Wiscasset property owners will notice a slight increase in their sewer rates next month. The Wiscasset Board of Selectmen approved a 1.1-cent per cubic foot increase in sewer rates, the town’s first increase since 2006, at the board’s Aug. 17 meeting.
The increase, combined with miscellaneous revenues, will boost the utility’s revenues to $387,000, about $3000 shy of its 2010-2011 operating budget. The 1.1-cent increase adds up to a total increase of $55,000. A home at the quarterly minimum of 900 cubic feet of water usage will see an increase of $39.60 a year.
“We definitely need to do something, because we’re going to start going behind,” Wiscasset Wastewater Superintendent William “Buck” Rines said in a public hearing before the meeting. Even with the increase, “it’s going to be extremely close,” he said.
Town Manager Laurie Smith said selectmen might need to consider a second increase in the future to cover capital projects necessary for the sewer system. Last week, the selectmen rejected a low-interest, high-benefit $1.5 million loan to cover such projects.
“I think we need about $50,000 a year to make a dent in it,” Smith said. Another one-cent increase would allow the town to raise that sum, she said.
The department sometimes receives additional income in the form of impact fees for new connections. This year, the owners of Wiscasset Plaza, the Rt. 1 home of McDonald’s, Lil’ Mart, First Federal Savings and other businesses, paid “just under $19,000” in impact fees, Rines said.
Wiscasset Plaza’s impact fee brought in more than all the impact fees for the last two years, Rines said, and Smith cautioned against reliance on the fees for major repairs.
“The impact fees are really for additional improvements,” Smith said. “It’s not a catch-all for infrastructure improvements.”
The selectmen also discussed the collection of about $70,000 in past due sewer accounts.
Rines said other towns use a lien process to collect delinquent payments. Other utilities, like water, can simply be shut off, Rines said, but due to sanitary considerations and the mechanics of the sewer system, “there’s no shut-off on the sewer lines,” he said.
The selectmen voted 4-0 to approve the hike. Selectman Bob Blagden was absent. The higher fees will take effect in the next billing cycle, in September.
In other business, the selectmen held a public hearing, minutes after the first, on warrant articles for the Sept. 14 special town meeting.
Bill Phinney encouraged the selectmen to reinstate a $500 line item to the municipal planning department for the purchase of a laptop for Town Planner Jeffrey Hinderliter. “I think that it’s an essential item,” Phinney said.
Smith acknowledged that the town faces “many hardware and software issues.”
“We’re developing a plan to bring before the selectmen,” she said.
Phinney also criticized the wording of the recommendations of the selectmen and the Wiscasset Budget Committee on the special town meeting warrant. The town changed the wording after complaints about unclear wording on the June warrant.
The majority of both boards recommended all six of the department budgets on the warrant, as well as a funds transfer for the purchase of a portable generator for the Wiscasset wastewater treatment plant.
The selectmen voted 4-0 to create the Waterfront Master Plan Task Force. The body, consisting of the Waterfront and Harbors Committee, Harbormaster Peter Dalton, Hinderliter, Code Enforcement Officer Rick Lang and Road Commissioner Greg Griffin, will “work with the consulting engineers to implement a public process and master plan,” according to a memorandum from Smith and Dalton.
The task force is necessary in order to complete “design and permitting work” by November for the “rehabilitation” of Memorial Pier. The town must complete that work in order to be eligible for state grant funding, available in November if a related bond issue passes.
Barney Baker, a structural engineer with Baker Design Consultants in Yarmouth, said Wiscasset needs to replace Memorial Pier “as soon as possible.”
The pier, built in 1975, is “very tired,” Baker said. Large trucks, including snowplows, should stop driving on the pier immediately, he said. “It’s just not safe.” Pickup trucks can continue to drive on the pier, he said.
The selectmen discussed potential 2010-2011 budget figures and the mil rate. Smith said the town must wait for the outcome of next month’s special town meeting as well as final audit numbers before deciding the rate.
Current estimates place Wiscasset’s total budget at $9,957,502, a decrease of 4.61 percent from the 2009-2010 budget.
Last year, the selectmen used $1,000,000 from the town’s reserve funds to decrease the tax burden. This year, however, Smith and the selectmen said they would not use those funds. As a result, property taxes and the corresponding mil rate might rise 2.95 and 2.83 percent to $6,629,287 and $14.86, respectively. Last year’s mil rate was $14.45.
Selectman Ed Polewarczyk recommended that the town “put a capital improvement plan together” in order to address large projects. Polewarczyk serves on the Investment Advisory Committee, which manages the town’s roughly $12 million reserves. “I’d like to see us put together a plan where we can take advantage of the reserve fund,” he said, while maintaining the fund’s principal.
Smith reported that absentee ballots are available for the special town meeting and invited residents to vote early if necessary. For more information, call the Wiscasset Town Office at 882-8200.
Town and LCTV employees were scheduled to install a new recording system for television broadcasts of selectmen’s meeting on Wednesday morning, Aug. 18. The selectmen approved expenditures of up to $3500 for new equipment, including a second camera, at their Aug. 3 meeting.
The selectmen will hold a special assessing workshop with Wiscasset Assessing Agent Sue Varney on Tues., Aug. 31 at 6 p.m. The selectmen need to review new assessments and discuss changes to assessments for double-wide trailers. Currently, the town assesses the trailers too high because it uses the same formula for trailers that it uses for modular homes, Chairman David Nichols said.
