in 1953 with a capacity of 500,000 gallons, the water tower has lived up to its maximum life expectancy of 70 years.
The city also plans to upgrade the 1/2 million-gallon water tower behind Hancock Regional Hospital, which will involve removing the top, elongating the base and putting the top back in place.
The city’s water system operates on a dual-pressure zone system, which accommodates towers of varying heights.
Bringing all the city’s water towers to the same height will enable it to use a more efficient single-pressure system, said Plisinski.
A 1.5 million-gallon water tower just west of the Hancock Wellness Center on New Road is already at the desired height and will not be altered, he said.
The councilman said the water tower upgrades are necessary to not only satisfy the consumer demand for water but to keep the city safe, since the water towers provide water for the city’s fire department.
“Those water towers will not only regulate pressure but are essential to fire protection, so having enough available gallons per minute to extinguish a fire is paramount to public safety,” he said.
The improvements dovetail with the city’s plan to build a new water treatment plant on the west side of town since the current water plan will become obsolete within the next five to eight years.
Plisinski said the current plant is “well past its prime.”
While he realizes no one likes rate hikes, the councilman said the council has deemed the increases necessary to cover the cost of necessary enhancements over time.
“I think some communities will wait for their infrastructure to almost collapse onto itself before raising rates, then they have to almost double the rates all at once to pay for fixing it,” he said, “whereas our philosophy is to raise rates more incrementally over time to fund those improvements as needed.”
Residential users will see slight changes in their bills, while industrial and commercial users will see larger increases.
All users pay the same for the first 20,000 gallons of water used each month, while the rate increases for the next 40,000 gallons used, then increases again for each gallon used beyond 160,000 per month.
Greenfield’s water utility also offers water and sewer services outside corporate limits, but those come at a higher cost, with a surcharge of 14.5%.
The city’s water utility manager, Charles Gill, said the upcoming water tower and water main project is estimated to cost $18.5 million.
“Ideally we should be wrapping up funding in September and giving notice to proceed in early fall,” he said.
The first step will be construction of the new tower by the animal management facility, followed by extending the base of the tower by the hospital, then retiring the tower near Weston Elementary.
“In addition to that we’re also installing new (12-inch) water mains on the east side of Franklin Road from the south side Lotus Drive down to Davis, then heading east down Davis to Dream March Drive. We’re also going to be installing new 8-inch mains on North Street from Howard to Spring and on Osage from Penn to West Street,” said Gill, who expects the water main work to wrap up in 2024.
The tower work is expected to be complete in 2025.
“We’ll keep the public informed with information on our website and social media,” said Gill, who shared publicly last year that rates would need to increase due to upcoming improvements.
“This is just the first domino in a series of improvements we’re going to have to make to keep up with increasing demand commercially and residentially,” he told the Daily Reporter in September, “but also to allow us to meet some of these newer standards that are coming out regulatory-wise.”
City planner Joanie Fitzwater said the city has been seeing unprecedented growth in recent years.
“We’ve issued only 59 (building) permits this year, but we’ve added 1,763 in the previous five years,” she said.
