Kewaneeans have had many questions about the proposal of Illinois American Water (IAW) to take over the operation of their city’s water and sewer operations,
On Thursday, they had the chance to ask those questions of a number of IAW executives who came to an information session at City Hall.
A steady stream of Kewaneeans came to City Hall to get information about the proposed changes.
There was a small group of protestors who stood along Second Street in front of City Hall, holding signs opposing sale of the local infrastructure.
But inside, there were no demonstrations, only people asking questions. Representatives of all the IAW divisions — engineering, lead service line replacement, rates and so on — were on hand to answer those questions.
Perhaps the most-sought piece of information was how much IAW would charge residents for water and sewer services.
The company distributed a sheet showing that the average Kewanee water user would pay IAW $87.39 a month for water and sewer. That charge would be for 3,000 gallons of water, which City Manager Gary Bradley said is considered an average water usage for municipal customers.
Residents could also apply for an “income-based tariff program” — in other words, a rate structure for lower-income households. The monthly bill for those ratepayers would be $53.72.
IAW’s rates are governed by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC). Company officials said Thursday that in the past 10 years, IAW has applied for three rate increases and ICC has approved them all. (In December of 2024, the ICC authorized the company to collect an additional $110.6 million, 30 percent lower than IAW’s initial request for $152.4 million.)
One of the executives attending Thursday’s session was Rebecca B. Losli, IAW’s president.
Logli said IAW, in addition to paying the city about $34 million for the water and sewer infrastructure, would invest about $13.3 million in infrastructure improvements in Kewanee over the next five years.
Those improvements would include replacing lead service lines to local homes. Losli said the company estimates that Kewanee has about 1,600 of these pipes, which would be replaced at no cost to the property owners.
Losli said IAW owns and operates public-utility systems in 148 Illinois communities. In all but 10 of those communities, the company handles only the water system..
“Water and sewer is all we do,” she said.
