Madison Village is moving closer toward the completion of transferring its water and sewer utilities to Lake County. Village Administrator Dwayne Bailey estimated that the transition for both services might be completed by sometime in December. He provided an update on the status of the village’s water and sewer utilities during the Oct. 28 Village Council meeting. For nearly seven years, Madison Village has been working on shifting billing, operations and administration of sewer and water service in the community to the Lake County Utilities Department. That transition was approved in February 2018 through an agreement involving the Lake County commissioners. At the Oct. 28 council meeting, village resident Walter Richardson asked if Lake County had taken ownership of the community’s water and sewer systems. Bailey first addressed the topic of where Madison’s sewage — formally known as wastewater — flows to and is treated. He said Madison Village is connected by pipe to Lake County’s sewage treatment plant. But that pipe is not open and operating yet. “Probably sometime around early December, that effluent will be transferred to that new section of pipe and we’ll begin decommissioning  the village wastewater plant,” Bailey said. Last year, Madison Village completed its section of a sanitary sewer interconnection project. This endeavor involved constructing a new trunk line to convey the village’s wastewater to Lake County’s sanitary sewer pump station. That station is located near Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Hubbard Road in Madison Township. Lake County then installed a new trunk line to direct the village’s sanitary sewage the rest of the way to the county Utilities Department Wastewater Plant on Cashen Road in Madison Township. From a legal standpoint, Bailey said Madison Village will continue to hold the title to its sewer system. “The agreement we entered into with Lake County gives them a franchise to operate our sewer,” he said. “We can’t transfer title of our sewer system until it’s paid off, at which time it will be fully transferred to Lake County.” Lake County Utilities Department also soon will be providing a licensed operator to work at Madison Village’s wastewater treatment plant. That’s because the village’s current licensed wastewater plant operator, Jim Borsi, is retiring Nov. 1. “In the interim, there’s going to be a month or so that the plant will still need to operate after Jim retires,” Bailey said. “So Lake County Department of Utilities is going to assign a licensed operator to that plant to cover that time period.” Bailey said Borsi has been an “indispensable” employee at the Madison Village wastewater treatment plant. “He came out of retirement to help us when we were in need and has done an outstanding job for the village,” Bailey said. Lake County Utilities Department already is operating Madison Village’s water system, Bailey said. But water bills are still being issued by the village. “The reason (water) billing has stayed with the village during the transition is due to the fact that we still read meters and our sewer is billed based on consumption of water,” Bailey said. “Billing will be transferred when the sewer is transferred. It was just cleaner that way.” Madison Village sends out a combined water and sewer bill on a monthly basis. Each service is detailed separately on the bill. Once those utilities are switched to Lake County, Madison Village customers will get one quarterly bill for water and sewage.