Politics & Government
Residents' Complaints Shoot Down Proposed Sewer Fee Hike
Town official says WPCA must revise its budget to adjust for lower revenues.
Stratford officials must recalculate the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) budget following a decision Monday by the WPCA board to reject a proposed increase in the town’s sewer use charge.
The proposed increase was met at the WPCA board’s public hearing with howls of protest by members of the public, particularly senior citizens, who complained it was another instance of being "taxed to death" in Stratford, as one resident put it.
"We’re being taxed to death," said Robert Staurovsky of Rockland Avenue. He pleaded with the board members to reject the increase. "Wake up, please. We can’t afford it any more," he said.
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"I don’t think we should pay this increase," said Thomas Yates of Avery Street.
The proposed increase would have raised the residential sewer use charge from $280 a year to $315. But it was mistakenly advertised as a proposed increase to $345, almost double the actual amount, which accounted for the bitter reaction.
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Light Street residents George and David Margonis were among several speakers who criticized the town’s practice of charging a fixed rate rather than basing part of the fee on water use.
The Margonis brothers said that means a single senior citizen pays as much as a family with five children, even though the family produces a lot more wastewater for the treatment system. People who use more should pay more, they said.
It was apparent the proposed increase was in trouble as soon as the WPCA board, which is a committee of the Town Council, convened its meeting.
Council members Jason Santi (D-4) and Stephanie Philips (D-2) both announced the proposed $65 increase, which would have been a hike of more than 23 percent, was too high and they wouldn’t support it.
Chief Administrative Officer Geen Thazhampallath informed the board that the proposed increase was actually only $35.
"That’s a major mistake," Philips replied, but she still wouldn’t support it.
"We’re charging less than other communities," noted Matthew Catalano (R-3), but Santi made a motion to deny the increase and it passed, defeating the increase, by a unanimous vote.
After the meeting, Thazhampallath said the increase was needed to make debt payments on the recently completed $65 million Stratford sewer plant upgrade and to begin replacing parts of the aging town sewer line system.
"We’re talking about townwide," he said, of the need to replace old sewer lines, some of which date back to the 1920s.
The WPCA budget was increased from $5,024,474 to $6,183,659, a 23 percent increase, based on the presumption that the user fee increase would pass.
Thazhampallath said the budget would have to be revised to account for the reduced revenue. "We’re definitely going to have to redo the math," he said.
