Village of Mamaroneck residents will see their water bills rise after a new law amending the fee structure was passed unanimously by the village board.
The law, which was passed by the village Board of Trustees on April 25 will go into effect immediately and will total residents’ water usage in the fall and winter—off-peak months—and devise a bill based on that amount.
According to Village Manager Richard Slingerland, the new law is designed not to charge residents for using water that doesn’t enter the sanitary sewer system, which is why water usage during the summer months—when residents water their lawns and fill their pools—will not be factored in.
Previously, all residents were charged a fee based on the value of their property.
Slingerland said there are two major changes to the first iteration of the bill, which was introduced in March: an appeal process that was included to provide residents with the opportunity to dispute their bill, and clarifications to the wording of how the fee is actually charged.
Trustee Leon Potok, a Democrat, said that the fee helps increase village revenues, which will be of assistance since the village is currently up against a tight tax cap, with the latest budget coming in at $68 under the mandated cap limit.
In March, Slingerland told the Review that the average resident can expect their bill to increase by $10 to $15 as a result of the new law. This extra revenue, he said, will go toward the relining the village’s sewer lines, which have greatly degraded over time.
A recent lawsuit pursued by Save the Sound, an environmental advocacy group, alleging that Mamaroneck and 10 other Westchester municipalities are in violation of the EPA’s Clean Water Act, has put the condition of sewer infrastructure under scrutiny.
