Niles and Morton Grove hope to have Lake Michigan water flowing to both villages from Evanston by 2018, according to Niles Village Manager Steve Vinezeano.
The Niles Village Board voted unanimously at a recent meeting to join Morton Grove in hiring a financial consultant to ensure that the two municipalities get the best water rate possible during their ongoing negotiations with Evanston.
Raftelis, a consulting company with expertise in water, stormwater and wastewater utilities, began working on behalf of both villages in July, said Trustee Danette O’Donovan Matyas. At their most recent meeting in August, the board agreed to pay Raftelis a total of $68,000 to be split by Niles and Morton Grove equally.
This past spring, Bill Balling, managing director of Arlington Heights-based consultant WRB, LLC, recommended Niles pursue purchasing water from Evanston. Sharp rate increases imposed by Chicago, the village’s current source of water, spurred what has been a years long search for an alternative water supplier.
The Village Board voted in June to begin negotiations with Evanston alongside representatives from Morton Grove.
Balling and his firm, in addition to Gewalt Hamilton Associates, an engineering firm based in Vernon Hills, and law firm Holland and Knight, LLC, have assisted in the negotiation process.
The inclusion of Raftelis’ services in the negotiation process is necessary to ensure that the wholesale water price Evanston offers both villages is based on the city’s actual facilities and operational costs, Vinezeano said in a recent interview.
“They’re making sure that the wholesale rate is based on facts and that there isn’t something missing that might save us money,” he said.
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Just one penny off per thousand gallons of water, Vinezeano said, could make a huge difference given the vast amount of water the village plans to purchase from Evanston.
After the water rate figures check out, Vinezeano said a cost study for the project from 2013 will be updated to reflect today’s dollar amounts. Once that step in the process is completed, he said, the village plans to go out to bid this fall to hire a company to conduct another study to determine a pipeline route that would connect Evanston’s water supply to Morton Grove and Niles.
Vinezeano said the study is likely to cost about $250,000.
In a presentation to village officials this spring, Balling estimated that Niles would save $139 million in water expenses over the course of 40 years if the village purchased water from Evanston rather than Chicago. Niles’ share of the cost of the project, if split with Morton Grove, he said, is estimated to be $56 million.
Vinezeano said the village will only move forward with the project once they know the savings will cover the actual cost of construction.
“Ultimately, our goal is to have water flowing [from Evanston] by 2018 because that’s when Morton Grove needs to have it turned on—that’s when their contract with Chicago ends,” he said.
Vinezeano said Niles’ contract with the city ends in 2019, isn’t exclusive and requires no minimum amount of water be purchased from Chicago. If the project moves forward, Niles could begin receiving the bulk of its water from Evanston even before the village’s contract with Chicago officially runs out, he said.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.