The New Shoreham Water and Sewer Commissions this week approved a date for the annual Financial Meetings for both of those departments: Monday, July 6 at 4 p.m. The two commissions hope to hold the meetings at the Block Island School in order to accommodate the number of people that can gather in a public space. Each meeting will need a quorum of at least seven ratepayers in order to hold a vote.
Ratepayers will be asked to consider rate increases for both utilities. The Sewer Commission narrowly approved a 3.75 percent increase on user fees, which would result in $879,583 in revenue for the utility.
The motion to approve the user fee for the Sewer Company increase was made by Chair Pete McNerney. Since the Sewer Company is expected to increase a contribution from its reserve fund due to a decrease in revenue, McNerney wanted to reduce monies coming from the company’s reserve fund.
According to an overview provided by Assistant Finance Director Mona Helterline, the “contribution from reserves will increase over 300 percent from FY 2020 in order to fund the operating budget.” Contributions from the reserve account totaled just under $69,000 in 2020, with that
