WILTON — The Board of Selectmen will discuss how the town can avoid a sewer rate hike that will be made necessary by the upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant by seeing if there is any money available in the 2016 town budget.
Selectmen hope to figure out whether there will be a rate hike and how much it would be before June’s annual Town Meeting, where any hike would have to be approved.
Tuesday’s meeting at the Wilton town office will be the first held at the winter meeting time of 6:30 p.m.
Town Manager Rhonda Irish said that selectmen will hold their first discussion on how the town could contribute to repaying a loan on the $10.8 million upgrade of the town’s wastewater treatment system.
The upgrade, underway since 2009, has been divided into two phases. Tuesday’s discussion will focus on repaying the phase two portion, which is funding the overhaul of the wastewater treatment plant on Davis Court that hasn’t been upgraded since its construction in 1978.
In November, Wilton residents approved accepting a $2.75 million loan from the U.S Department of Agriculture to help pay for phase two. The loan was accompanied by a $1.35 million USDA grant.
The town made one of the last $198,049 debt payments on a phase one loan in September.
Former Water District Superintendent Clay Putnam, who retired in December, said at a Dec. 16 selectmen’s meeting that he had envisioned staggering the federal loans with the grants to make repayment easier, but it was discovered that in order to spend any of the grant money, the town must use all of the loans first.
With the upcoming and future debt payments that will have to be made, sewer rates may have to increase for each loan, according to Putnam.
At the meeting, he said that could amount to $40 or $50 per customer to close out the debt payment on the second loan and another $30 per quarter on the third loan.
Irish said that Tuesday’s discussion will look at how the town can find funding in the 2016 budget that would help keep rates from going up.
Irish said she believes it will be the first of several discussions on the topic leading up to Wilton’s annual Town Meeting on June 20.
Any changes in the rate structure would need the approval of residents at the Town Meeting.
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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