LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield Center Water District (LCWD) Board of Commissioners is holding a public hearing to set the district’s 2022-23 budget and water rates for the coming year.
The hearing will be held on Monday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in the H. Joseph Maney Room at Lynnfield Town Hall.
All Lynnfield residents are welcome to attend regardless of status as a ratepayer. The hearing will be opened to public comment and questions. Interested parties also may submit their comments and questions in writing prior to the meeting.
LCWD Superintendent John Scenna said commissioners will vote on the new budget and set the rates for the coming year, which he said are likely to see a 3-to-5-percent increase. He said while LCWD is still working on finalizing the budget, the budget line is also likely to increase over last year’s figures.
“The bottom line of the budget is we are always looking at risk avoidance and are trying to make it more equitable,” Scenna said. “The increase is needed in order to pay some of the capital projects’ debt and interest, which we borrowed last July, and we are always looking at things like cost of living and supply-chain issues.”
Scenna said Raftelis Senior Manager David Fox is expected to make a presentation. Fox has been advising LCWD since the fall of 2019. According to Scenna, Fox helped LCWD put a financial model in place to try to shave peaks off rates each year.
“Gradually, what that does is avoid large increases from year to year as we had seen in previous years,” Scenna said. “Our budget now more accurately reflects the true costs of the operation so we don’t have that uncertainty.”
Scenna said the district has two basic sources of revenue; first from actual usage and also from a water-district tax, which is calculated based on real-estate assessments. In past years, approximately 80-85 percent of total revenue was raised through the water district tax.
“We flipped it so now most of our revenue comes from actual usage, so it’s much more equitable,” Scenna said. “That allows customers to control their bills based on usage, adding that customers can monitor their usage through the water smart portal. Using the portal gives control to the end user, as opposed to a tax assessment.”
Commissioners also remind the community that a Special District Meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 2, at 6:30 p.m., at the Merritt Center, 600 Market St. Voters will be asked to consider articles to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a bottled-water rebate program, the district’s ongoing construction projects, and proposed changes to the district charter.
“Both of these meetings are important and we are hoping that residents will come out and participate in both meetings to share their concerns,” Scenna said. “These are busy days for the district.”
The warrant for the special meeting can be found on LCWD’s website, https://lcwd.us/.
