BUCKFIELD – Buckfield Village Corp. Directors Barb Stoddard, Joanie Austin and Dick Pope met Thursday night to address questions raised by the Public Utilities Commission and the Public Advocate’s Office about its proposed 144 percent rate hike.

The corporation faces a $1.1 million debt, and to meet its financial obligations it proposes upping rates that would have a typical homeowner paying hundreds more per year.

Town Manager Glen Holmes said the rate would be the highest in Maine.

The corporation, which supplies water from North Pond to 179 Buckfield customers, has petitioned the PUC for another rate hike on top of an interim one granted earlier this year.

Holmes participated in the meeting as an intervenor. The town is the corporation’s largest single customer, paying 30 percent of the corporation’s income for fire protection. Holmes said the only way the corporation can go bankrupt is to prove that its customers cannot afford to pay the rates needed to meet its obligations.

A referendum to have the town take over the water utility is scheduled for Nov. 7.

Much of the debt is related to changes to the system mandated by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which requires water from open sources such as ponds and lakes be filtered.

At least three customers have contracted to have private wells drilled, and others are negotiating with well drilling companies, Holmes said.

On Wednesday night, 10 residents met to make a list of questions for the corporation. The questions were put into a formal request to be submitted to the PUC by Robert Lipham, who has formally applied to be recognized by the PUC as an intervenor. While Lipham is a customer, he can not vote on corporate affairs or serve as an officer because he lives outside the area specified in the original corporation charter.

Residents had considerable discussion over the fact that people did not know about the loan and wondered if it was legal. They also wanted to know how the corporation lost a grant that would have paid much of the loan for the filtration system.