JAY — The Select Board will hold a public hearing May 10 on sewer rates before setting the rate for 2021-22 that would go into effect July 1.

The hearing will be held at 6 p.m. at Spruce Mountain Elementary School gym. It will be followed by a regular selectpersons’ meeting. The sewer bill year runs from July 1 to June 30, 2022.

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

Since then the board has worked to gradually increase the rate to cover 100% of the operation and maintenance of the Jay Sewer Department. The debt service for the department is paid through general taxation. Currently, any operation and maintenance costs not covered by sewer users is paid for through general taxation, as is debt service.

The goal will be reached if selectpersons choose either of two rate scenarios Superintendent Mark Holt has proposed.

One of the scenarios would keep the rate the same as this year. It is a base rate of $315 for up to 3,200 cubic feet of water use and any amount that exceeds it would be charged 0.0952 per cubic foot.

The second scenario is just slightly lower. The base rate would stay the same and any water use that exceeds it would be 0.095 per cubic foot.

The options cover 100.4% and 100.3%, respectively, of the operation and maintenance budget.

If the rate stays the same it is estimated to generate $493,811 in revenue and the lower rate is estimated to generate $493,329, according to Holt’s information.

Based on an a “typical” average usage of 6,000 cubic feet per year, a customer would pay a sewer fee of $581.56 a year if the the board went with 0.0952 cents for water use exceeding the base amount, Holt wrote in an email.

If the board goes with 0.095 cents, the bill would be $581 a year.

The difference is 56 cents between the two numbers.

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