By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer
May 15, 2008 03:36 am SALISBURY — If Town Meeting approves Article 6 of the warrant Monday night, it could lower the betterment fees homeowners will pay in the future when sewer lines are extended within reach of their houses. The town makes nothing from the approval, according to Selectman Jerry Klima. The only benefactor will be owners of single-family homes. For example, with the approval of privilege fees, the sewer betterment fees for the upcoming Rabbit Road sewer expansion could drop by $5,000 to $6,000 for each single-family homeowner along its path, officials estimated recently. Currently, the cost of sewer projects is divided equally by each lot of land along its path using the uniform unit approach assessed through betterment fees. The charge is determined by EQR, or an equivalency rate based on the amount of sewage produced by a single-family home, according to Selectman Don Beaulieu. Although appearing fair to single-family homes or businesses that already exist, a potential for disproportionate assessment comes when large undeveloped lots of land are assessed based on one EQR, the same rate for single-family homes, Beaulieu said. For example, Beaulieu explained, the 30-acre site off Interstate 95 behind the former Chubby's Diner would probably be assessed three EQRs for the Rabbit Road sewer expansion. But the site is proposed for a large retail shopping center in the not too distant future, which — when built — would produce more sewage flow than three EQRs, he said. With privilege fees, selectmen — acting in their roles as sewer commissioners — can pull out a percentage of the sewer expansion's total cost to be assessed by privilege fees. The selectmen could determine the maximum sewage flow the improvements on a property — like the shopping center — could bring, and calculate its sewer expansion assessment based on that potential. "The goal of using privilege fees in addition to betterment fees is to more equally assess the cost to the current and future users of the sewer system," Beaulieu said. Privilege fees might not make a big difference to homeowner betterment fees if and when sewer is expanded to already built-out residential neighborhoods. However, to the commercial and industrial zones in town, like Rabbit Road and the northern corridor of Lafayette Road where businesses could be built on undeveloped land, adding privilege fees is seen by selectmen as a way to lower the cost of sewer expansion for the single-family homeowner.
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