Albion village raises water rates to towns by 40 cents per 1,000 gallons

File photo by Tom Rivers: The Barre water tower is pictured on Sept. 6, 2017 with a rainbow. Barre will be billed more for water from the Village of Albion beginning on June 1.

ALBION – The Village of Albion is raising the water rates charged to towns from $2.94 to $3.34 per 1,000 gallons.

That 13.6 percent increase is effective June 1.

The village directly bills the towns of Carlton, Gaines, Barre and Albion. (Most of Albion’s water however comes through Barre’s water system and Barre bills most of the Town of Albion.) Village water also goes to portions of Ridgeway and Murray, going through the Town of Albion system, with Gaines sending some village water to Murray.

The village pumps about 1.45 million gallons a day on average and the towns and prison account for about 60 percent of that usage.

The Village Board approved the rate hike on Wednesday evening, with trustee Chris Barry casting the lone no vote.

The $3.34 rate for the towns compares to a $3.39 rate charged to the water users inside the village.

The board on Wednesday also voted to increase the penalty for about 20 village water customers who have not allowed the village to put in new water meters. Those meters are put in at no cost to the water customers.

The board voted to increase the penalty by $25 per month to $65, or $195 every quarterly billing cycle.

There are about 2,000 water customers in the village and a small percentage, about 1 percent, continue to hold off on swapping out their old water meters.