Over here in England supplies were all unmetered at one time, with the charge being based on the "ratable value" of the house (i.e. the same base as used to calculate local property taxes). Sewer charges work the same way, with a different multiplier to arrive at the actual amount charged.
My home is still on such unmetered service, and this year the bill comes to approx. $530, [*] near enough half and half for supply and sewer. The sewer charge is normally higher than the supply charge, but I get a $50 discount as I have no surface water draining into the sewer. Houses in the area still on their own septic tanks would pay only the supply portion of the bill, about $265, plus the small surface drainage fee if their surface water went onto a street and then into the public sewer.
Meters are standard for new homes now, and many older properties have also been converted to metered service. Most water companies offer a trial period of metering, and if you're not saving money after a year or so you can revert back to unmetered service (that option isn't available when the property changes ownership or on new homes built with a meter).
The metered service in my area is billed as a small fixed annual fee plus so much per cubic meter, both for supply and sewer.
It works out to about $43 plus 0.7 cent per U.S. gallon for supply and $111 plus 0.8 cent per gallon for sewer.(again with a $50 discount if you have no surface drainage to the sewer).
[*] All converted at 1 GBP = $1.80.Pat,
I wondered about the situation at O'Hare first time I was going to pass through there some years ago and looked at the map.
In my Rand-McNally road atlas there's a dotted line labeled "Chicago City Limits" which follows the marked area of the airport exactly, yet the big yellow area which otherwise marks the limit of Chicago stops way short of the airport. In fact following that Irving Park Road the city limit appears to be at Pueblo Av. on the eastern edge of Schiller Woods, which I make a good 3 miles from the airport boundary.
Thanks to your explanations, now I know why -- My map is obviously not detailed enough to show a 5 ft. wide strip!
When did the annexing of Orchard Field and the change of name to O'Hare actually take place? I'm guessing 1960s?
-Paul
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Orchard Field was its name during World War II; it became O'Hare sometime in the middle 1950's, but the FAA retained the old designation of ORD for ORcharD Field. My impression is cartographers (map makers) go insane attempting to properly chart out the northwest side of City of Chicago. The boundary is quite plain on the south side, much of the north side and even going east and west (on the north) for the first few miles it is clearly on Howard Street (except far east by the lake where it juts up north of Howard Street for a couple block where the Chicago/Evanston boundary is the southernmost edge of Calvary Cemetery. Then the boundary makes a sharp turn and goes southeast on Clark Street (which the Evanstonians refer to as 'Chicago Street') back south to Howard then straight west for a few miles on Howard. I think all of the Chicago Transit Authority train yards at that point are considered Chicago, but at street level, _on the north side of Howard Street_ beginning at the CTA tracks underpass, the north side of Howard Street begins taking Evanston street numbers; the CTA Howard Station (on the south side of the street [Howard and Paulina Sts]) is known as 1759 West Howard; the CTA employees only office on the north side of Howard and Paulina, right across the street is known as 301 Howard Street by the Evanston numbering system. Right next door to 301 Howard (Evanston) is 1760 West Howard (Chicago) because the elevated tracks go overhead at that point. I think Howard is the only street name Chicago/Evanston share in common.A few blocks west of Howard Street and Western Avenue (in Evanston, 'Western' is known as 'Asbury Street'), the Chicago boundary line drops south (at Kedzie Avenue [Chicago], I forget off hand what Evanston calls that street), and the suburb of Lincolnwood begins on the south side of the street, the Chicago street numbers continue through Lincolnwood. After a couple blocks, the Village of Skokie begins on the north side of Howard Street, and the Chicago system of street numbering resumes [on both sides of Howard] since Skokie and Lincolnwood both go along with Chicago's way of numbering things. It only gets more complex as you go further west; at Lincolnwood, the Chicago boundary drops south to Devon Street (6300 north I think); the boundary line cuts in and out, frequently jutting in and out of alleys, a half block here, a half block there. Most of this goes back to earlier years in the 20th century as 'unincorporated areas' (based on the votes of the residents therein) chose whether or not to affiliate with City of Chicago or whichever suburb they were otherwise contiguous with. SBC (nee, Ameritech, nee Illinois Bell) has one telephone exchange out there on which '911' does _not_ go to Chicago Police, it instead rings to the Cook County Sheriff which handles unincorporated areas of the county. People living in that area (known as 'unincorporated Norwood Park Township' [so as not to be confused with 'Norridge', an incorporated suburb which is completely surrounded on all four sides by Chicago]) get put on that exchange.
The little town of 'Golf, Illinois', which was cut out of a corner of Glenview, Illinois is like that. Golf backs into Glenview to the north and west, to Skokie and the golf course/country club on the east and Morton Grove on the south. Incorporated, but it buys its fire protection from Morton Grove and its police protection from Cook County Sheriff. All those places use the 'Chicago street numbering system' except for Evanston which is very independent. Golf, Illinois has its own train station, its own post office and its own school, and naturally its own golf course/country club and it is entirely _fenced in_ or set back so far from Waukegan Road (main drag in Glenview/Morton Grove) and Church Street (main connecting road between Evanston/Skokie/ Morton Grove and points westward) that no one can get in there except on foot or by alighting at the Golf train station.
You may recall John Wayne Gacy, the Democratic ward committeeman from some ward or another of Chicago, and serial killer of young boys who had the misfortune of being manipulated by him in his construction business, or otherwise 'uncertain of their own sexuality', etc. One reason he fell through the cracks for so many years and escaped any apprehension at all is because he lived in the 'no mans land' of unincorporated Norwood Park Township. Police never went around there, it was not their territory. Finally, police from Des Plaines, Illinois who were investigating him (after about twenty years of his getting away with murder [quite literally]) took him into custody, and turned him over to Cook County Sheriff. People use the phrase 'Chicago' quite generically, but _Chicago Police_ had nothing to do with that case; nothing at all. Surrounded on all four sides by Chicago and three other suburbs, but the _block he lived on_ was (and still is) part of unincorporated Norwood Park Township. PAT]