JAY — Selectmen will hold a public hearing on sewer rates Monday before setting the rate for 2012-13. The board will also consider a change to town office hours during their meeting.

The public hearing will begin at 6 p.m. Jan. 9 at the town office.

Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt has submitted sewer rate scenarios for selectmen to review.

Selectmen changed the calculation method on July 1, 2011, moving from one based on each unit to one based on water consumption.

The sewer revenue brought in under the new rate structure for 2011-12 year is about $364,000 while the operation and maintenance costs were $539,000, Holt said.

The sewer revenues covered about 68 percent of the operation and maintenance costs, he said.

Selectmen and a Sewer Rate Committee, which studied sewer rate methods, recommended last year to gradually increase the sewer rate with the goal of eventually raising enough revenue to cover the operation and maintenance costs of the Sewer Department.

The idea behind establishing the new calculation method was to have those who used the sewer system more, pay more and those who used it less, pay less.

Currently, the minimum base rate is $250 for 3,200 cubic feet of water used per year. Any amount used above is charged an additional 5.58 cents per cubic foot.

Selectmen also set a one-time cap on fees 2011-12, so a customer would not pay more than double what they did the year before.

The board also set the rate so that the revenue generated from user-fees would not be more than 2010-11.

A slight increase in revenue did come about after schools and municipal buildings were required to pay sewer fees for the first time.

Holt’s sewer rate scenarios, based on the same water use as last year, range from 4 cents per cubic foot over the minimum 3,200 cubic feet to 11.6 cents per cubic foot over the 3,200 cubic foot minimum.

The lower amount would generate about $318,600 or cover about 59 percent of the operation and maintenance budget.

The higher rate would bring in about $538,000 and cover about 100 percent of the operation budget.

Holt will provide information to the board about what the changes would mean to a ratepayer at Monday’s meeting, Town Manager Ruth Cushman said.

In another matter the board will take up, Cushman is asking selectmen to consider reducing the hours at the town office by one hour two days a week. That would allow the office to be open one day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and have two town office employees working the later hour together rather than one person.

“We have one person working here from 4 to 5 p.m. alone three nights every week,” Cushman said. “This is not a good situation and I am not comfortable with it.”   

She will recommend that the office be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays, the busiest night, and closing the office the other days at 4 p.m.

“If I put more people on the other nights it would increase the salary line in the budget and I don’t really want to do that,” she said. “This is a safety thing for me.”

dperry@sunjournal.com

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