JAY – Selectmen voted 4-1 Monday to increase the sewer rate $40 per unit, bringing the July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010, fee to $290.

Opposing was Selectman Tom Goding.

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

Selectmen also directed Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt to conduct a pilot study based on water use on properties covered by the North Jay Water District.

They took no action on Holt’s request to have an independent contractor, Wright-Pierce engineering firm, do a $10,000 study of factors to determine what the rate should be. They also took no action on Holt’s request to rewrite the sewer ordinance at a cost of $4,000. Holt said the 40-year-old ordinance is “very deficient.”

The vote followed a public hearing on the sewer rate.

Half the town is on sewer, the other half is not, board Chairman Steve McCourt said.

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

The rate has gone up in small increments from $10 to $40 each year to make it as painless as possible, McCourt said.

“A lot of people would like to see (sewer users) pay it all, but that would be quite pricey,” McCourt said.

If sewer users were to foot the entire sewer budget, it would cost $743, Holt said.

“I don’t think it’s a bad deal for people on sewer,” McCourt said, considering what it cost to have a septic system pumped out or replaced.

“I think the fairest way to do it is that everybody who is hooked to a line gets charged, so everybody on sewer pays a bill,” resident Michael Schaedler said. “I think all of the town entities on sewer should have an expense line” so the use may be looked at.

“It’s just not fair to be hooked up and not pay a fair share,” he said.

The municipal building, two fire stations and the schools do not pay sewer charges.

The schools will be charged, if voters decide to consolidate school systems with SAD 36 in Livermore and Livermore Falls since they would no longer be a town department.

Former Selectmen Rick Simoneau asked Holt if the pilot study was done last year as requested.

Holt said “no;” he had a busy construction season with the treatment plant.

Resident Al Landry said it doesn’t seem right to him that board members who are not on sewer are setting sewer rates.

Two selectmen said they have property both on and off the sewer.

McCourt said selectmen have slowly increased the rates over time and have not put it all on users like other towns have done.

Some felt it was fair for sewer users to pay per water use but to have all taxpayers pay for sewer use at town buildings. Some recommended that Wright-Pierce do the survey while others were against it.

Selectman Warren Bryant said a survey by another entity was done in the past and increased rates affect those who are least able to afford it.

He pointed out that last year, the rate was increased $40 annually or $10 a quarter. That increased revenue from $244,000 to $289,000.

He recommended upping the rate another $10 per quarter per unit or $40 annually.

“I feel that would not impact users that much at all,” Bryant said.