JAY — Selectmen voted Monday to change the way sewer rates are calculated; from a per unit system, to a water use system based on metered water readings per sewer connection. The board also voted to have the town’s 40-plus-year-old sewer ordinance rewritten to reflect the proposed changes.

Residents would have to vote on an amended ordinance prior to it being implemented. It is expected that the vote would come in February or March at a special town meeting so that the Sewer Department budget could be set prior to a vote in June.

A public hearing would also need to be held prior to the new sewer rate being established.

Currently sewer users pay a flat rate of $290 per unit annually, and the rest of the sewer costs are paid through taxation.

Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt gave selectmen a review of sewer-rate study committee’s recommendations. Those included abolishing the current system for a new system, buying water meter readings from each of the three water districts that serve the town, and establishing a minimum fee for sewer use.

Holt said initially it was discussed that the new system would be phased in over a three-year period, but after looking at a mix of types of users and actual numbers, he believes it should be phased in over a longer period, maybe five years or more.

The intent is to get sewer users to pay 100 percent of operating and maintenance cost of the Sewer Department, as selectmen directed the committee, Holt said. It is also to promote water conservation and to have an equitable way of charging for sewer use.

A federal rule on the books since the ’70s does require sewer users to pay for the operation and maintenance, and it allows for debt service to be paid out of the general fund, Holt said. However, the town has never required sewer users to pay the entire operation cost, he said.

Holt ran some figures to give examples of how the rates would be calculated. It does not mean that this would be the proposed rate, they are just examples, he stressed.

They showed that for a low user, a single family that used 2,800 cubic feet of water annually, the fee would decrease from $290 this year to $190 in 2010 based on a charge of 11.5 cents per cubic foot. The same user would see an increase in 2014-15 based on 22.7 cents per cubic foot to $380.

A single family with an average use of water, 5,200 cubic feet of water consumption annually, would see an increase next year to $465, and in 2014-15 to $925.

A single family that is a high water user, about 11,600 cubic feet annually, and would see the current $290 rate jump to $1,195 in 2010-11, and $2,657 in 2014-15.

A laundry mat with 13 washing machines that uses 32,800 cubic feet of water a year, would see its $2,465 annual rate increase to $3,610 in 2010-11, and $7,190 in 2014-15.

The high and middle schools, which currently don’t pay anything for sewer use, would see costs rise to $5,285 next year and nearly double to $10,525 in 2014-15.

Holt suggested the sewer committee develop a recommended minimum fee and a per cubic foot of water use cost to recommend to the board.

If sewer users had to pay for 100 percent of operation and maintenance costs this year, it would be $685 per unit, Holt said.

Right now, sewer fees pay 61 percent of the operation and maintenance budget and the rest is covered by taxation, including debt service, he said.

“Looking at these figures for higher use families, it looks like people are going to pay more for sewer than taxes,” Selectman Tom Goding said.

It’s pretty obvious, the rates would have to be implemented over more than three years, Holt said.

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