WILTON — Water and Wastewater Superintendent Heinz Grossman appeared before the Wilton Select Board Tuesday, April 4, to let the board know the rate increase approved in March had gone into effect.
“We had to play with numbers to make sure that the billing worked out the same for everybody whether they were the smallest rate payer, or they were gardens,” he said.
The rate increase came after Grossman submitted his projected sewer budget for 2023, which showed a deficit of over $240,000. A significant portion of the deficit came as a result of the Maine Legislature L.D. 1911 “An Act to Prevent the Further Contamination of the Soils and Waters of the State with So-called Forever Chemicals.”
According to Grossman, the cost of disposing industrial or municipal sludge potentially contaminated with PFAS chemicals and sending it to a processing facility in Madison came to roughly $200,000.
To offset the extra expense, Grossman presented two options: A flat 30% or a 15% increase with the remaining amount pulled from the sewer account.
“As I always say, the people that I’m most concerned about are our fixed income residents, the retirees, the people,” Grossman stated at this meeting. “They ain’t getting any more money. That’s what they got, and this is what affects them the most.
The 15% increase was passed and is now in effect.
Grossman also let the board know that a project approved by the Select Board last year to move a gate at the sewer plant, located on Varnum Pond Road, had gone up in price.
Originally expected to cost $2,950, the project will now cost $3,700. The project was brought to the board and approved last year. An agreement with a contractor to complete the project was also made, but according to Grossman, the project was not completed before winter began and the ground had become frozen.
With the ground thawing out, Grossman reached out to finish the project, but the price of the project had gone up $800.
No motion was taken. According to Ellsworth, because the project was already approved, he and Grossman simply wanted to share the increase in pricing as a matter of transparency.
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