ORANGE — The Sewer Commission continued its May 14 public hearing for two weeks to allow time for research into possible ways to avoid drastic rate hikes in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The commission, made up of the town’s Selectboard members, were told a hefty increase is necessary to adequately operate the wastewater treatment facility at 295 West Main St. Wastewater Superintendent Oscar Rodriguez and David Prickett, of DPC Engineering, addressed the commissioners to try to convey the situation’s severity.

“Based on your proposed [wastewater] budget of $1.757 million, and your current rate structure, if you do not change your rates you obviously wouldn’t have enough revenue to cover things,” Prickett said.

The commissioners voted unanimously to continue the hearing until May 28 at 5 p.m. Meantime, Prickett will investigate possible flat-fee structures, Rodriguez will look into reducing sludge-hauling costs and Commissioner Jane Peirce will work to determine if state statutes prohibit a selectboard from serving as its municipality’s sewer commission. This matter of concern was broached by resident Rhonda Bartlett, who attended the hearing remotely. Town Administrator Matthew Fortier said he will work with the tax collector to determine the median number of outstanding bills over the past five years.

Prickett told the commissioners not raising rates could have dire consequences.

“You take your retained earnings down from about $486,000 down to … around $200,000,” Prickett said. “So that would put you down to a reserve that’s only about a quarter of your year’s operating budget. In the past we’ve tried to target at maintaining a reserve … of about half of your year’s operating budget. Obviously, ideally, we want it higher, but with everything going on in the world right now, half is a good number.

“And we’ve seen what can happen with an emergency, relative to retained earnings, pretty quickly, with the inflow pumps last year,” he continued, citing a March 2024 failure of a pump designed to take in sewage from the wastewater treatment facility’s collection system and distribute it throughout the rest of the wastewater system. “So not changing the rates is really not an option. Unfortunately, they didn’t change over the past three years, so we’re now to the point where we’re likely going to have to make a pretty big step in order to recover.”

Prickett suggested increasing the rate from $12.50 per 100 cubic feet to about $15.54 per 100 cubic feet. That’s an increase of about 24%.

“That’s not unsubstantial,” he acknowledged. “But, I guess if you look at it in hindsight, had we adjusted the rates over the last three years, combined with this year that 24% would have been about 6%, 7% each year.”

Prickett said based on his suggestion the average household would pay an additional $17 per month on average, or $51 per quarter.

He explained that the challenge with transitioning from a fixed-rate structure to a fixed-fee one is that anyone below the 50th percentile, including many senior citizens, will see a major increase. He told the commissioners he will calculate the impact the proposed rate increases will have on residents in the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles of usage.

To provide context for part of the necessary increase, Rodriguez said the cost of hauling away sludge is set to go up 155.56%- - from 18 cents per gallon to 46 cents per a gallon. He said the sludge gets disposed of in a Lowell facility. He mentioned there is a backup option in Montague but that facility’s requirements for the sludge — contains water, dissolved organic and inorganic materials and suspended solids — is not feasible for Orange.

But resident Ann Reed said she is not satisfied with the stated reason for the rates going up “so dramatically in this sort of haste.”

“I believe that an explanation that the hauling, the sludge hauling, has gone up astronomically just suddenly – the threat of it, anyway – I don’t believe that that’s sufficient,” she said. “I haven’t heard anything to the effect that they have tried to renegotiate the contract or find other haulers. It’s just a little bit weak, to me, that this big financial problem has befallen the department and the go-to is, ‘Well, let’s just charge more of the taxpayers.’”

Bartlett said she has followed the town’s wastewater situation for a while and called it “a freight train out of control.” She also cited a state statute she believes prohibits a selectboard from serving as a municipality’s sewer commission, though others refuted her interpretation of the law. Town Clerk Nancy Blackmer said she believes the current arrangement is legal because it is not the Selectboard governing the wastewater department but rather the Selectboard members serving dual roles as Sewer Commissioners.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.