Great Barrington — The Selectboard will meet on Tuesday, Aug. 6 at 5 p.m. with town counsel in executive session to discuss the Department of Public Utilities recent approval of rate increases for Housatonic Water Works.
On Wednesday, July 31, the Department of Public Utilities approved the rate increase request made by Housatonic Water Works. As proposed, HWW customer rates will be increased by over 90 percent over five years.
Town Manager Mark Pruhenski announced the executive session in a statement issued on Friday, Aug. 2.
“The town is reviewing the terms of the DPU order approving the settlement and will evaluate the options available in light of the order,” Pruhenski wrote in the statement. “It goes without saying that the Town of Great Barrington is incredibly disappointed with the decision of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to approve the settlement agreement between the Housatonic Water Works Company (the Petitioner) and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, allowing for an increase in the water service rates charged by the company. While the town understands the need for, and supports, capital improvements to the company’s aging infrastructure that will allow the company to deliver better quality water and carry out basic service responsibilities to its customers, the town has consistently urged the company to actively seek and secure alternative funding sources in order to minimize the amount of any rate increase and ease the financial burden placed on the ratepayers. The town is reviewing the terms of the DPU order approving the settlement and will evaluate the options available in light of the order.”
Right after the DPU issued their decision on the HWW rate case, Stockbridge Select Board member Patrick White emailed the following statement to The Berkshire Edge:
“I am disappointed the DPU and Attorney General neither reduced the rate of return nor mandated explicitly that the company fund improvements through publicly available financing. They put the onus on finding this funding on the taxpayers’ representatives, volunteers like me.
The 1897 Charter gives the Town of Great Barrington the right to purchase the company under favorable terms. The Town should have done so long ago to protect the health and well-being of its residents and the users of this system in the adjoining towns.
Under the Charter, the company may recoup its deficit. I would urge the Town of Great Barrington to litigate any claim of deferred compensation by the principals to protect its taxpayers from this ‘golden parachute’ that seems to have been anticipated by management.
Water is a human right. How about our local leaders finally have the backs of the residents of Housatonic, West Stockbridge, and Stockbridge and act quickly to finally put in place a plan to provide clean and safe drinking water on behalf of these long-aggrieved customers.”
