ABERDEEN – The Town of Aberdeen is looking to potentially raise the rates for its system development fees as a public hearing was set for that very purpose at its Aug. 26 regular business meeting.
The Aberdeen Town Board set a public hearing for Oct. 28 in order to discuss changes to the town’s system development fees (SDF) rates for new connections to its water and sewer systems.
“We thought we could do it a little bit earlier, but we started looking at the true notice and the posting and we thought we’d rather be safe than sorry, so we just kind of held it,” said Town Manager Paul Sabiston. “This is still the same study, the same rates we presented to you back in April on a report that LKC put together for us back in the spring.”
The proposed changes from LKC Engineering include increasing the rates from $2.63 per gallon for water and $5.52 per gallon for sewer up to as high as $9.10 a gallon for water and $6.92 per gallon for sewer – although the board may elect a rate somewhere in the middle – as well as updating the meter size requirements or permitted flow and unit cost of capacity for each system.
“We have to make ours affordable but also remember those fees are charged basically to take care of our entire system,” Sabiston said back in April.
The report from LKC Engineering also stated their reasoning for recommending these updates was due to “the value of existing system components and future cost to be incurred to meet demands of growth.”
Per Sabiston, the town has primarily utilized the SDF funds for capital projects related to the water and wastewater systems and to further support that, the board approved the SDF Water Capital Reserve Fund for the purpose of funding the Well Replacement Program for Safe Wells Project, Advanced Metering Infrastructure Project and upgrading and replacing sewer lines.
In addition, the board recognized three officers from the Aberdeen Police Department who undertook oaths near the start of the meeting.
Officer Brandon Sheppard took the oath of office as the latest member of the department and both Leigh Ann Brooks and Cameron Parent were sworn in to new positions, having been promoted to a patrol lieutenant and investigations lieutenant respectively.
The board also approved the reappointment of Johnny Ransdell to the Board of Adjustments for a term running through the end of the year.
“We have some vacancies on our Board of Adjustment and while this board doesn’t meet very often, when they do, we need folks available,” said Planning Director Pam Graham. “Mr. Ransdell has agreed to serve short-term in order to stagger these terms the way we like.”
The Aberdeen Town Board will next meet Sept. 23.
