City to talk future of water facility

Officials to host informational meetings, first one starts today

Mount Clemens city officials will host a series of town hall meetings starting today for residents and taxpayers to ask questions and learn more about plans for the city’s water plant.

City Commissioners must decide Dec. 5 to either connect to the Great Lakes Water Authority facility at a cost of about $17 million or build a new plant, which carries a price tag of $45 million.

Informational meetings will be held at 12:30 and 7 p.m. today at Mount Clemens Community Center, 300 N. Groesbeck Highway, and 12:30 and 7 p.m. Thursday at Cairns Community Center, 58 Orchard Street.

For decades, the city has operated its own Wastewater Treatment Plant on Clara Street, which is aging and in need of significant upgrades. According to city records, its water sales have decreased by 20% or about 2% per year over the last 10 years.

The drinking water is drawn from Lake St. Clair at its filtration site on Jefferson Avenue at Crocker Boulevard in neighboring Harrison Township.

To hook up to the GLWA would cost taxpayers $17 million or $1.4 million a year for 20 years and require an estimated annual rate increase of $145. To construct a new water plant would cost the city $45 million, or $3,750,000 a year. The rate increase would be $384.

According to a GLWA report,