City of Viroqua approves sewer and water rate increases starting in November

Aug. 31, 2025

VIROQUA, Wis. — The City of Viroqua will increase its sewer and water rates this fall, following a series of public meetings and votes by city officials who cited the need to maintain financial stability and cover rising infrastructure costs.

The Viroqua Common Council voted to effective October 1, 2025, after considering the impact on customer bills and the city’s projected expenses. That effective date was just revised this past week because of a publication error for the legal notice of the rate increase in the newspaper, forcing the city to delay implementation of the rate increase until November.

The council approved a 6% increase in sewer rates and a 3% increase in water rates, which will result in a base rate increase of 33 cents per month for a standard 5/8-inch meter and 17 cents per 100 cubic feet of water usage. The sewer rate increase will affect customers differently based on usage, and the council plans to review the sewer rate again in April 2026 for a possible additional increase.

Timeline of discussions and meetings to approve the rate increases:

July 1, 2025: The Public Works Committee proposed and approved a 3% water rate increase and a 3% sewer rate increase, recommending both to the City Council. The committee also scheduled a review of the sewer rate for April 2026.
July 29, 2025: The Common Council discussed and approved a 6% sewer rate increase, effective October 1, 2025, after considering the impact on customers and the city’s financial needs. The council also approved the 3% water rate increase.
August 2025: City staff were directed to revise the effective date of the water utility rate increase from October 1 to November 1, 2025, and to reapply to the Public Service Commission for the water rate case with the new effective date.

City officials said the increases are necessary to keep up with inflation, fund ongoing maintenance, and ensure the city’s water and sewer systems remain financially sound.

“We need to maintain financial stability and cover inflationary costs,” said Utility Clerk Cheryl Purvis, during a July meeting.

The council considered alternative options, including two smaller 3% increases in October 2023 and April 2024, but ultimately decided a single 6% increase would be more effective and reduce the need for frequent adjustments.

July City of Viroqua Public Works Committee meeting where City Utility Clerk Cheryl Purvis explains the process of approving rate increases and why they are needed.

City Utility Clerk Cheryl Purvis gave several specific reasons for the sewer and water rate increases in the City of Viroqua:

Keeping Up with Inflation and Operating Costs:

Purvis explained that regular, smaller “inflationary increases” help the utility keep up with rising costs for operations, maintenance, and inflation. This approach avoids the need for large, sudden increases that are harder for customers to absorb. She said, “One of the ways to keep growing our reserves and keep growing our financial position and become a more stable utility is to do these smaller inflationary increases that the PSC offers, rather than wait until we are at a point where we’re having a net loss or we have some large unexpected expense come up, and then we have to borrow for it.”

Building and Maintaining Financial Reserves:

Purvis emphasized that these regular increases have allowed the utility to build stronger cash reserves, which are crucial for handling large, unplanned expenses and for maintaining a positive cash flow. “By doing the last four small inflationary increases and being responsible with our spending, we were able to build a stronger balance in our savings for large unplanned expenses, while maintaining a positive cash flow,” she said.

Preparing for Major Projects and Debt Payments:

Purvis noted that the city faces significant upcoming expenses, such as the Center Avenue Project and the need to replace a lift station (estimated at $500,000). The increases help ensure the city can meet these obligations without taking on excessive debt. “The sewer utility also needs to replace a lift station in the next few years, sooner rather than later, for approximately $500,000… thus doing and continuing to do these annual increases will help our sewer utility be in a better financial position.”

Cushioning Against Large Future Increases:

Cheryl explained that regular, smaller increases help cushion customers from the shock of a large rate hike in the future. “Doing regular SRCs will help cushion the larger rate increase. For example, if instead of doing a 25% rate increase, the utility may be to only do a 10% increase to cover the large construction project.”

Grant Funding Shortfalls:

She also mentioned that some anticipated grant funding for projects like the Center Avenue Project did not materialize, so the additional revenue from rate increases is needed to cover these shortfalls.

Comparison to Other Communities:

Purvis compared Viroqua’s rates to those of surrounding communities, noting that regular increases have kept Viroqua’s rates competitive and avoided the need for drastic hikes like those seen elsewhere.

“If we go up 3% we are still on the bottom half of the surrounding communities,” said Purvis. “And if we did the 5% we are still on the bottom half the surrounding communities. We have been comparing to [other communities] in the past. So in even with us being in the center ,we’re still pretty close to several of the utilities. So I felt that that was a pretty good position to be in.”

She also pointed out that some communities that delayed increases faced drastic hikes. Purvis said the Coon Valley saw an 83% water rate increase, while Viroqua’s approach keeps rates stable and competitive.

Rates will take effect November 1. The city had originally approved the increase would take effect on Oct 1 but the legal notice that is required by law to be published in the paper of record prior to the rate change was published with incorrect information and the city had to delay implementing the rate increase.

“The council approved a 3% increase in the water rates effective Oct. 1 on July 29,” said Purvis. “The PSC requires the utility to publish the rate increase in the city newspaper at least 45 days prior to the effective date. So for this rate case, it would have been August 15 and no later. The notice was published on Wednesday, Aug. 13, but it was incorrect. The notice that was published was not the notice was not the one I sent, nor that I approved when they sent me the mock up. Turns out that they now use AI to produce notices. So even though I sent the required PSC notice, AI decided to mock up their own. It had the wrong effective date, it had the wrong rates, it had the wrong increase, and it even had the wrong utility in this notice. So I immediately called the newspaper and was given the explanation that, yes, AI did actually write my notice, even though the one I sent was the correct one.”

Purvis said each month the rate increase is delayed costs the city about $3,500.

Purvis said she asked the PSC to make an exception in this case because of the publication error, but was told the state statute is very clear that the notice must be published in the paper and it needs to be at least 45 days. Purvis said she resubmitted the application to the PSC and will republish the notice with the new Nov. 1, 2025 effective date.