HATFIELD — Water and sewer rates will increase by 5 percent next month to better meet operating costs.
Town Administrator Marlene Michonski said Hatfield’s current water and sewer enterprise fund does not support 100 percent of those costs. Nearly all water and sewer projects are now funded through taxation, she said.
For the fiscal year that began July 1, the enterprise fund’s budget is $321,175 for sewer and $249,321 for water. In the same fiscal year, taxes are set to fund $112,023 in sewer projects and $226,291 in water projects.
The town’s water and sewer infrastructure is old, DPW director Phil Genovese said during a Select Board meeting earlier this month.
Michonski confirmed Tuesday that crucial projects requiring money outside the enterprise fund relate to that infrastructure. Equipment needs to be upgraded or replaced, she said.
Selectman Marcus J. Boyle said the increase in rates will generate roughly a $50,000 reserve.
That reserve would have just about covered a water main break that occurred in a 125-year-old pipe on Route 5 last year, according to Patrick J. Gaughan, chairman of the Select Board.
But $50,000 is not a lot when weighed against the aging infrastructure, Boyle and Genovese agreed during the meeting.
“You have a 30-plus-year-old sewer plant, you have infrastructure in the ground from the 1800s,” said Genovese. He referred to an area near Gore Avenue, where a water transmission main goes through a swamp.
“It’s a transite pipe, sitting in the water,” he said. “Any day that could pop, and that would be hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair.”
Michonski said the increase in water and sewer rates will not fully fund all pressing projects, but it will help town officials to address more of them.
“We’d like to remove some of that burden from taxation,” she said.
The increase will take effect in billing at the end of September.
Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com.