Residents in small, Wisconsin village hit with 122 percent water rate increase 

Located in the heart of Theresa, Widmer’s Cheese Cellars has been around for over 100 years. 

It’s the largest business in a village of around 1,250, located about 20 miles south of Fond du Lac.

Normally, the family-owned business pays around $16,000 per year for its water bill. By August 2025, that number will increase to upwards of $35,000.

“It’s a huge expense,” said Joey Widmer, the vice president of operations.

“It’s obviously money that we can’t invest back into the business, can’t invest back into our employees or equipment,” he added. 

Monday, the Theresa Village Board voted to approve a 122 percent water rate increase for the village by August 2025. The increase means the water bill for an “average residential customer” who uses 8,000 gallons of water per quarter will increase $80.28 — from $65.40 per quarter to $145.68 per quarter, according to a public notice from the village.  

Jody Steger, Theresa’s village president, said the increase was necessary to pay for infrastructure and maintenance projects to the water system and pipes, which he said are over 70 years old. Steger said a water main break last summer revealed the pipes were in bad shape. 

“It’s to the point now where it’s starting to fall apart and we need to stick money into it to improve it,” Steger said. 

The first increase, which will be around 88 percent, goes into effect on Aug. 1. The next, which will be around a 33 percent increase, goes into effect August 2025. 

Emily Parent said she and her husband were expecting an increase, but they didn’t expect rates to go up as high as they did.

“This is huge for us because now we’ll have to factor in our budget to accommodate such a jump and an increase,” Parent said. 

“For a lot of people within the village, that’s a car payment, and that’s huge for them,” she added. “Not a lot of people can afford that.” 

Sandy Koenigs and her husband Herman Koenigs Jr. were the only two village board members to vote against the increase. Sandy Koenigs said she didn’t want the rates to be raised so quickly and wanted it to be done over the period of a few years instead.

“The problem is they really haven’t raised the rates in a long time,” Sandy Koenigs said. “It probably should have been done more often and this wouldn’t have been so bad.” 

Steger said the water utility used to have a surplus, but this year, it used up all of its reserve. That prompted village officials to conduct a water rate case study with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. 

“I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty because when you didn’t have a rate case study for 27 years, that’s not a good thing,” Steger said.

However, Steger blamed village boards of the past for the increase. 

“To tell you the truth, I fault it on past boards,” Steger said. “I think years ago, they should have been slowly starting to do infrastructure improvements, improvements to our systems and things like that and it just wasn’t being done.” 

Monday, residents packed a village board room to voice their concerns about the increase before the vote. Sandy Koenigs said she understands resident’s concerns about the issue.  The last water rate case study was performed in 1997.

“It is going to effect everybody,” she said. “I guess we have to be thankful we had lower water costs up to this point, but I wish it could have been done differently.”

Widmer said he believes the increase could prompt some changes in the way his cheese business is run.

“If you look at the long-term investment that we’d be investing in just paying for water, it adds up,” Widmer said.