March 2026
Dear Union Resident,
Recently the Village of Union included a letter with your water bills alerting you to an upcoming rate increase. The increase is overdue and will help to get the Village back on track to build up necessary funds to plan on the future maintenance of the municipal water supply. The initial increase will equate to approximately $4 a month per household. To break this down to real numbers – the Village has 302 water bills that go out each quarter – everyone gets a bill – this increase equates to about $15,000 a year – this might cover one water main break. This also allows for the Village to build up a financial safety net for the water fund.
The Village is required to do testing. Every community has to do testing – some communities have to do more testing than others. The Village of Union has had many successful tests – which results in favorable scoring – that enables us to reduce the amount of testing required – which in turn saves money. This also equates to administrative savings – such as payroll, shipping etc. This money is all water fund – used specifically for the purpose of the municipal water infrastructure and related expenses.
The wonderful state of Illinois is also hammering down on Lead Line Services. Lead Line services was how water service was installed in the past – like more than 50 years ago – these old services do exist and in Union we have about 95 of them (1/3 of the town). Now the norm is to install copper or PVC which is present for the newer homes after 1970 or so. The existing lead line services do NOT contaminate water supply for those that have copper or PVC installation as the testing is done for the folks that have lead present on service into their home. Whenever a community does improvements that requires road repair, sidewalk repair – etc – that community should take the advantage to verify if that water service is lead or copper – and remove it from a list or tag that as a must repair soon. You will be hearing more about lead line services moving forward as the Village of Union must present a plan to the IEPA. The trustees and myself are on top of this and a plan is formulated. Now we are asking for time and money to complete through grants and other State / Federal programs as they become available.
My job is to find ways to save money, beg for grants and plead the case to state and county representatives. This is ongoing and requires many applications to fill out. In the past we have had success in obtaining grants that the Engineers would fill out and present on our behalf for our wells. This was low hanging fruit that should have been followed up with pushing for further grants to piggy back on these grants. The grants exist – we just need to do what we can to qualify and get approved. Many of our neighboring communities are also fighting for the same grants as well. We have all paid taxes and yes we are due for help from the state – so I will continue to fight for funding and grants that pertain to water related projects as well as other grants to improve the community.
Railway Estates Residents-
The increase will not affect the current SSA related to the residents of Railway Estates – the increase will only apply to the water bill. There is a current engineering project in place to review the future of the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). More information will be provided in the future as I am working on scenarios to extend the sewer system and plan for a long term solution. This is going to take time.
A quick note on your new Water Bill –
I know many residents have requested a way to pay water bills online – I agree that would be wonderful – and YES – if you have bill pay – you can pay online – as the Bill Pay vendor sends us a check, though that takes about 10-15 days….I also am aware that the ‘check is in the mail’ or so I thought anyway. YES WE ARE WORKING on this – if you are here on this website page – you noticed a new look on your water bill. The Village updated our billing software and that will allow us to provide online billing – BUT the costs associated divided by the people that would actually use it – will not justify the cost (remember the 302 water bills…) break even point is about 130 – and that would require an emailed invoice – NO STAMP -. So please be patient as we keep looking into options.
Note on Overdue Billing –
Late Fees will still apply for those few that do not pay in a timely manner. It is important that you contact the Village if you require assistance in paying the bill. Sending certified letters is going to be going away – it is a waste of time and money as it involved payroll and takes away from doing our job. This also negatively impacts the Village staff and fellow citizens. Shutoff of water services will take place – and in some cases we will be required to report this to the McHenry County Health Department. I don’t want to be doing this – but it is getting old – the games will have to stop.
We appreciate your understanding and continued support. Further information will be posted on the website – please visit:
www.unionillinois.org and you can always send an Email to clerk@unionillinois.org for further information.
I encourage everyone to sign up for Email updates, which can be done from the website. Also note that there is much more content coming for the website and will be completed in this upcoming budget year.
Sincerely,
Anthony Fredrickson
President, Village of Union
