In twelve days during March 2024, the Albion Board of Trustees raised the borrowing ceiling for the village's water treatment plant project twice. At the March 13, 2024 meeting, trustees adopted a supplemental bond resolution acknowledging that actual project costs had run $1,992,440 over the $3,249,000 originally authorized in 2019, pushing the estimated maximum cost of the work to $5,241,440. Twelve days later, at the March 25, 2024 meeting, they adopted a second supplemental resolution — this one noting costs had climbed roughly $3,563,441 above earlier estimates, in the same document that references authorization of up to $7,855,059 in aggregate principal for the project. Three days after that, on March 28, 2024, the board voted to send residents a proposal for water and sewer rate increases, including a 60 percent jump in the base water charge. The money is paying for work described in the March 25 resolution as improvements "primarily at the water treatment plant, water storage tank and the water transmission system," including a new filtration and clarification system, a new clearwell, sludge thickening upgrades, storage tank work and transmission line replacement. Trustees had been warned the increases were coming: at the March 13 meeting, representatives from a program called WaterWorth presented the board with "facts and findings for potential water rate increases due to increased cost and current WIIA projects," the state financing program underwriting much of the work. Two months earlier, on Feb. 20, 2024, the board had already increased contingency funding for one piece of that program, WIIA 1, by $520,000 for an amended bond resolution, and on March 13 it separately approved $3,000,000 in short-term financing for a second piece, WIIA 2, pending permanent financing from EFC. The March 28 rate vote carried 3-1 with one abstention — Mayor Angel Javier voted nay, Trustee Chris Barry abstained, and trustees Joyce Riley, David Buczek and Tim McMurray voted aye — advancing a plan for a 60 percent increase in the residential base water charge, a 15 percent increase in the residential volumetric water rate, a 10 percent increase for towns and correctional customers, and 7 percent increases on sewer rates. After an April 10, 2024 public hearing, where the board said the increases were needed "for future water debt service and to start building the fund balance for the sewer fund," trustees adopted final numbers: the base charge on a standard 3/4-inch meter rose from $21.00 to $33.60, the residential inside volumetric water rate rose from $3.39 to $3.90 per 1,000 gallons, and the residential inside sewer rate rose from $3.97 to $4.25. That same March 25 meeting where the bond grew again, trustees also voted to retain the Law Office of Robert King, PLLC and Stage Liuzza, L.L.C. to pursue a civil action over soil and water contamination linked to PFAS. The lawsuit eventually produced money flowing the other direction. On July 9, 2025, Trustee Riley told the board a settlement agreement had been reached with 3M. Payments followed in installments recorded in later budget adjustments: $22,614.83 on July 30, 2025; a "2nd payment" of $53785.30 on Aug. 13, 2025; and, by the following spring, a "4th payment" of $13,364.97, a "5th PFAS payment" of $5591.84 and a "6th PFAS Payment" of $20,558.81 in April and June 2026. The minutes do not record a third payment amount. While the financing and litigation moved forward, the plant itself kept generating a different kind of cost: staffing instability tied directly to its physical condition. At the May 8, 2024 meeting, the board tabled hiring for a Water Treatment Plant operator position specifically "until 5/22/24 and leaks are addressed," assigning Trustee William Gabalski to work with DPW Superintendent Jay Pahura on leak detection options. On May 30, 2024, trustees funded a $7475.00 leak detection survey using water capital reserves and contingency funds; the full-time operator position was tabled again to June 12, and survey findings were reported back to the board on July 24. Before a permanent hire was settled, the board accepted Chief Water Treatment Plant Operator Adam Rush's resignation at its Aug. 28, 2024 meeting, effective Sept. 20. At its Sept. 3 meeting, the board set a civil-service pay range of $65k to $75k for his eventual replacement, and at its Sept. 11 meeting it appointed Levi Boyer acting chief operator, effective Sept. 21, with a prorated $5K raise; an interview process for the permanent role began that October. By February 2025, minutes list Boyer simply as Chief Water Treatment Plant Operator, though the record contains no separate resolution formalizing that permanent title. The plant's physical problems did not resolve with new leadership. A Feb. 5, 2025 meeting authorized Boyer and Pahura to search for a leak at Booster Station 1 and approved water reserve funds to repair the plant's High Service Pump, which was out of service; that same meeting recorded a "wobble in the shaft" of the Low Service Pump. More than a year later, at the March 25, 2026 meeting, a resident thanked the DPW superintendent and staff "for their consistent efforts on the leak repairs" near his property on Linwood Avenue. Rates rose again in the interim. The board flagged the need on July 30, 2025, citing water and sewer fund status "along with need for infrastructure upgrades in the near future," called a special meeting on Sept. 4, 2025 "to discuss various water rate scenarios," and consulted the engineering firm Wendel before a Sept. 24, 2025 public hearing where business owner Jim Scibetta objected to any increase. The board told him the increases covered "current capital project debt service at the water plant" and base-charge increases for broader infrastructure work. Trustees then adopted a phased schedule: the 3/4-inch meter base charge rises from $52.08 in 2026 to $76.56 by 2028, and the residential inside volumetric water rate rises from $4.88 to $6.14 over the same span — with the board noting the figures could still be revised once Boyer completed a review of a large-user rate option. The most recent meeting in the record, held June 10, 2026, shows the village applying $154,600.00 from a debt-service interest line to principal specifically to pay down WIIA I. What the minutes do not resolve is whether the 2026-2028 rate schedule will change once the large-user review Boyer was assigned is complete, how the outcome of a September 2024 budget line referencing a CDBG grant application ultimately fared, or how much more the underlying project's final cost will settle at as work continues.