JAY – Selectmen will hold a public hearing on sewer rates Monday before setting a rate for July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010.

The hearing will be held prior to the regular selectmen’s meeting at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 12 at the town office.

The current sewer rate is $250 per unit, which is based on the number of families in a building, seats in a restaurant, washing machines in a laundry and other properties tied to the town’s system.

According to a sewer-rate survey, 63 percent of the Sewer Department budget is paid by taxpayers townwide.

The Maine Rural Water Association 2008 Sewer Rate Survey shows that most of the rates in the state are based on water use. Jay has a flat rate per unit.

The survey shows that Livermore Falls sewer users, where rates are based on water use per units, pay $400 per unit annually for 8,000 cubic feet of water. Oxford sewer users pay $410.31 per unit for the same amount. Rumford sewer users pay $95 per unit and Mexico users pay $175 per unit for the 8,000 cubic feet. The latter three rates are based on flat rate per units.

Municipal sewer system costs in Skowhegan, Yarmouth, Old Orchard Beach and Mount Desert are paid through taxation.

The highest cost for sewer use for 8,000 cubic feet of use is in Castine where the rate is set at $1,352 annually.

In Rangeley, the municipal sewer cost for the same about of use is $708 annually. In Farmington, it is $566.71 and in Wilton it is $297.44.

In 1990, Jay’s sewer rate was $80 per unit and stayed that way until 1996 when it started to climb to the current rate.

Town Manager Ruth Marden said there is no recommendation to selectmen on the sewer rate for the next fiscal year. Selectmen are expected to make that decision Monday.

Last year, it took more than an hour of discussion before the board arrived on a rate as selectmen debated the pros and cons of having sewer users foot the entire bill for sewer operations, or maintaining the mix of funding.

Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt said last year that it would have cost sewer users $709 per unit, if selectmen had decided that users should pay the entire cost without a property tax subsidy.