By Jill Fennema –

The Edgerton City Council met on Wednesday, Dec. 9, to set the levy amount for 2021. In September, the council had set a preliminary levy increase of 42 percent, as they looked forward at a $7 million capital improvement plan (CIP).

However, at last week’s meeting, they backed off a few percentage points and voted to increase the levy by 30.58 percent, which would still give the city reserves and additional funding to be set aside for the engineering fees they will be paying to DGR as the plans move forward for the CIP.

The council also voted to increase water and sewer fees by 15 percent. Some of those extra revenues will cover the increased costs of rural water. Lincoln Pipestone Rural Water rates will increase by three percent in July 2021 and will continue to rise at the rate of inflation each year.

The council also voted to raise the “Streets” fee that is billed to residents on their utility bill from $4.99 a month to $10 a month.

“The levy should be as low as it can be,” said Councilman Ron Williams. “The other fees should be increasing. I think it’s the responsibility of the council to minimize the real estate costs as much as possible. When people use city services, they should pay for it.”

As part of their budget discussions, the council entered into closed session to discuss matters related to personnel. After their closed discussion, they returned to the table and voted to give the hourly employees a four percent raise. Deputy Clerk Mary Kreun’s wages had been increased earlier this year as she covered the clerk’s duties and then worked with the new clerk on the transition. Her wages will be returned to what they were before, along with a four percent raise.