BREWER – The decision of who should control the local water supply has been placed in the hands of local voters, who will decide the fate of the Brewer Water District in a June referendum.

The water district, established in 1946, now is governed by a five-member board of trustees appointed by the City Council. However, a bill seeking to dissolve the district, repeal its charter and turn its assets over to the city government was submitted to the Legislature in late January at the city’s request.

City officials said they want to take over the district because of the district’s growing debt load, increasing water rates and relatively high fire hydrant rental fees. District trustees resisted the move, touching off a battle between the city and the district that became increasingly divisive, with the city and the trustees each retaining legal counsel.

After a public hearing and work session last month, members of the Legislature’s Utilities and Energy Committee sent the bill on to the full Legislature after amending it to require that a local referendum be held in Brewer, and that the transfer take place only if residents vote in favor of it and only after an affirmative vote to that end by a majority of city councilors and water district trustees.

Another condition was that a water advisory board be established and include district trustees and representatives from Holden, Eddington and Orrington, the three adjacent communities served by the water district.

The bill was enacted by both legislative bodies Monday, according to City Manager Stephen Bost.

As the result of an emergency preamble attached to the bill by the Senate, the city will be able to conduct the water district vote in conjunction with the statewide primary election June 11, Bost said, adding that combining the two will save the city the estimated $4,000 cost for a separate election.

The question to be placed before voters is: “Do you favor the dissolution of the Brewer Water District and the transfer of the district’s assets to the city of Brewer?”

The bill also directs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to look into the contracts the trustees signed in late February with all eight of the district’s employees, who are not unionized and who have never before had contracts. If the PUC determines that the contracts constitute “inappropriate action” on the part of the trustees, the agreements would be voided.

The contracts, which range from one to six years in duration, call for the payment of substantial severance packages under several scenarios. City Finance Director Karen McVey at the time estimated the contracts’ total financial worth at $414,762, based on 2-year-old salary and benefit figures, the most recent ones to which city officials had access. Trustees said at the time that they signed the contracts out of concern that the district could lose key employees.

In a related development Monday, the Brewer Water District board of trustees elected new officers during their annual organization meeting at the district’s offices on Parker Street. Trustee Andrew Landry, the board’s former clerk, was elected chairman, succeeding William Hayes. John Mills was elected clerk, and newly appointed trustee Gary Briggs was named treasurer.

By assuming responsibility for the local water supply, the city believes it can, over time, bring greater efficiencies and economies of scale to the operation by eliminating the duplication of services, doing in-house work the water district now contracts out, and through the city’s access to more favorable interest rates on loans, among other things.

According to an analysis by McVey, the city expects to save at least $50,000 a year in such areas as labor, billing and collections, and contractual services despite an additional $24,000 in debt service. The extra debt service cost, she noted, would be more than offset by interest savings of more than $5 million over 30 years by refinancing the district’s current and pending debt.