Above: New rate impacts will depend on how much water you use in the coming year. (image edited from Town announcement)
As we head towards spring, residents (and businesses) will want to pay attention to increased water usage rates the Town implemented effective March 1st.
If average homeowners use the same amount of water they did last year, they’ll see a 5% increase on their bills over the next year. The recommended plan also projects a close to 8% annual increase in subsequent years.
Of course, actual bill impacts will depend on the amount of water used. (And for most water users in our suburban town, the weather will play a big role in determining that.)
The revised fees include an over 15% increase in the water usage rates for FY26 bills. But that spike will be somewhat offset by the 15% decrease in the Base Charge for meters hooked up to the system. (It’s a bigger decrease than was described in the rate hearing, although the example figures are the same.)1
On February 4th, the Select Board heard the recommendations by DPW Chief Bill Cundiff and the Town’s consultant (The Abrahams Group). They approved a version of rate changes that ease into price increases to cover the projected long term expenses of running the municipal water system.
The situation described in the hearing was significantly different from the forecast the board received last March.
Last spring, the board approved a close to 25% spike for Base Charges to address the increase in personnel overhead costs newly accounted for. (You can read about that here.) At that time, the expectation was that annual increases in the following years (FY26-29) would be 4.5% for base charges and 3.5% for usage rates.
This year, The Abrahams Group noted the Base Charges could be lowered due to reduced pensions and OPEB contributions. But they found that revenues from water usage had fallen short of expectations. The presentation explained:
Revenues are projected based on estimated usage by tier. Revenue estimates in last year’s study were based on estimated usage that has proved to be too high to effectively estimate revenues.
- With the recent transition to different tiers and the switch of monthly accounts to quarterly accounts, determining usage to base revenues on in last year’s study was tricky.
- With a full year of billings available in the system at the current setup, estimated usage is more reliable and is not as high as the estimates used for last year’s study.
Rather than recouping lost revenues through a sudden 25% increase in the usage rates this year, the recommendation was to ease into the increases over multiple years.
The presentation called for a 11.4% decrease to the Base Charge on bills and a 15% rate increase for FY26. The plan is based on following that up in FY27-FY30 with annual increases of 9% for usage rates and 4.5% for Base Charges. (See image right.)
As in previous years Seniors ages 65+ receive a 25% discount on Base Charges. (If you are newly a senior, or haven’t been getting your entitled discount, click here to apply for it.)
The new rates in the board’s packet and announced by the Town are below:
The FY25 rates through the most recent bills were:
