Winchester Residents Could See Increasing Water Rates

It’s too early to say for certain, but Winchester residents may soon see an increase in their water and sewer bills.

According to Mark Abrahams, the has enough retained earnings to avoid an increase for the next 18 months. The fund has $1.2 million in cash and $747,931 in retained earnings as of June 30, 2011, which should be enough to maintain the current rates for the next two fiscal years.

“The water and sewer team believes that the budget should be sufficient to finance FY 2012 and FY 2013 operations debt and capital without a rate increase, assuming no major water or sewer issues happen though June 30, 2013,” Abrahams said.

However, Abrahams informed the Board of Selectmen that he doesn’t foresee a surplus by June 30, 2012, forcing the DPW to dip into their funds.

“The water and sewer fund has operated on a self-sustaining budget over the last five years without a rate increase,” Abrahams said. “The last two years have drawn upon the retained earnings to balance the budget, we will need to do the same for FY 2013 or face an 8.4 percent rate increase for FY 2013.”

The other option that Abrahams and Town Manager Richard Howard supported was to impose smaller rate increases on the residents.

“I think it would be wise to attempt, slow incremental increases,” Howard said.

“The town may want to consider raising water and sewer rates a small amount annually to avoid a major increase in the future,” Abrahams said.

The board will look toward Fall Town Meeting when they may possibly suggest a rate increase for the town.

“People prefer smaller, steadier increases as opposed to seeing significant change,” said Selectman chair Forrest Fontana. “The best thing is to manage it the best we can so that people can plan.”