Lyons utilities board recommends 2027 rate hikes, including 12% for electricity
The proposal calls for 6% higher stormwater rates and 2.4% increases for water and wastewater; an illustrative household calculation suggests about $15 to $17 more per month.
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Lyons’ Utilities and Engineering Board unanimously recommended 2027 rate increases of 6% for stormwater, 2.4% for water and wastewater, and 12% for electric service. The recommendations are not adopted rates, the board’s draft Oct. 21 minutes show.
Board members cited several cost pressures. Stormwater staff said planned box-culvert work would leave little money in the fund. For water and wastewater, members recommended a 2.4% increase to match inflation while noting a $365,000 sewer-line replacement and unresolved wastewater-treatment-facility work. The electric recommendation addressed a $15,000 monthly increase in transmission costs that began in May, an expected rise in wholesale power costs and inflation-related town salary costs.
An illustrative calculation using the Town’s 2026 fee schedule, 3,000 gallons of monthly water and wastewater use, one parcel’s stormwater charge and an electricity-use estimate of 8,676 kilowatt-hours a year puts the increase at about $15.17 to $16.60 per month, depending on whether the electric increase applies to the monthly charge as well as electricity use. The Town has described 3,000 gallons as a typical monthly wastewater billing amount based on winter-average water use; it is an assumption here for water. The electricity benchmark comes from a Town-posted 2020 fiscal-impact analysis, so it is dated. The estimate is illustrative, not a forecast of a household’s final bill; the recommendations do not establish whether the Town will adopt them or how approved increases would apply to fixed and usage charges.