(PHOTO BY JESSE DAVIS / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
HEATED DISCUSSION … Delta Village Council and Public Services Committee members Anthony Dawson (left) and Robert Shirer (right) have a disagreement during discussion on the potential merging of the village’s water and wastewater departments during the committee’s meeting Monday evening.
By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
Delta may eventually codify its temporary solution of how to continue to operate its wastewater facility, merging the water and wastewater departments and making the water employees who are currently pulling double duty, officially employees of a unified department with new job descriptions.
That was the proposal made by Robert Shirer, member of the Delta Village Council and its Public Services Committee, during the committee’s last meeting Monday evening.
Shirer made the proposal in the wake of challenges the village has faced in trying to hire new wastewater staff.
According to Shirer, the proposal would save the village roughly $250,000 per year by eliminating the need to hire employees for the wastewater department, with the savings potentially growing annually due to inflation in the costs it would eliminate as well as the cost-of-living raises that the wastewater employees would have received.
It was also pointed out that the savings would more than offset the remainder of Delta’s current budget deficit, which sits at just over $115,000 for 2025, giving the village a surplus instead.
In exchange for making water employees’ temporary job duties for the wastewater department permanent – and in exchange for the large savings they would be enabling for the village – they would all receive 7 percent raises alongside their new job descriptions made possibly by the savings.
Council and committee member Anthony Dawson shared several concerns about the proposal, chief among them his concern that employees would get burned out by the load and that other departments would start requesting their own 7 percent raise.
Water Superintendent Jammie Flores interjected, pointing out that her employees were already doing both jobs without exceeding 40 hours per week with no issues, and that burnout wasn’t a concern.
Shirer rebutted the second point by saying that if any other departments were able to come up with a plan that would save the village as much money in their departments as would be saved in wastewater costs by the water employees’ work, he would gladly support a 7 percent raise for them as well.
Even with the potential savings possible under the plan, village water and sewer rates will still be rising in the future due to the village’s inability to cover the full cost of operating the wastewater facility in the current configuration, leading to $300,000 being taken from the general fund to cover costs last year, Shirer said.
“We took $300,000 out of the general fund, out of taxes we collected from people, because we weren’t making enough off of the rates we charge for sewer, which means street projects, park projects, downtown revitalization projects, all these other projects that we don’t have money for because we’re subsidizing the rate at water treatment,” he said.
The committee, which consists of Shirer, Dawson, and Council member Lynn Frank, eventually voted unanimously to pass along to the full council a recommendation that the reorganization be pursued.