MIDWEEK REPORT: SWH sewer users face 48% rate increase if taxpayers fail to assist
Other news: Select board rejects Aimee Jellison Williams for Conservation Commission
SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Dec. 13, 2023 - To pay for the town’s portion of the $27 million sewer plant upgrade - $7 million to match federal and state loans - ratepayers face a 48 percent or a $263 increase to the “gross rate base,” Steve Kenney, water and sewer director, told the select board Tuesday night.
If the town’s taxpayers picked up the tab, the increase would be $159 for a $300,000 assessed property, he said. The town has more than 1,500 taxpayers and 680 sewer users.
When the town created the district in 2016, it committed to funding all capital projects which would last more than 20 years in service.
Two notes - one for $2.5 million to match a state loan and one for $5 million to match a federal loan - would cost $122,676 and $186,850 a year respectively.
If taxpayers do not assist with the cost, ratepayers will pay the entire cost, it has been decided by the water and sewer board.
Taxpayers could also pay for one but not both loans. The $5 million note would raise taxes $96 a year, the $2.5 million note $63.
For ratepayers, the increases are $106 and $157, respectively.
Former select board chair Kristen Hutchins said the town’s vote to support sewer capital projects carried by only three votes seven years ago.
“It was very close, but the majority of people felt that that water and sewer was such an important asset to the town that it made sense for the taxpayers to support it.”
Select board says no to Aimee Williams
The Select Board voted 4-1 Tuesday night to reject Aimee Jellison Williams’s application as associate member of the Conservation Commission. Chapin McFarland cast the only yes vote.
Williams threatened twice at its Dec. 6 meeting to take legal action, according to a recording of the meeting provided by the town clerk.
Board member Natasha Johnson said Williams’s uncivil behavior “in our board of selectmen meeting, and in the back of the audience insulting current Conservation Commission members, as well as her conduct as an audience member at the Conservation Commission meetings and especially threatening legal action twice at the last meeting that was held when she was asking to be appointed makes me question her ability to be a productive, positive member of the Conservation Commission.”
Member Jim Vallette asked Williams to explain what he said were charges she made that the select board was “corrupt.”
“I'm trying to get to the bottom of how many resources the town is going to be expending on everything that you you have been raising.
“If you're accusing a Conservation Commission member of vandalism and then the police are responding, to a police report.
“I'm so tired of the town spending resources on goose chases that make no sense. This commission, the people, the volunteers, like you, care about the town, and they're working hard, and you make it very difficult for volunteers.
Williams said she was trying to hold the commission accountable.
In an email to the QSJ Nov. 30, Williams wrote,
“I am 100% behind the efforts for preservation and the proposed improvements to the areas around the pond (Chris’s Pod) for the benefits of the wildlife living and nesting there and the year-round community activities.
“However, where it is Town-owned property, it is the town officials’ responsibility to move the project forward. At the Town Meeting it was voted to allow the Select Board to do what would be in the best interests of the Town. I am looking forward to seeing the much needed improvements to the area once funds become available.”