The Superior Express -

There was a combination of good news and bad for Superior residents when the Superior City Council met Monday night.

The good news surrounds the budget for the coming fiscal year. No one from the public was present to speak either for or against the proposed budget. The city will request the same number of dollars from the taxpayers as was the case this year. But a 1 percent increase in valuation will yield a slight decrease in the tax rate.

In the coming fiscal year, the owners of taxable property located within the city limits will be asked to contribute $335,320.

But for Superior residents, all is not positive. With the arrival of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, the local sales tax rate will increase from 1 to 1.5 percent.

Utility rates are also headed up. The council approved increasing the rates charge for all four city supplied utility services.

For residential electrical service, the average home owner uses about 1,148 kilowatts in July and 934 kilowatts in January. The new rate will increase the average customer’s July bill from $122.17 to $127.36. The winter bill will increase from $95.84 to $99.83.

The average residential customer uses about 15,000 gallons of water per month in the summer and 7,000 gallons of water in the winter. The average summer bill will increase from $43.45 to $45.30. The average winter bill will increase from $26.41 to $27.76.

The average residential natural gas charge is increasing from $135.52 in the winter to $137.79. The summer bill will be going up from $51.39 to $53.08. While the commodity charge portion of the bill is going down, the delivery and customer charge portions are going up. The average winter use is about 103 ccf per month. In the summer this drops to 23 ccf per month,

Average residential sewer rates are going up from $43.01 to $44.87.

The sewer rate increase will take effect on March 1. All others will be effective on October 1.

The replacement of a Bloom Street water main generally between Second and Eighth streets which originally was to have been completed before the start of the fall harvest has been pushed back. Work is now expected to start in October and be completed by April 15. Horizontal boring will be employed which hopefully will reduce the amount traffic interference. The replacement will include a larger diameter pipe.

Three properties along the east side of Kansas Street between Conn and First Street were declared public nuisances. The owners will be given a set time to bring the properties into compliance before the city acts to bring them into compliance.

Permission was granted Living Faith Fellowship Church to block Central Avenue from Third to Fourth between 4 and 10 p.m. on Oct. 31 for the church’s annual fall carnival.

Jon Albrecht, the church pastor, was present to review the carnival plans. After being held inside the Superior Auditorium last year, it is being moved outside because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Albrecht said many of the activities were being changed to comply with recommendations from the South Heartland Health District. As restrooms inside the downtown church will be open, the church has purchased a machine that will spray a disinfectant within the building. That may be done more than once that evening which will require emptying the building of all people before the treatment starts.

Action to reduce the speed limit on the far eastern end of First Street to 15 miles per hour because of a dust problem was delayed.