A planned series of $2.50 per month increases in sanitary sewer bills was advanced Monday by the Fort Dodge City Council.

The council voted 5-1 to approve the second reading of the proposed increases. There was no discussion of the measure Monday.

The increases must be approved once more to go into effect.

Under the proposal, $2.50 per month will be added to sanitary sewer bills beginning Jan. 1, 2019.

There would be identical increases on Jan. 1, 2020, and Jan. 1, 2021.

The revenue generated by those increases would not be used for daily operations of the sanitary sewer system. Instead, it would be set aside in a special account to pay for major repair projects. The city already has that special account and had been levying a fee for it.

City Manager David Fierke said previously that the city will borrow $15 million to pay for the planned upgrades and then pay off the debt with the revenue from the increased fee.

On Monday, council members Kim Alstott, Neven Conrad, Dave Flattery, Terry Moehnke and Lydia Schuur voted for the increases. Councilman Dean Hill voted against them, while Councilman Jeff Halter was absent.

Although he didn’t comment on the proposal Monday, when he voted against its first reading on Oct. 22, Hill said he did so because the city staff has never put in place a billing change that he said would generate about $300,000 a year. That change, approved by the council last year, would apply the sewer surcharge to apartment buildings according to the number of units in each building rather than the number of water meters there.

Following the Oct. 22 meeting, Fierke said that change wasn’t implemented because the city staff couldn’t figure out how to administer it. He said he had informed the council of that previously.