Water, sewer, and garbage rates are going up in Arran-Elderslie.
Mayor Ron Oswald says council approved a 5 per cent increase for the services in 2009.
Oswald says costs are going up and if they don’t do a 5 per cent increase now, residents could be hit with a bigger increase in the future.
Oswald says what’s not going up in 2009 are building permit fees.
Those fees increased by 24 per cent this year.
Oswald says the large increase was needed to bring the building permits up to standard.
Oswald says despite current tough economic times, Arran-Elderslie is having a very busy year.
He is expecting close to 13 million dollars in construction costs on about 150 applications.
And looking to next year, Oswald is expecting things to stay pretty steady.
