WILTON — Selectmen on Tuesday will consider two proposals to pay off the debt on a $4.7 million project that is upgrading the town’s sewer system.

To pay for the project, the town’s 944 sewer customers will have to pay an added $213 per year over the next 30 years on their sewer bills, according to Clayton Putnam, superintendent for the town Water and Sewer Department.

Both proposals being considered Tuesday night call for that additional annual charge to cover the debt payments. The town took on the debt when voters last year approved taking out loans to pay for the upgrades to the 32-year-old wastewater treatment system.

The two funding proposals differ, however, because of a clause that would provide some savings for sewer customers based on how much wastewater they produce, Putnam said. A public hearing on the proposals will be in the Town Office at 7 p.m., preceding a town meeting where selectmen will consider passing one of them.

One option calls for an added annual debt payment charge and maintains the existing sewer rate structure, while the alternative has the same annual charge but changes the sewer rate structure.

The change to the sewer rate would consist of two adjustments. It lowers the minimum quarterly sewer bill for the first 1,000 cubic feet of wastewater produced, and increases the charge for each 100 cubic feet past that initial minimum usage charge.

These changes were designed to create savings for a majority of town sewer customers, who typically produce less than 1,200 cubic feet of wastewater, Putnam said. He added his department supports this option because it gives some relief to those customers who would struggle most with the annual $213 debt payment.

“It’s not much of a break but it’s something,” he said.

Sewer customers who produce larger amounts of wastewater, typically commercial sites, would have to make up the difference under the plan, Putnam said.

If the plan is passed, the new minimum quarterly sewer bill for the first 1,000 cubic feet would decrease from $64.24 to $59.24. For each 100 cubic feet beyond that minimum sewer bill threshold, customers would be charged $2.024, which is up from $1.012.

Putnam said the town’s sewer customers would see a minimal saving or increase if the rate changes pass, because nearly all of them produce at most 1,500 cubic feet of wastewater.

The additional annual charge and rate changes would take effect July 1.

Wilton’s last sewer rate increase was in 1987 and state officials have said the aging system is a threat to dump raw sewage into nearby streams and Wilson Lake.

The proposed $213 annual debt payment by the town’s sewer customers pays off a $3.52 million loan for the upgrade project. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Rural Development awarded the loan and a $1,172,000 grant to fund the project.

 

David Robinson — 861-9287

drobinson@centralmaine.com

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