Southwick’s DPW Director Rich Bosak called the Prifti Park pump station the sewer department’s “problem child.” On March 23, the Select Board raised the sewer rate in part to build up the department’s retained earnings in the event of an unexpected expense, like a pumping station going down.
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SOUTHWICK — Unchanged for nearly a year and a half, the sewer rates for residents and businesses will increase slightly starting April 1, while the town’s subsidy to offset the sewer department’s annual shortfall will remain unchanged.
“I think you’ve got to go up [on the sewer rates] a little bit just to start to increase retained earnings,” said Select Board member Douglas Moglin regarding one of the reasons for the 2.5% increase on two of the three sewer rate tiers.
At the meeting on March 23, it was DPW Director Rich Bosak who presented the board with 15 different rate scenarios it could use when deciding what increase, if at all, it might want.
Bosak had scenarios from maintaining the current rates to increasing them enough for the sewer department to operate without needing the subsidy paid out of the town’s general budget, which is funded by every landowner in town through property taxes.
For that to happen, the rate for sewer customers would increase from 30% to 45% at the current rate.
The board, however, decided to keep the rate of $14.10 per thousand gallons when between one and 15,000 gallons is used.
It did increase the Tier 2 rate from $20.13 to $20.65 per thousand gallons for those using between 15,000 and 30,000 gallons, and the Tier 3 rate from $23.16 to $23.74 per thousand gallons when between 15,000 and 30,000 gallons is used. Both were increased by 2.5%.
There were three primary reasons the rate was only marginally increased, said Select Board member Diane Gale after the meeting.
One of the votes authorized when the sewer system was built just over 20 years ago has matured, meaning that about $78,000 is available for use to help offset the annual deficit.
The other was the board decided to maintain the $303,000 subsidy it settled on in 2024 because of decreasing revenues from betterment fees and a scheduled increase by Westfield of 8% in 2027 to process the town’s wastewater.
Betterment fees are the annual payments from many of the sewer customers who were loaned money by the town to connect to the system. Those loans are continuing to mature, which decreases the department’s revenue.
In 2024, the sewer rate was increased by 36% across the three tiers, and the subsidy was increased from $244,000 to its current level to prepare for future expenditure.
Moglin explained during the meeting that the town “can’t get rid of the subsidy” because it will be needed to fund the sewer department’s retained earnings account, which the department has not had since the system was built.
Gale said those funds will be used for capital expenses for continuing to replace grinder pumps used by a significant portion of the customers to break down the sewage before it reaches the mains on the street.
Bosak requested $60,000 to be included in the town’s fiscal year 2027 capital budget for replacing and repairing the pumps.
That, however, is a small price compared to the main sewer line pumps that need maintenance and when one needs replacing, which can cost up to $600,000, Gale said.
Without building up the department’s retained earnings for those anticipated expenditures, nearly all of it would be paid by every taxpaying town resident, regardless of whether they are a sewer customer, because in all likelihood it would take a bond to pay for the equipment.
Bosak described the Prifti Park pump station as the department’s “problem child,” which could need expensive repairs soon.
For the sewer department to operate at break-even, it would need at least 1,000 new customers.
The only new customer on the horizon is the proposed condominium project on Depot Street. The town is hoping the project will add 100 customers to the system.
Select Board member Russ Anderson, who acknowledged he was still getting up to speed on the issue, said no one wants to raise anything.
“But the reality is fixed costs are going up,” he said.
