DIXFIELD — A public hearing on raising the sewer rate this year from $70 to $93 per quarter is set for 5:30 p.m. Monday, the first step in possibly erasing an estimated $1 million deficit that’s been building since 2011.

The meeting will be held downstairs at the Ludden Library.

Town Manager Alicia Conn said the Select Board agrees with town auditor Ron Smith’s recommendation to raise the rate for the 551 users of the system.

“The sewer rate today is what it should have been back in 2011,” he told selectmen at their Nov. 28 meeting. “Through the last 10 years, there was some debt that was incurred, and some projects that were proposed to upgrade and maintain your wastewater that got deferred.”

He continued, “With all that considered, you went from a break-even point to almost a $900,000 deficit” in 2021. “There is no money to upgrade the system, you’re using monies from water rates to leverage wastewater, and money is owed to the town — none of which improved over the last 10 years.”

Smith said, “We need to do something now because we expect that deficit to grow to over a million bucks this year. Our hole’s getting deeper, and it’s getting deeper at the sacrifice of your other utility department. Whatever the math is, start now. Even doing it over the next three years still, you’ve got to start someplace.”

Selectman Norman Mitchell asked about the financial impact.

“Seventy dollars up to $140 (per quarter) over the next three years,” Smith said. The town could add a fourth year increase which would likely be around $150 per quarter at the end of four years, he said.

Somewhere during year two, he said, “You’re going to start to see that million dollar deficit go down, and every year after that . . . This has been 15 to 20 years in the making, and for 10 years we’ve been talking about it.”

“It’s not going to be a popular thing, but it’s got to be done,” Selectman Peter Holman said.

Fire Chief Scott Dennett asked Smith, “So if you do that over a four-year period, at the end of four years, are you at a point where revenues are going to start allowing for accumulation of capital for future maintenance?”

“I think in year two or three, you’ll start seeing that,” Smith said.

On July 25, 2022, voters authorized using up to $536,620 in grant money to renovate the 42-year-old waste pump station on Hall Hill Road. The station pumps waste to the Rumford treatment plant on the River Road in Mexico.

Conn said very little maintenance has been done on the station, which was designed to last 20 years. Most of the equipment is original and finding parts is difficult.

On Dec. 23, Congressman Jared Golden announced he has secured $514,400 in federal funds for the station upgrade.