Wilmette will soon begin selling water to the tiny 171-house village of Golf in a deal worth $30,000 to $35,000 annually, village officials say.
Village trustees approved the agreement on April 26. An estimated 47,000 gallons of water every year should begin flowing to Golf in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Wilmette officials.
The agreement brings to five the number of communities that directly buy, or will buy, some or all of their wholesale water from Wilmette. The other four are Glenview, Kenilworth, Mount Prospect, and sections of Maine Township.
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Before approving the Golf agreement, Village Manager Tim Frenzer said it will provide Golf, which lies almost surrounded by Glenview just north of Golf Road, with lower water rates than it currently pays for Chicago water.
Wilmette has actively sought new water contracts over the past several years. Frenzer said April 28 that Wilmette’s water plant has enough capacity to take on new clients and the village is still looking to complete new deals, but he declined to identify potential municipalities. Earlier this year, village officials said they were eyeing possible agreements over the next few years with Niles and Morton Grove.
Frenzer said some north and northwest suburban communities are looking for alternatives to getting water from Chicago, which has high rates.
“It’s a gradual process and it doesn’t necessarily work for everybody, because the cost of having to tie into another municipality can be very high, too,” he said. “It’s a difficult decision.”
Wilmette’s 200 Lake Avenue water plant brings water in from nearly a mile off the Lake Michigan shore. Originally built in 1933, it can now run a top capacity of 44 million gallons per day, although in 2012 its average daily run was 12 million, according to water plant officials at the time.
Wilmette’s largest contract is with Glenview, which has had a wholesale water agreement with Wilmette since 1937. The current contract runs until 2050, and allows Glenview to resell Wilmette water to other wholesale customers.
About 70 percent of the water Wilmette pumps goes to Glenview and, via Glenview’s sale to a private distributor, to parts of Mount Prospect. Revenue from Glenview, including the Mount Prospect sales, makes up almost 60 percent of Wilmette’s water fund revenue. In Wilmette’s 2016 budget, that combined revenue stood at $4.84 million.
The new arrangement with Golf will fall under the Glenview resale format. The agreement Wilmette trustees approved on April 26 was an amendment to Wilmette’s Glenview contract, authorizing Golf as a Wilmette resale customer.
Golf will shoulder the $320,000 cost of connecting the smaller village to Glenview’s water distribution center, according to Frenzer’s report to trustees.
The agreement with Golf follows the signing of similar agreements with other communities. In 2020, Wilmette will begin supplying water to North Maine Utilities, again through an agreement between Glenview and North Maine. The agreement was signed in 2014 and will serve residents in sections of Maine Township. At the time of the agreement, village officials said it could net Wilmette $1 to $1.3 million in the contract’s first full year of service.
Neighboring Kenilworth signed a 33-year direct contract with Wilmette earlier this year, and will switch from operating its own water plant to buying from Wilmette by the end of 2016. The contract should provide Wilmette with between $150,000 to $200,000 annually in new water revenue, Wilmette officials said at the time.
Kenilworth Village Manager Patrick Brennan said April 28 Kenilworth will probably connect to Wilmette’s system in late October or early November of this year, once two projects are complete: a $1.6 million effort to improve the village’s existing water distribution system, and the installation of a $732,000 underground booster pump station at the intersection of Kenilworth Avenue and Glendenning Road. The booster station will connect with Wilmette’s system.
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