Sewer rates hiked

BRYANT — An increase in sewer rates was approved Tuesday to help the town fund its portion of a planned $750,000 sewer project.
Council president Jason Meinerding presented the council with four rate increase options that would help the town make debt payments on the $75,000 that it will borrow from an area bank. Meinerding’s calculations estimate the town will need to make a monthly payment of about $875 in the worst-case scenario.
“We’re going to have to get a $75,000 line of credit from the bank,” he said. “At this point it’s a matter of how much it’s going up and how we’re going to spread it.”
The Bryant sewer project will install a new storm water line primarily down Meridian Street to the county’s Schoolhouse Prong ditch. The town will also increase the diameter of the pipe heading south from the town to the wastewater treatment plant.
The increase option Meinerding pushed for would increase the rates for residential, business, capped and empty residential properties, with the rate for vacant homes being raised to the same rate as an occupied home.
Currently the rate for empty households is $7 per month, compared to $24.85 for residences.
Meinerding’s proposal would raise both to $29.85. The business rate would increase from $65 to $70 and the capped property would rise to $10 per month.
Properties which have capped sewers currently do not pay.
The metered rate would also increase to $6 per 1,000 gallons from $4, which would affect one business and Bloomfield Elementary School, which is connected to the Bryant sewage system.
The increases for flat-fee properties would raise an additional $1,302.65 per month.
“This one is to facilitate the debt and add a cushion,” Meinerding said.
Meinerding said an additional goal of the steeper empty unit rate increase was to try to motivate property owners with empty residences to rent them.
“Twenty percent of this town is empty,” Meinerding said, noting that 29 of the 152 lots in the town have vacant buildings. “The town has to start looking at the bigger picture.”
One attendee at the meeting asked if the rate would be waived during the five or six months that he is usually out of town.Council members said there would be no exceptions to the rates, since the town will have to meet its monthly debt payments regardless of how much sewage flows.
“It takes a whole town to do it,” said council member Leo Kahn.
Council member Warren Boice said he also supported the option to even out monthly fees for residences and empty properties.
“I’ve been a big advocate of (this increase structure) since we started,” Boice said. “If you’re a landlord it sucks, but you’ve got to fish or cut bait.”
Meinerding said that despite the increases, Bryant will still have sewer rates less than $30.
The council amended its 2008 sewer ordinance and instated the new rates, effective July 1. Project engineer Commonwealth Engineers will be in the town toward the end of the month to finalize plans bid specifications. Bids for the project will likely be opened in June.[[In-content Ad]]