The Town of Sheridan is holding a special meeting at 6 p.m. on June 19 at the Senior Center to discuss and potentially vote on a 20% raise in both water and sewer rates. The proposed hikes will be the first since 2018 for water and 2011 for wastewater and will keep the Town of Sheridan in compliance with MCA 75-6-326 and MCA 7-13-4307 which require that municipal water and sewer programs charge fees adequate to maintain their solvency, according to mayor Bob Stump. 

The Town Council voted to hold the special meeting at their regular May meeting after hearing testimony from concerned residents regarding the rate increase. A common theme at the meeting was the concern that increased funds generated by the increases will be used irresponsibly in the general fund which Stump says is not allowed according to state law. 

“Water and Wastewater money goes into the water and wastewater fund,” Stump assured. “It can be used for anything that pertains to water and wastewater. This includes payroll, materials/supplies, computer software, insurance, postage, phone, utilities, fuel, financial items (audit, AFR), education, depreciation, loan payments, improvements to the system, reserves, etc.”

The council also heard concerns about the amount of the increase to which the mayor pointed out that the 20% is less than an annually adjusted 3% increase that would have kept the systems up with the cost of inflation over the period of time since the last increase occurred.  

An assertion was made in the audience at the May council meeting that Sheridan’s water and sewer rates were among the highest in the state. A claim that Stump says according to his research of a Department of Natural Resources study does not appear to be true. Stump indicated a significant number of municipalities in the document with higher rates than the new proposed rate for the Town of Sheridan. 

According to Stump the rates have not been reviewed by the current town council and he is not aware of the last time the rates were reviewed. The potential impacts of the increase were required to be mailed to customers prior to the June 19 meeting and the entire water and sewer rate increase package is available for the public to view at Sheridan Town Hall. 

To continue seeing updates for this please subscribe to The Madisonian. Happy Reading!