Wiscasset selectmen
Sewer rate hiking; first town vote on sewer plant move heads to Nov. 5 ballot
The Nov. 5 ballot vote on moving the sewer and public works facilities is the first of multiple town votes on this, according to Wiscasset Town Manager Dennis Simmons Aug. 6 as the selectboard put the question on the ballot. The same night, the board settled on a 4% sewer rate hike this fiscal year. Both votes ran 5-0.
In a letter last May, Maine Rural Water Association financial analyst Cathy Robinson recommended about a 10.25% rate hike. Aug. 6, Simmons said MRWA was figuring the whole budget would be spent. Historically, it has not been, he said.
He recommended a 4 or 5% hike, but said as little as 3% could be OK for this year. He urged against a zero increase, saying it could lead to a higher increase later.
Simmons said costs are up for everyone and the town is not immune, but Wastewater Treatment Plant Superintendent Robert Lalli “is doing really a pretty good job keeping a handle on the expenses down there.”
For a ratepayer paying about $480 a year, Selectmen’s Chair Sarah Whitfield told the board a 3% hike would mean about another $14.50 a year; a 4% one, about $19.
Selectman Pamela Dunning recalled when she got rid of her septic system years ago and went on the sewer. She said she was told she would never get a bill. When she and the rest of the board later went with the 4% hike, Dunning said: “I’m still whining inside.”
“Keep it there,” Selectman William “Bill” Maloney said, smiling.
The ballot question on the plant, meanwhile, is to see if the town will authorize selectmen to move the plant to where public works is now, and move public works to the transfer station property. The board recently supported both moves. The question also seeks an OK to apply for and accept state and federal grants and other funding sources for site evaluation and preliminary engineering.
On a resident’s question, Simmons confirmed this vote is not on spending the $50 million the dual project could cost. “There will be other town votes on this,” he said.
The plant question is not the only one board nodded for Nov. 5. Voters will also consider a Maine Public Employees Retirement System change for the police department. And the board may consider a ballot question on Johnson Controls’ proposed energy project.
Simmons said the “drop dead deadline” for the board to sign the warrant is Sept. 3. The town would need the proposed contract by Aug. 29 for it to be on the board’s Sept. 3 agenda to consider adding it to the warrant, Whitfield said.
Earlier than Aug. 29 would be better, to give board members more time to review it, she said. Johnson Controls’ Dean Angeledes said he would work to do that.
Johnson Controls’ attorney has had no issues with the town’s proposed edits, he added.
Also Aug. 6, selectmen OK’d Simmons to enter into a grant deal with the Federal Aviation Administration for design and permitting to rebuild the main apron’s pavement at Wiscasset Municipal Airport; OK’d him to seek a boat ramp grant from Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; and accepted a $150 donation from J. Rosamond Johnson Foundation, Inc. and agreed to put the money into the Cooper- DiPerri Scholarship account.
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