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Potsdam seeks public input at Monday hearing on new plan for water and sewer billing

Posted 6/16/18

By CRAIG FREILICH POTSDAM -- The village Board of Trustees will hold a hearing Monday, June 18, about a proposed new way of billing water and sewer charges. Once the change is implemented, the …

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Potsdam seeks public input at Monday hearing on new plan for water and sewer billing

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- The village Board of Trustees will hold a hearing Monday, June 18, about a proposed new way of billing water and sewer charges.

Once the change is implemented, the village does not expect to net any more in fees for the service than they are receiving now.

“It’s a fairer way of billing for the village to cover the costs of actual costs of providing drinking water and wastewater treatment,” said Manasseh Burt of the Development Authority of the North Country (DANC), which is providing technical services to the village.

Burt said the figures he is working with are from the current budget, so there will be no increase in overall revenue through the new method.

The new method is designed to distribute fixed costs more equitably while maintaining usage billing, according to village officials.

Under the revised method, known as equivalent dwelling billing, houses or buildings of similar configuration will pay for an average of similar dwellings’ share of a system’s fixed costs.

The dwelling unit equivalent method is better suited for allotting shares of fixed costs such as labor and construction debt for treatment plants, which will not vary much with the amount of water through the plant. Metering is more efficient at allotting variable costs, such as volume of water, electricity for pumps, and chemicals to treat the water, according to Carrie Tuttle of DANC.