St. Agatha to meet, vote on sewer rates, grant

ST. AGATHA – Local residents will have a special town meeting to discuss accepting a grant and a public meeting to discuss sewer rates Wednesday, Oct. 22, at the town office.

The public meeting on user rates will be held at 6:30 p.m., Town Manager Ryan Pelletier said Tuesday. That might bring about changes in sewer user rates, but not for single-family homes.

“Present rates, where they involve schools and businesses, are not in line with standards,” Pelletier said. “The rate for schools, especially Wisdom High School, needs to be changed.

“The number of students and faculty at the high school have changed over the years, and rates have remained the same,” he said. “What could change is the rates for businesses to make up for the loss of income from the school account.”

He said rates for schools should be developed on the number of people in the building. It’s much the same for restaurants, where rates are developed on the number of seats in the establishment.

The single-family home rate of $330 per year should not change, he said.

At 7 p.m., residents will decide if the town will accept a $400,000 grant from the Community Development Block Grant program, if the town’s application is approved.

The town will be filing the CDBG application by November.

The $400,000 grant would be used to extend the municipal sewer lines on Route 162 and from Route 162 east on Cleveland Road and Brook Road.

The town hopes to acquire the grant and have sewer-line construction under way next summer.

Earlier this year, the town received a $450,000 grant and $100,000 loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development agency for the sewer-line project.

The sewer-line additions would add 36 users to the system.