New Berlin’s village president wants to keep water rates low. 

Steve Frank says he may get close to what he’s looking for after last night’s South Sangamon Water Commission presentation on a planned water plant and its subsequent rates. The new facility would serve both New Berlin and Chatham and is projected with a price tag of $24 million.

Frank says the bid review was only one step in a longer process that started nearly five years ago when officials with the Environmental Protection Agency told village administrators that a new water treatment facility was needed by 2011.

New Berlin Utility Committee members had hoped to provide water at a customer cost of up to $4 per 1,000 gallons, and yesterday’s $24 million projection bumped that figure up to between $4.65 and $4.80 per 1,000 gallons. Chatham’s Public Works Committee is set to review the numbers next week.

Both villages would need to approve the numbers for the plan to move forward.

Frank says everything is running right on schedule with the EPA’s January 1st deadline, and construction could start as early as May with a projected December completion.

New Berlin’s vote on the project is expected to come next Wednesday.