Representative Bill Aman: Public Service Announcement
SOUTH WINDSOR – Connecticut Water company will hold a public hearing Wednesday, March 31 at 6:30 PM in the Council Chambers of the South Windsor Town Hall for the public to ask questions or voice opinions regarding their proposed rate increase fillings. The company provides water utilities for the South Windsor area and has filed an application with the Department of Public Utility Control to increase water utility rates by one of their two proposed rate increase designs.
“I’m glad residents of South Windsor are invited to voice their opinions or ask questions of Connecticut Water. I hope the public hearing will be productive and informative for all parties involved,” said Representative Bill Aman of South Windsor.
In a statement, Connecticut Water explains the rate increases are necessary to “maintain our commitment to the environment, operations, water quality and customer service, and to make capital investments to sustain our systems.” The company assures that the proposed rate increases, “minimize the impacts on our customers and the communities we serve; provide assistance to those faced with economic hardships; promote water conservation; and allow the company to meet our obligations to water quality and service.”
The first of the two rate increase models is the “traditional rate filing” increasing the average customer’s monthly water rate in 2010 by $12.49, which is a 31% increase, and then the following two years the monthly rate would see a $.94 or 1.8% increase. These calculations are based on a 5/8” meter residential customer with an average 5,000 gallon monthly water usage. The second rate increase proposal is based on the same average customer model. In this proposal the customer would see their monthly fees evenly increase over three years by $4.79, which is a 9% to 12% rate increase over three years. Connecticut Water favors the second rate fee proposal.
Commercial, industrial and public authority customer classes would also see similar percentage increases under either scenario.
Customers can provide comments at the public hearing by attending in person, or sending comments via email to dpuc.executivesecretary@po.state.ct.us and must include their town information in the email.
South Windsor Town Hall is located at 1540 Sullivan Avenue.
For more information on this, or any other issues relating to state government, please feel free to contact me at my office in Hartford at 1-800-842-1423 or email me at Bill.Aman@cga.ct.gov. Thank you.
