The City of Fort Wayne is gearing up for a utility rate hike to pay for millions of dollars in sewer, water, and stormwater upgrades.
Officials unveiled the 5-year-plan– called “Moving Forward with Purpose” – this week. They will be making the proposal to the City Council in July.
The project has identified more than 70 neighborhood stormwater projects, 60 miles of sewer linings and capacity upgrades, and replacing water mains with a history of breaks.
City Utilities Director Kumar Menon says the city works on five year planning cycles, but improvements are planned out further than that.
"We've been planning for improvements to the system for 10, 20, 30 years. We have 50 year plans. We have 25 year plans. We have 20 year plans," Menon said.
"So these are all the culmination of different sets of analysis, different sets of data analysis, to see what is essential for our community, to see the investment in infrastructure and what can be done now. Now is always cheaper than later. So that's what we're focusing on."
The bills of the average Fort Wayne City Utility customer, who uses 3,600 gallons of water, will go up 2.7 percent over five years, with the biggest jump during 2028.
For the customer who uses 1,500 gallons a month, their bills will go up a total of 1.6 percent over those five years, with the biggest jump in 2029.
The city will need to obtain permission from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to raise the water rate. The sewer and storm sewer rates can go into effect upon council approval.
