08/13/2026
There have been quite a few questions regarding water bills and we would like to take a minute (or two) to help answer some of those. If you have any questions, we are available to help answer them during regular business hours.
On the front you will see the abbreviations PB, WA, SW, WB, and SB. The back of your water bills explains what each of those mean. Next to your "Current Read" and "Previous Read" you will see either an E or an A. The E means your water read was estimated this month (the system averages your last 12 reads) and A means it was an actual physical read. If your water bill is estimated one month and an actual read follows, that water bill "evens" out your usage. What that means is if your estimated amount is lower than what you actually used, your water bill will seem higher than what you typically see. If your estimated amount is higher than what you actually use, you may see a lower bill or even a credit on the next bill.
Reasons we might estimate your meter:
1. We are unable to access it. There are times that meters are covered by dirt, debris, or snow and we are unable to get to them. Fences can also cause an issue as our DPW will not enter a fenced area to read meters.
2. We have an emergency situation occur in the Village. The most recent being an issue with our James St. Lift station.
3. We are short-staffed. We have a small DPW department and if we are short on staff, we are unable to get to all of the meters before we are due to have your water bills to you.
Please know that we do everything we can to perform actual reads. Estimating reads is a last resort as it raises more questions about water bills and what seems to be inconsistent billing.
Your current read is the number that your meter shows. That number difference from your previous read calculates how much your usage is. For example, if your current read is 2,000 and your previous read was 1,000, then your usage would be 1,000 gallons.
Our system bills by the 1,000 gallons. If you use over 1,000 gallons but under 2,000 gallons, you will be billed for 1,000. Once you go into the next 1,000 increment you would be billed for 2,000 (in this example), resulting in a higher bill for that month.
If you use under 1,000 you will be billed the basic fees for both water ($24.16) and sewer ($17.28) totaling $41.44. This basic fee covers fixed operation and infrastructure costs to keep public utility systems connected and running to your property, regardless of whether you use any water during the billing cycle.
What Basic Water Fees Cover:
System Maintenance: Routine repairs, flushing, and upkeep of water mains, pipes, valves, and hydrants.
Treatment & Operations: Running water treatment plants and maintaining continuous water pressure and readiness.
Meter & Billing Services: Reading, testing, repairing, and replacing water meters, plus customer service and billing processing.
Capital Improvements: Funding long-term upgrades, major replacements of aging pipes, and system expansions.
What Basic Sewer Fees Cover
Wastewater Collection: Transporting wastewater safely away from your property via local sewer mains and lift stations.
Treatment Facility Operations: Operating regional or municipal wastewater treatment plants to clean sewage before safely returning water to the environment.
Inflow/Infiltration Management: Maintaining storm drains, sanitary sewer lines, and catch basins to prevent overflows and system failures.
Debt Service: Paying off municipal bonds or regional infrastructure loans used to build or overhaul treatment facilities.
Last but not least, why is my water bill so high this month? Common reasons that attribute to this are:
1. You didn't pay last month . Check to see if there is an amount on the PB line on your water bill. We're all human and occasionally we do forget those kinds of things.
2. This can be an indication of a water leak somewhere on your property. The usual suspect is a slow leak in your toilet or water softener.
3. It's summer! Usage tends to go up with an increase of watering lawns, gardens, kids playing in sprinklers, or pools getting filled.
4. Happy Holidays! When we have an increase in visitors to our home, we tend to see an increase in water usage. This typically happens around Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.
