Saugus selectmen still debating water and sewer rates relating to mobile home park

SAUGUS – Residents of the mobile home park at 846 Broadway will have to wait one more week to see if they will get any relief on their shockingly high water bill.The Board of Selectmen met for the second time on the issue Wednesday but came to no resolution. At issue were water and sewer bill changes that sent some water bills, including those at the trailer park, soaring.Water bills went out in December and the owner of 846 Broadway Mobile Home Park was knocked for a loop when he saw his bill jumped from $25,000 to $103,000. And he was not alone.Collector Treasurer Wendy Hatch told Selectmen that the mobile home park and other developments that use one meter for all units saw their bills increase exponentially.The board has been meeting in an attempt to rethink the billing process to give those particular users a break.Water and sewer consultant Kathy Griffin proposed new rate structures but Selectman Michael Kelleher said those came with problems of their own.The board discussed the idea of simply dividing the water bill evenly between the 70 trailers in the park and then charging the homeowners individually depending on which usage tier they fell into.However, Kelleher said if they did that for the trailer park they would have to do it for each development that was billed the same as the mobile home park and that would lead to a loss of $200,000 within the water and sewer enterprise accounts.”We’d have to raise rates to account for that,” said selectman Stephen Castinetti. “It wouldn’t be huge, but everyone’s rates would go up.”Paul Ross of the engineering firm Camp Dresser McKee was charged with looking into the possibility of putting an individual water meter on each trailer. Selectman Stephen Castinetti said while the survey was conducted, the cost estimates for metering each home was not available because Ross couldn’t make the meeting.”I think we’ll get this resolved next week,” he added.Kelleher said he, too, thought it would be resolved, but it might not go down without a fight. He said he still would like to see the families in the mobile home park cut some slack on the exorbitant bills, but not everyone agrees.”I’m just saying this is a unique situation,” he said. “It’s not their doing, it’s ours. We need to do something for the homeowners and I think that will be a pretty tough battle.”Town Manager Andrew Bisignani admitted it would be a fight because he sees no grounds for an abatement.”On what grounds would he abate?” he asked. “If the town takes responsibility – why? There is no easy way out of this.”