By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Customers of Goffstown’s sewer system could face a doubling of their sewer use charges, based on an engineering firm’s recommendations.

New customers would also face a doubled connection fee under the proposal.

Members of the Goffstown Sewer Commission hosted a public hearing on Tuesday, June 13, in which consulting engineers advised them to hike their current rate structure.

“I think there’s an immediate need for a rate increase,” said rate analyst Henry Thomas, a principal of Public Resources Management Group of Maitland, Fla.

Goffstown’s 2,200 sewer customers currently pay a $50 quarterly charge for sewer use, for an annual total of $200.

Under the consultant’s recommendations, customers would pay a $100 quarterly charge for a $400 annual total.

Consultants also recommended the commission double the one-time sewer connection fee from its current $2,200 to $4,400.

The increased consumer costs are necessary to cover Goffstown’s share for upgrades to the Manchester Wastewater Treatment Plant and to finance maintenance of its own sewer lines, according to figures provided by the Manchester engineer consulting firm of Hoyle, Tanner and Associates.

Goffstown’s share of the Manchester facility’s upgrade is expected to total $7.7 million, according to the estimates. The same study places the sewer commission’s line replacement projects at $665,000 per year.

The sewer commission should handle those projects on a pay-as-you go basis, rather than through loans, Thomas told the commission.

“The reason you want to pay-as-you-go on line replacements is: if you pancake one loan on top of the other, it can get expensive,” he said.

The pay-as-you-go line repair strategy does require the commission to maintain a level of cash balances, Thomas said, and thus calls for the rate increases.

“If you don’t make the rate increase, you’re going to run out of reserves,” he said.

The increased rates would allow the commission to pay for those expenses while maintaining an approximate $1.1 million in cash balances in its general account, Thomas said.

To keep the cash reserves at that level, the annual user costs would need to be at $520 by the year 2011, Thomas said.

“You can’t continue to draw down system reserves the way you have been,” Thomas said, noting that $910,000 is expected to be drawn from the commission’s cash reserves in 2006.

The consultant’s recommendations came as part of a larger update on Goffstown’s wastewater treatment facilities. The last such update occurred in 1990, said Hoyle, Tanner and Associates Vice President Michael Trainque.

The complete wastewater facilities treatment plant update will examine several other issues beyond the rate structure, Trainque said.

Those factors include evaluating existing conditions, predicting future needs, evaluating sewer use ordinances and presenting recommendations to the sewer commission.

The sewer use charge was last changed in 1994, said Goffstown Sewer Commission Chairman Stephen Crean.

The Goffstown Sewer Commission meets the second Tuesday of the month. Members of the commission will discuss the recommended rate increase at their next meeting on Tuesday, July 11.