Yorkville aldermen are set to decide tonight whether to borrow roughly $8 million from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to keep the city’s Lake Michigan water connection on track. The vote is one of the headline items at the City Council meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, and is part of a growing stack of financing moves tied to the regional WaterLink pipeline project.
If the measure passes, the loan would join earlier federal and state commitments that are already queued up for the multi-community system bringing Lake Michigan water to Yorkville and its neighbors.
According to WSPY, the council packet includes an ordinance that would authorize an additional $8 million IEPA loan for Yorkville’s share of the WaterLink connection. The same agenda also lists about $3.9 million in bills up for approval and a presentation breaking down results from a 2019 city survey. On paper it may look like a standard Tuesday night, but the borrowing decision is tied to a project whose price tag and schedule have already required multiple loans and rate changes. Aldermen are expected to debate the proposal in open session before taking a roll call vote.
Where the money would fit
The proposed $8 million would help cover local connection and infrastructure work Yorkville must complete before tying into transmission lines from the DuPage Water Commission. Earlier this winter, the city also moved to lock in a large federal Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or WIFIA, loan that is intended to shoulder most of the construction cost, with IEPA loans and local bonds filling in the remaining financing gaps.
As outlined by Kendall County Now, that WIFIA package is roughly $170 million and is designed to keep up with rising cost estimates for the regional buildout.
Timeline and project facts
The WaterLink program currently projects that construction will start in December 2025 and wrap up in 2028, at which point participating communities are slated to connect to the new Lake Michigan supply. Yorkville has already tapped low-interest state financing for some early pieces of the work. The North Receiving Station and an elevated storage tank were financed through IEPA/SRF programs, according to the city’s project information. Those facilities are intended to let Yorkville receive treated water from the DuPage system and ease pressure on the region’s stressed groundwater sources.
What it means for bills and rates
City officials have repeatedly cautioned that Yorkville’s share of the project will show up on residents’ water bills. Reporting and city documents have projected roughly 20 percent annual rate increases for several years to cover construction and debt payments tied to the Lake Michigan connection.
Finance Director Rob Fredrickson has described how the WIFIA closing and related borrowing are sequenced. “It will be sent to the EPA and closing is anticipated to occur in the next 30 to 60 days,” Fredrickson told Kendall County Now.
Meeting details and next steps
The council meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 651 Prairie Pointe Drive. Tonight’s agenda places the IEPA loan ordinance alongside a consent vote on roughly $3.9 million in bills, according to local reporting and the city clerk’s office. If aldermen sign off on the new borrowing, staff say they will move to close on the state loan while continuing to advertise bids and line up construction phases.
Residents who want to weigh in can attend in person or follow along via the city’s posted agenda. The IEPA loan decision is one of several financing steps that have to land in the right order for Yorkville to stay on the WaterLink schedule. If those pieces close as planned, officials say the city remains on pace to begin drawing Lake Michigan water in 2028. Project leaders advise residents to keep an eye on council packets and WaterLink construction updates for detailed timelines and any notices about service impacts.
