JAY — Selectmen will hold a public hearing on sewer rates next week before setting the rate for 2013-14.

The hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, at the Town Office. Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt submitted information for the board to review prior to Jan. 14 meeting.

The board did not discuss rates Jan. 14.

The debt service for the Sewer Department is covered by general taxation.

The current rate is $250 for 3,200 cubic feet of water used per year and any additional water consumed over the minimum 3,200 cubic feet is 6 cents per cubic foot.

If selectmen vote to keep it at the current rate and the Sewer Department’s operation and maintenance budget stayed the same as it was projected last year, it would cover 75 percent of those costs, Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt said.

The current rate generated sewer revenue of about $390,800 to pay about 75 percent of the operation and maintenance costs, which are about $523,300, Holt wrote in his memo to the board.

The town went from a per-unit fee system to a rate structure based on water use in 2011-12.

Holt said if everything stayed the same in the operation and maintenance budget presented and the base rate stayed at $250, 4 cents per cubic foot use over the 3,200 minimum cubic feet would equal about 64 percent of the operation and maintenance costs.

Five cents per cubic foot over the minimum would raise about $363,000 and would pay about 67 percent of the operation and maintenance cost.

Six and a half cents per cubic foot over the minimum would raise about $403,000 and pay about 77 percent of the operation and maintenance costs.

Set at 7 cents per cubic foot over the minimum would raise about $417,000 and cover about 80 percent of the operation and maintenance cost.

Eight cents per cubic foot over the minimum would raise about $444,000 and cover about 85 percent of the cost.

Eleven cents per cubic foot over the minimum would raise about $523,000 and cover 100 percent of the operation and maintenance cost.

Holt also gave examples of what an average annual sewer bill would be, based on 5,200 cubic feet of water used and $250 for the minimum of 3,200 cubic feet used.

If the rate was set at 4 cents per cubic foot, the bill would be $330; 6 cents, $370; 7 cents, $390; and 11 cents, $470.

dperry@sunjournal.com