BY PAUL MITCHELLNorth Country This Week

CANTON – Much to the chagrin of village board members, a 12 percent increase in the sewer rate is anticipated to help offset the cost of $13.5 million wastewater treatment plant improvement project.

The proposed rate increase was discussed at Wednesday night’s monthly meeting. 

“It’s a double-edged sword because we’re trying to do what's best for the community,” stated Mayor Michael Dalton. “Infrastructure is a very important part of our community. At some point in time we have to pay for this $13.5 million project.”

The sewer rate hike would be over a two-year period. Dalton also said the village has been told numerous times that the water and sewer rates are too low.

“We propose to raise sewer rates 12% to begin to fund the $13.5 million in WWTP upgrade project costs. We are projecting that these upgrades, sans any additional grant funding, will require a 30% increase in rates. We are also planning for approximately $20 million dollars in water upgrades that will need to be done in the next few years, so we are proposing to raise water rates 12% now as well,” noted Dalton.

For most users (0-50,000 gallons users), this will be an increase of about $1.76 per 1,000 gallons; the quarterly minimum will increase by about $8.80 (or $2.93/month), the mayor explained.

A public hearing has been scheduled for June 20 at 6:15 p.m. at the Canton Municipal Building.

“We're doing everything that we can to minimize increases to rates. We've been able to access grant money and good financing terms and will continue to pursue these opportunities, but rate increases are inevitable if we are to maintain and improve our infrastructure. And there is just no question that these upgrades are necessary,”  Deputy Mayor Anna Sorensen said. “It makes the most sense to us to raise rates some now so that the impacts can be absorbed as gradually as possible. We could be in a much worse position at any time.”

For example, Sorensen continued, fully funding our secondary source upgrades with ARPA and grant money as well as the almost 4 million in grants and 0% financing we've accessed for the WWTP upgrades. 

Trustee Beth Larrabee voiced concerns about such a large percentage increase.

“The timing with this with the school budget is tough,” said Larrabee of the 6.5 percent hike in Canton school taxes. “A 12 percent increase is a big number. My concern is the initial reaction.”

It was noted that about one-fourth of users would see an approximate $3 per month increase.

“A vast majority of our users are at the lower level,” Sorensen stated.

Sorensen also pointed out that the village has looked at the implementation of Equivalent Dwelling United or EDU system for fee assessments currently used by the Village of Potsdam. 

One EDU is defined as a single family residential household. Multifamily residential units and non residential facility EDU assessments are also calculated on a fixed “EDU basis” depending on the use.

“There are lots of pros and cons going to the EDU system,” Sorensen said.

“The infrastructure committee is exploring the idea of converting our billing system to an EDU system because this may help us to better budget for needed upgrades and ongoing operational costs, but we need more time to research how this would work, the impact to users, other communities’ experiences, etc. Given the urgency of the infrastructure projects, both those that we’ve begun and those for which we’re still in the planning phase, we believe we should increase rates so that increased costs can be gradually absorbed,” Dalton added.