The cost of everything is going up these days but some Niles residents got quite a shock this past week when they saw their water bills almost triple in cost.
According to the Niles mayor, some water customers had newer water meters that had hardware issues this year. As a result, many people's bills were being estimated this year.

Now that most of the equipment was upgraded, residents are being charged for any amount of water they used that exceeded those estimated monthly bills all at once.

According to Niles Mayor, Steven Mientkiewicz, "It is actual usage. It is actual water consumption that's the difference though. It's playing catch-up for the periods that they were estimated."

"Some were in the $800 range after they netted out the actual usage versus what we've been estimating. So we've spread the cost rather than the $800 hitting them immediately, spread the cost over a 10 month period," said Niles Service Director, Anthony Flarey.

So, if it's really high, the city is allowing for payments to spread out over months without any additional interest of costs.

And it looks like there's still more work to be done.

"We do have some older technology still installed in some of our households. We are working with NECO on a long-term plan to upgrade this metering technology. It is very expensive so we have to build it into the city's water budget," added Mientkiewicz.