Ayer Rate Review Committee Unanimously Adopts FY2022 Water and Sewer Rate Increases

AYER -- February 23, 2021, Ayer Rate Review Committee unanimously adopts FY2022 water and sewer rate increases, aided by a state clean-water loan. Town accountant Lisa Gabri told the committee Tuesday that a Massachusetts Clean Water Trust loan secured by the DPW saved the town more than $1 million in interest, reducing the first-step water rate increase from a projected 28 cents to just seven cents per hundred cubic feet. Sewer rates will rise by 41, 47, and 43 cents across three usage steps, with Gabri drawing $1.8 million from sewer retained earnings, leaving only about $200,000 in reserve, to avoid steeper increases against a $10 million-plus capital backlog. The combined impact on an average residential customer is estimated at just under $20 per year, slightly below the roughly $21 annual increase approved in the prior fiscal year. The committee also voted unanimously to recommend a grade-14 assistant superintendent of water and sewer and a 19-hour-per-week grade-3 billing clerk to the Select Board, with both salary costs already embedded in the approved rates. A special meeting was set for March 15 to address a projected $42,000 transfer station fund shortfall, with the Select Board presentation and town meeting warrant deadline pressing hard behind it.