Commissioners vote 3-1 to increase water, sewer rates
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

The Water-Sewer Commission voted 3-1 to raise rates for the second time in as many years for both water and sewer customers.

The vote came after months of discussions both by the Commission and the Board of Selectmen, after one of the reasons the state Department of Revenue cited for holding up the tax rate was the lack of revenue in the water department.

"We've discussed this nine ways from Sunday," Leo Collette, the chairman of the commission, said during the meeting.

Collette said he does not think there is enough option for the Commission other than to raise the rates because of the concerns that the state DOR continues to express over the lack of a balance in the enteprise fund.

The rate changes come because the budgets for the two departments have increased as they have moved from a special revenue account to an enterprise fund. The town voted to change the sewer and the water accounts into enterprise funds about two years ago.

Enterprise funds must be self-sustaining, according to state law, and they must incorporate all of the costs of running the department. The money in the enterprise funds can also be used only to fund that specific budget. The town's light department is an enterprise fund.

"We can't continue to have rates that put our department to have zero surplus," Collette said. "We've had endless meeting, there is no other alternative."

Collette said the water usage from the more than 1,200 connections is down.

"The hope is that we will be able to apply some of it to reduce the rate," Collette said. "We need to have a capital budget. We should be able to run our department from our surplus funds."

The water rates will increase from base rate from $30 to $40 for the first 500 cubic feet and then increased from $4.60 to $6 for each additional 100 cubic feet.

The increase for seasonal customers is moving from $120 to $200. Ouellette told the Commissioners he is in the process of phasing out the seasonal metering. He said there are just over 50 homes that are set up with seasonal accounts and he hopes those will be eliminated by the end of the summer.

The new sewer rates will increase from $10.80 per 100 cubic feet to $13.60 per 100 cubic feet.

These changes will take effect immediately, so customers will see the reflection on their July 2008 bill.

The dissenting vote came from David Berger.

Berger said he would like to see an itemized list of all the indirect costs and he wants to see the break downs of the proportions of exact costs for the individual employees' health insurance, retirement benefits and other costs.

"We've had no control at all over the spending. The only time they come to us is when the want to raise the rates," Berger said.

He proposed requiring the Commission to sign off on the bills payable but the other commissioners did not support this move. Also Ouellette and the town's account Jim Shananon did not support the idea.

"It's a bureaucratic nightmare," Ouellette said.

Ouellette said he was charged with monitoring the specific items in the budget while the Commissioners have the right to oversee larger budget.

"We should have more control," Berger said.

In addition to the indirect costs Berger would also see a review of the staffing of the department.

"We used to have three people. Now there are more people," Berger said.

Ouellette said, "There is more than enough work to keep them busy."

Last year, the rates increased from $4 to $4.60 per 100 cubic feet for the water users and from $6 to $10.80 per 100 cubic feet for the sewer users.

This was lower then the rate that was recommended in the rate study that was recommended to the Commission.

"We fought and we said we aren't going to go up that high," Collette said. "Now we have increase again."