The Gloucester Board of Supervisors voted 6-1 to approve a monthly 14 percent increase to water and sewer rates during Tuesday night’s public hearing held in the colonial courthouse. The increase is set to take effect on May 1. This is the first time since FY2014 that the rates for public utilities have been increased.
The increased rate will help begin funding the 10-year capital plan for the Public Utilities Department, as presented by Director of Public Utilities Katey Legg.
As of March, there are 3,292 water-only accounts and 1,946 customers who hold both water and sewer accounts.
The board will revisit the public utilities increases every year, but the current proposed plan is to have a 13 percent increase in FY27, 11 percent in FY28, 10 percent in FY29 and 8 percent in FY30. This would generate approximately $3 million total in additional revenue.
“Growth could change that,” Chief Financial Officer Maria Calloway said about the proposed future rates.
“This is our best guess right now,” said Deputy County Administrator George Bains.
In addition to the rate increase, borrowing will need to occur in FY26 to address more than $2 million in capital projects. These projects include motor control center ($460,000), Gloucester Street and Clements Avenue waterline replacement ($445,635), pump station upgrades (design) ($360,000), million-gallon storage (design) ($200,000), Tillage Heights waterline replacement ($230,000) and pump stations generators or permanent bypass pumps ($400,000).
The public utilities fund balance is also quickly being depleted, with a projected balance to amount to approximately $27,000 at the end of FY25. If a catastrophic public utilities event were to occur, there would be no additional funding to cover the costs. This would cause the costs to be covered by either the development fund or the general fund.
Supervisor Chris Hutson, the only board member to vote against the increase, stated that he did not support putting the burden of public utilities funding needs solely on the few thousand customers on those lines.
“The whole county uses the utilities in one form or another,” said Hutson.
Board member Phillip Bazzani stated that he did not believe those with wells should be charged for utilities. Hutson argued that everyone benefits from public utilities, including those who send their children to Gloucester County Public Schools, shop at local businesses and have their house fires extinguished with public water used by first responders.
Supervisor Ken Gibson raised his concerns over broken pipes and lines, as well as outdated equipment and the diminishing reserve fund.
“Our reserve fund is almost depleted to $27,000, which is very concerning,” said Gibson.
He also broached his concerns over a hypothetical catastrophic system failure. Gibson provided the example of Richmond’s water treatment plant power outage experienced in January where people throughout the area lost access to clean water for nearly a week.
“Schools had to close,” said Gibson about the failure. “Businesses had to close.” He also said that area hospital operations were also threatened due to the lack of water.
Board vice chairman Ashley Chriscoe said that he did not like implementing such a large increase but found it necessary to maintain public utilities.
Not seeking reelection
Also, during the meeting, Bazzani announced that he would not be seeking reelection for the York District seat on the board in the fall.
“I strongly believe in term limits and it is time to pass the torch on to others with new ideas and new perspectives after 12 incredible years of service,” he said.
Bazzani plans to complete his current term, which will end on Dec. 31 of this year.
