HATFIELD — A recommendation for the town’s water and sewer rates to each rise by 10% in the second half of fiscal 2023, with more significant adjustments to be made beginning July 1, 2023, will be presented at a meeting Tuesday.
The Select Board is soliciting resident feedback on the proposal, contained in a January 2020 report from consultants DPC Engineering, LLC of Longmeadow. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the conference room at Memorial Town Hall.
According to information supplied by the town, the combined increases would mean the average residential user would pay $8.17 more per month through the remainder of fiscal year 2023, which ends June 30, followed by a 17% increase in both rates the following year, adding another $14.92 per month to the average residential bill.
The sequential adjustments would add $277.08 to the average annual residential bills, with the sewer rate going from $9.34 per hundred cubic feet to $10.27 and then $11.96, and the water rate going from $4.91 per hundred cubic feet to $5.40 and then $6.31.
The original Water & Sewer Rate Study report states that the increases are needed so improvements can be made to aging infrastructure, with the wastewater treatment plant nearly 40 years old and portions of the system a century old. There are $32 million in improvements needed to the collection system, pump stations and the plant, and the town is planning for $12 million of this work in the next three years.
That plan was approved by voters at Town Meeting last spring, following the town receiving a preliminary funding commitment for U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loans or grants.
There is also money needed for the operation and maintenance of the wastewater system, with maintenance deferred due to lack of revenue. Setting the higher rates will keep the town eligible for the USDA funding.
Similarly, the water system has $6 million in capital needs over the next five years, such as water main replacement and construction, and upgrades to the Omasta Well.
Like with the sewer system, there are not enough revenues being collected to maintain the operation without these changes.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerrzbach@gazettenet.com.
