BUCYRUS – A water increase for Bucyrus city residents will be less than originally anticipated.

According to a letter from Bucyrus mayor Jeff Reser and city service safety director Jeff Wagner that will appear in the envelopes with December water bills to all city water consumers, an expected 20 percent water rate increase will only be a five percent increase due to lower construction costs and interest rates for the city’s new water treatment plant on Beechgrove Road.

The letter residents will receive next week reads in part, “The scheduled increase of 20 percent in water usage rates for 2016 has been reduced to five percent because of lower than expected costs of construction and financing. Our administration will be taking a hard look at future rate increases that are planned for 2017 and 2018 in order to see if those rate increases can also be reduced. Please be assured that our administration is aware of the burden that rate increases can cause to our residents, especially those on a fixed income and we work hard to make sure that our water usage rates are as low as possible.”