Different neighborhoods paying different sewer rates

ELKHART, Ind. -- Sewer rates for residents outside Elkhart city limits have been a topic of discussion because the city wants residents and businesses to sign a new compact agreement. While digging into this issue, we discovered three different communities are paying three different rates for the exact same service.

According to a board member for Simonton Lake, just north of the city of Elkhart, all 500 residents must pay a flat fee of $25.30 per month to pay off the $2-million bond used to connect Simonton Lake to the city of Elkhart’s sewer.

Residents who choose to connect to the city sewer pay an additional flat fee of $24.70 to pay for use and maintenance.

That's at total of $52 a month.

Residents who live on Juno Lake, in Cass County, Michigan, just north of the state line are also connected to Elkhart city sewer.

Each resident there pays a flat fee of $34 a month to use the sewer.

Just south of the Elkhart city limits, residents of the Valley View Drive neighborhood are paying a lot more.

Based on a bill obtained from a Valley View resident, they paid about $80 a month on the old compact agreement.

Because of new federal legislation that's expected to increase city rates by 25-percent, their bills are expected to go up to $100 or more a month.

We reached out to the city engineer. He said all questions about this issue must go through the mayor's office.

So far we haven't gotten a response from the mayor’s office.