Dalton Fire District Looks to Update Fees, Infrastructure
DALTON, Mass. — The Fire District is looking to help update sewer and water infrastructure as well as update its fees for unpaid water bills.
Select Board member Antonio Pagliarulo showed pictures of a water main break on Main Street to the Board of Water Commissioners at its July 21 meeting and said his board was considering using software company Waterworth to track sewer infrastructure and possibly billing.
He raised concerns about infrastructure being more than 100 years old, at that while the Select Board has purview over the sewer system and the Fire District controls the water rates, he suggested having a reserve fund, which the district does.
Water Commission Chair James Driscoll said the district was looking to pay down its debts and get grant funding to help with some of the projects needed to be done.
"We are also looking at bringing our water rates up on a slower curve to start putting more money aside, so we can start doing some projects that we need to do," he said. "We've been kind of paying down our debt load, so that if we have to do something major and go out and borrow, we're not putting that on top of the debt load we have now."
The commissioners explained some of the water mains were replaced at Housatonic and South Street and the main problems are the smaller pipes that branch off.
"Most of our mains are pretty good. It's the small that is branching off. We were looking down at Greenridge Park because all our water mains run between the houses and the back yards, and we've had a couple of breaks in there where we're taking down fences and moving sheds and ripping up patios to get to the water," said Driscoll.
They said there is a risk to in-ground pools if a main lets go. This layout came from a separate water company because it was cheaper to run mains between houses but the board knows that it's not acceptable long-term and that those lines will have to be relocated and replaced.
"That's where it was easier for them to lay the lines between the houses because you'd have to lay twice as much. If you lay between the houses, one will feed both sides, but you know there's been all kinds of problems, and you know it's not the way to do it. And we're going to have to take it out, and we know it. And we've already had some preliminary engineering done," Driscoll said.
The semi-annual water bill is around $45,000; but the bills were due three months ago. There will be many shut off notices ready to go out on Aug. 1. One resident asked if the $20 late fee was adequate as it is a lot of money for a small town put a lot of notices on doors.
Clerk and Treasurer Melanie Roucoulet said with how much time it takes her to print the notices and for the department to put them on everyone's doors, it might be time to look at maybe even a $50 fee.
Driscoll said $20 is not as much as it used to be as the fee was last reviewed in 2005 and it may lead to some residents putting it off, but there are still substantial fees if it gets to turning their water off.
"I think that overall we have to sit down and look at late fees and things like that. But once they get the notice on their door, they have 15 days. They don't pay by 15 days, and we shut off, it's $125 for us to go shut it off, $125 dollars for us to go turn it on. So there's substantial penalties when we get to the point of having to turn it on and turn it off."
Driscoll said the commissioners will review fee structures in the fall and see what other towns are doing before budget talks start.
Tags: fees, fire district, infrastructure improvements,
