SOUTHWICK — At the urging of Southwick’s DPW Officer Manager Beryl Wagner, the Water Commission changed how it will define permanent residency for the elderly who apply for the lower elderly water rate.
“I wanted to be able to explain to a water customer who applies for the elderly rate exactly why they may not qualify,” Wagner said.
Anyone who is 65 or older and a town resident can apply to the Water Commission to be billed at the elderly rate, which is $7.50 per thousand gallons no matter how much water they use bi-annually.
For non-elderly residents, once they use 15,000 gallons or more, the rate increases to $8.10 per thousand gallons, and $8.75 per thousand gallons after water use exceeds 30,000 gallons during the six-month billing period.
To qualify for the elderly rate, an application must be filled out that has four questions: Whether or not the person applying is the head of the household; the applicant is not supported by anyone else living in the home other than a spouse; be the owner of the home as recorded in the town’s Assessor’s Office; and that home is the user’s full-time place of residence.
Wagner said it is the question of whether the applicant lives in town full-time that usually leads to the commission denying the request.
However, she acknowledged, as did Water Commissioners Edward Johnson and John Cain, that question needed more specificity.
During the commission’s meeting, DPW Director Randy Brown suggested checking on voting registrations or where an applicant’s vehicle is registered to determine permanent residence.
With the Water Department being able to monitor water use by every user in town every three hours, Wagner can determine exactly how many days water is used, which is the best indicator of whether homeowner lives in town full- or part-time.
During the meeting, she explained that while a resident may use water consistently over a six-month period, it may be only on the weekends.
“The meter will show use for six months, but for only 18 days,” she said during the meeting, which means they may only be using the home on weekends.
With that, Johnson proposed — “to keep it simple” — that a resident will be considered permanent by the commission if they use water 180 days during a calendar year.
Johnson then made a motion to amend the policy and it was adopted.
Wagner said that of the 2,690 water department customers, 918 qualify for the elderly rate.
She said the elderly rate application will be amended to reflect the change next week.
