ROCKPORT — For the first time in more than a year, sewer rates are on the rise in Rockport.
Water and sewer bills will arrive in mailboxes next week. And while residents won't see a change in the water rate, set at $8.25 per 1,000 gallons, they will see a nearly 13 percent hike in the sewer rate, from $12.20 to $13.75 per 1,000 gallons.
Public Works Director Joe Parisi attributed the increase to a fall Town Meeting vote last year to rectify a nearly $117,000 accounting error involving the water and sewer enterprise funds.
At the time, Town Meeting opted to allow transferring a combined $116,753 from the town's water and sewer enterprise accounts to its general fund after an audit revealed Rockport's general fund was incorrectly tapped for debt service connected to a Department of Public Works purchase.
According to Town Accountant Bernie Halupowski, two years of debt service authorized by Town Meeting in 2006 for a backhoe and excavator for the Department of Public Works was incorrectly charged to the general fund owing to human error by the town's bond counsel — an outside consultant.
Parisi said the sewer rate increase was adopted by the Public Works Board of Commissioners to accommodate the accounting adjustment and that two quarterly billing cycles "should resolve the situation."
However, Parisi would not guarantee the rates would go back down after those two quarters. The rise from $7.25 in 2006 to the new mark means the rate has jumped by 89 percent over that time frame.
"It's too early to say if (the sewer rate) will go back down because of capital (improvement) planning and debt service on (the state-mandated) inflow and infiltration project," Parisi said.
Halupowski said the debt service expenses were not built into the budgets of the enterprise funds in fiscal 2008 and 2009 and therefore were not included in the water and sewer rates for those years.
However, Parisi said last fall that the unchanged water rate of $8.25 per 1,000 gallons and former sewer rate of $12.20 per 1,000 gallons anticipated the bond payments.
Attempts to reach Parisi were unsuccessful yesterday, but rate increases in current years have often been attributed by Parisi to continued pressure to pay to complete repairs to the town's sewer system and treatment plant as part of a 12-year-old administrative consent order from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The latest increase means that Rockport's rates are once again higher than Gloucester's and are among the highest in the state. Gloucester's rates of $12.90 per 1,000 gallons were believed to be, as of last year, the highest of any city in the nation.
Roughly 70 percent of Rockport households connected to the sewer system are shelling out even more for their water than residents in neighboring Gloucester, who are struggling to pay water bills of $7.52 per 1,000 gallons along with the $12.90 per 1,000 gallons sewer figure.
Though higher than Gloucester's, Rockport's sewer rate is not the highest on Cape Ann.
Manchester currently charges $11.75 per 748 gallons. But if adjusted for pricing per 1,000 gallons — as the sewer rate is in Rockport — Manchester's rate would be $1.96 higher at $15.71.
Jonathan L'Ecuyer can be reached at 978-283-7000 x 3451 or jlecuyer@gloucestertimes.com.
Rockport's water/sewer rates
Fiscal year%quarter%water*%sewer*
2010%2%$8.25%$13.75
2010%1%$8.25%$13.75
2009%4%$8.25%$12.20
2009%3%$8.25%$12.20
2009%2%$8.25%$12.20
2009%1%$8.25%$12.20
2008%4%$8.25%$12.20
2008%3%$7.10%$11.25
2008%2%$7.10%$9.75
2008%1%$7.10%$9.75
2007%4%$6.70%$9.75
*Per 1,000 gallons
Source: Rockport Department of Public Works
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