July 29, 2015 - Today, Mayor Tom Henry and residents of several southwest neighborhoods gathered in the Covington Reserve neighborhood to lift their glasses to the sky. A water toast, to celebrate the success of the neighborhoods that organized petition drives to connect to City water and the success of saving southwest residents more than $800,000 collectively since the switch to City Utilities began eight months ago.
At today’s ceremony, Mayor Henry thanked residents and City staff and then turned on a fire hydrant to start the flow of City Water. This connection, the largest connection phase since City Utilities took ownership of the old Aqua southwest territory, includes 35 neighborhoods and more than 4,000 customers.
“Nine years ago, residents told me they wanted city water and lower bills, I heard them. Our team worked diligently to bring residents our award-winning, high quality water,” said Mayor Henry. “Our neighborhood leaders worked long hours to collect signatures for a petition drive. This is a story of residents and neighborhoods coming together, working closely with our team to enhance our quality of life for the future.”
Since December of 2014, all customers in the southwest service area, formerly served by Aqua Indiana, have benefited from City Utilities lower water rates even though they weren’t all connected to City water at that time. Those lower fees have saved the average customer about $75 so far.
A similar acquisition of the old Aqua system in the northwest part of the City has saved millions for the 9,000 customers in that area. The average savings per household in those northwest neighborhoods is about $2,000 since they began receiving City water in 2008.
Today’s connection brings City water to residents in an area roughly bounded by Aboite Center Road to the south, Homestead and Scott roads to the west, Bass Road to the north and I-69 and Hadley Road to the east. More than 9,000 customers have been connected in just eight months. During this process, City Utilities crews have worked to build new connection pipes, examine and repair existing infrastructure, and flush water lines to get them ready for the new water.
Preparations for Phase 3C, the connection that will bring in the final 4,000 customers are well underway. City Utilities continues to install pipe on Branstrator and Bass roads to assist with connection, redundancy, and reliability for the remaining southwest customers that are geographically the furthest from our Water Filtration Plant. Customers in Phase 3C, an area that extends all the way to the County line, should have City-supplied water by early this fall.
Additional information for future connections is available at www.cityoffortwayne.org/aquatransition.