The Belding City Council approved increases to water and sewer rates at Tuesday’s meeting. Beginning in June, city water rates will increase by 6.5% annually through the 2026-2027 fiscal year. Meanwhile, city sewer rates will increase by 35% immediately, again in 2024, then by 10% in 2025 and 2026.
The new business at Tuesday's meeting of the Belding City Council began with a last-minute addition to the agenda, an update from Fleis and VandenBrink Project Engineer Corey Turner and Process Engineer Scott Hall about design work on $37 million worth of improvements to the wastewater system.
The Belding City Council only had two items on the agenda at Tuesday’s City Council meeting: An appointment to the Planning Commission and the first half of a 2023-2024 budget workshop. During the budget workshop, the council looked at a one-page report with details on each fund in the city’s budget. These reports were prepared by Finance Director Becky Schlienz. The council got about halfway through this process and will complete it at their next regular meeting. During the workshop, most funds were simple and garnered little discussion, but the city clerk’s budget was more complicated.