The Cassopolis Village Council approved a $3 increase in its “ready to serve” water service at its regular meeting Monday night.

The council voted unanimously on the rate increase, which drew much discussion at its workshop meeting in May as to the most fair way to charge its customers.

“When we talked about how we could balance the water portion of our budget at workshop we talked about how it would only affect a small portion of our residents, specifically the larger families. There was concern about that,” said Village Manager Emilie Sarratore.

Sarratore said that the ready to serve fee is based on meter size.

“Typically residents have smaller meters and businesses have larger ones,” she said. “All customers will have a $3 per month increase regardless of meter size.”

The council voted 4-3 to adopt its proposed 2017-18 fiscal year budget.

The proposed budget has $3,057,106.64 in revenues, $3,019,823.75 in expenditures for a proposed net revenue of $37,282.89.

Trustees Frank Williams, Geraldine Norwood-Sims and Kathy Yoder voted against the measure due to the fact that they would have liked to discuss in greater detail the proposed budget.

In other action, the council:

• Approved a resolution to open a new bank account at G.W. Jones Bank.
• Approved hiring Williams A-1 Expert Tree Service for the removal of three trees at Prospect Hill Cemetery at a cost of $7,200.
• Tabled a decision on purchasing a piece of land adjacent to the Department of Public Works building from Darren Boyles.
• Approved a resolution updating its master fee schedule.
• Approved budget amendments to the 2016-17 annual budget.

The council will host its regular monthly workshop meeting at 6:30 p.m. June 26 and its regular monthly meeting at 7 p.m. July 10.