The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
March 2015
The largest rate decision in the town's reached minutes was proposed, heard, and carried without a word of public opposition the minutes record. On 4 March 2015 the council took up Ordinance #2015-03 with a proposed wastewater rate increase stated in the meeting at 32.1 percent, funded in part by a $500,000 state grant and a $2,800,000 State Revolving Fund loan at 2.3 percent, the wastewater plant then running at 65 to 80 percent of capacity. At the public hearing on 18 March, the minutes record the consultant's comparative charts — and then, in one sentence, "There was no discussion from the public." The ordinance was read and the staggered rates set to take effect on the May 2015 and January 2016 bills. The item is carried in this section precisely because it fails the second test on the evidence: the record shows a steep increase absorbed without documented contest, and printing it as a controversy would flatter the record.