South Cook News

At its Nov. 16 board meeting, the Midlothian Village Board discussed getting rid of a utility minimum as inflation continues to stretch residents’ wallets.

Village Board Trustee Anthony Burbatt brought up the topic, which has been a big discussion item with the Finance Committee and also among residents in the community. Trustees hope the proposed change will lower costs and encourage water conservation as residents’ bills would be based solely on their usage.

“I know that one of the things we had talked about, we’ve been talking about this for a few months now, and we’ve done the research and you know, we’re all feeling I think the struggle right now and we know that prices are getting higher and higher, so hopefully this will allow people to be able to try and conserve,” Village Board Trustee Sandra Crowley said in the meeting. “It’s hard to conserve when you know you have to pay the bill anyways. So hopefully giving people a little more flexibility going forward with what they use being in connection to what they pay will help people in managing this bill.”

While the 6,000-gallons-per-quarter minimum applies to both businesses and residents, the board is focusing on the impact it has on the latter. As mentioned in the meeting, the Village currently bills on a quarterly basis and does not plan to change to monthly bills. Billing monthly would triple the costs for the billing process because the majority of residents still receive paper bills rather than electronic versions.

Village President Gary L’Heureux did remind the board that the village is a part of the Southland Water Agency. That would allow them to receive water from Indiana rather than Chicago, which would significantly reduce water costs, but they have not been able to implement that service yet.

The board put the proposal on a later agenda so that more research can be done on the issue.