LIVERMORE FALLS – Selectmen in their role of Sewer Department trustees voted Monday to increase the sewer waste tipping fees. They also agreed to have the sewer superintendent and auditor review sewer use rates to see if an increase is needed.

Rates 10 years old

The sewer waste tipping fees at the treatment plant were set 10 years ago. Since then, the cost of handling waste sludge has risen significantly, Sewer Department Superintendent Kent Mitchell told selectmen.

“Our sludge disposal tipping fees have gone from $60 per ton to $75 per ton, the polymer costs have gone up 10 percent plus a delivery fuel surcharge and the electrical costs are higher,” Mitchell said.

The board voted to accept Mitchell’s recommendation to increase sludge disposal tipping fees, which increase tipping fees for septic waste from $75 per 1,000 gallons to $85 per 1,000 gallons. The fee for holding tank waste was increased from $30 per 1,000 gallons to $35 per 1,000 gallons.

Sewer use rates also have not been increased for about a decade, Mitchell said. Those fees, for both residential and commercial customers, are $45 minimum per quarter and 2 cents per cubic foot or 7 gallons per use. When the rates were set, the minimum was to be used for sewer debt and the additional use cost was to pay for sewer treatment plant operations and maintenance.

“We were very close last year to going behind in the overall sewer account,” Mitchell said.

He suggested that the town’s auditor, Ron Smith, look at sewer rates and last year’s audit to see what sewer rate will best serve the town.

Money needed for future

With work and emergency repairs there was only $2,000 carried over to this year’s budget, Mitchell said. Most recently an emergency sewer line replacement project under the railroad tracks was estimated to cost more than $40,000.

Town Manager Martin Puckett said he and Mitchell attended an infrastructure meeting last year and it was amazing to see how many towns are falling behind by not increasing rates.

Money has to be put aside to cover emergency repairs and replace sewer lines on Main Street that have been taped and found to be deteriorating significantly.

“The last time the sewer rates were increased the lines were 90 years old; now they’re 100 years old,” Mitchell said. “We just have immense weight hanging over us to replace these lines.”

When the Livermore Falls Water District replaces water lines down Main Street, that project is estimated to cost more than $1 million, Mitchell said. The sewer lines should be replaced at the same time as that project, when the state transportation department will be rebuilding the road, he said.

“It is very expensive work and we need to look at keeping up,” he said

Mitchell suggested that instead of 40 percent rate increases once a decade that it would be better to have smaller increases every couple of years.

In other business, selectmen awarded the contract to remove 14 white pine trees and a white birch tree from Sewall Park to Lucas Tree Experts for a bid of $2,800.

Castonguay Excavation had bid $3,850 for the tree removal.