Supply Better Water and Sewer Rates

Ask your residents what is essential to their life and water is likely high on the list. Yet somehow water and sewer rates remain a source of major debate in Wisconsin and all across the country. In fact, a significant water line bursts, on average, every two minutes somewhere in the country, according to The New York Times and the EPA. The fact is, it’s common for municipalities to not only struggle with the aging infrastructure of water and sewer systems, but also with acquiring the funds needed for maintenance and growth.

At Ruekert/Mielke, we live and breathe municipal engineering. Combine that with our economic and financial expertise and you’ve got an approach to water and sewer rates based on more than just last year’s accounting. For starters, we acknowledge the utility’s current financial condition, while taking into account customer service and long-range capital maintenance needs in order to forecast the rates needed to run your utility like a business. In short, we develop sound plans, build strong teams and create strategic goals around our municipalities’ needs. Our end goal is not just about water and sewer rates. It’s about maintaining a financially sound and sustainable utility that helps build up local communities.

We believe in smaller, more frequent adjustments for keeping water and sewer rates stable.  We also believe in keeping residents happy.  Here’s our approach to executing both:

• Create cost of service studies
• Develop water and sewer rate design
• Bolster utility creation
• Engage intergovernmental cooperation
• Implement capital improvement plans

Water. It might be the most essential, yet most overlooked service a community provides to its residents. Let Ruekert/Mielke help your community finance utility upgrades through practical water and sewer rate structures.

Wholesale versus Retail. The age-old issue of funding new infrastructure in one community combined with serving nine outlying areas. Who should pay and how much? Racine, Wisconsin had this very issue. While they were consistently losing local customers, the nine outlying communities were seeing a population boom. By working with Racine, Ruekert/Mielke was able to them adjust their water and sewer rate schedule to not only keep rates low, but to also fund capital infrastructure.

Interested in learning more about Wisconsin Water and Sewer Rates?

1. See how the City of Racine keeps their water and sewer rates consistent. 
2. Download our free paper on the Top 10 Ways to Manage your Water and Sewer Rates.
3. Contact us for a free copy of our Wisconsin Water and Sewer Rate Survey.