LISBON – The Maine Public Utilities Commission will consider lifting an earlier suspension order on the Lisbon Water Department’s proposed rate hike when it meets on Tuesday.
Water Department General Manager Paul Adams said that commission representative Lucretia Smith and the Water Department’s legal counsel, Joseph Donahue of PretiFlaherty, have each forwarded letters to the commission, recommending that the suspension be terminated on Dec. 1.
If approved, this means the new rate filed by the Water Department on Aug, 24, which was to become effective Oct. 10, would be effective Dec. 1.
If so, the local water rate would increase by 51.52 percent, generating an annual revenue increase of $255,090 to the Water Department.
The rate hike was suspended by the commission after water users opposed to the hike, petitioned the commission to suspend the implementation of the new rate and to conduct an investigation into the Water Department’s need for an increase.
In a letter to the commission dated Nov. 10, Donahue wrote that no petitioner assumed the position of “lead petitioner” in the case “despite the efforts of the staff and the public advocate to identify such a person.”
He also noted that during the public comment session at a meeting conducted by the commission Nov. 2 “comments and questions from the public were generally addressed to the rate-making process and other matters, other than the specific merits of the proposed rate increase.”
The Lisbon rate case, Docket No. 2005-416, is the last item on the commission’s meeting agenda Tuesday. The meeting will begin at 3:30 p.m. at 242 State St., Augusta.
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