GREENFIELD — Residents should not expect sewer or water rate increases come July, according to Mayor William Martin.

Martin had said there would be rate increases in July after Director of Public Works Donald Ouellette said he would propose a 5.5 percent increase to both water and sewer rates. The rate hikes would have been the third such set of increases that residents would have seen in 18 months.

“We’ll continue to do the necessary infrastructure replacements on a schedule that is compatible with our revenues currently,” Martin said.

According to Martin, in addition to no July increase, the city will review the capital improvement plan in October and determine if any increase will occur in January next year.

The suggested rate increases of 5.5 percent from Ouellette came less than a month and a half after the city imposed a 10 percent increase on water rates and 15 percent increase on sewer rates for the Jan. 1 to June 30 billing cycle.

According to Martin, he found out about the possible rate increase suggestion like the public did — through an article in the Recorder March 20.

The suggested increases were defended by Ouellette due to the money spent on infrastructure over the past year, in addition to money needed for infrastructure projects expected in the coming years.

Among previous spending was $1.2 million for two pump stations, as well as $200,000 a year for inflow and infiltration costs, which come about when water sources, such as groundwater and stormwater, enter into sanitary sewer systems and can overwhelm waste water treatment. Upcoming projects, according to Ouellette, include work on Leyden Woods pump station for $550,000 that must be done this year and water and sewer main replacement programs that will cost an estimated $2 million over the next five years.

Martin said there are projects that must be addressed in the city, but that he previously did not increase rates in seven years and that businesses appreciate the lower water and sewer rates in Greenfield.

If the rate increases did follow through, they would have totaled an estimated 20 percent increase in water rates and 24 percent increase in sewer rates over an 18-month period.

You can reach
Dan Desrochers at:

ddesrochers@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257