County holding public meeting to discuss water and wastewater rates
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With water and wastewater rates changing in the county, Oxford is giving its residents the chance to speak up.
Oxford County will be holding a public consultation meeting in the council chambers of the county’s administrative building on Wednesday for the new water and wastewater rates that have been proposed and will go into effect next year.
Last month county council were presented with a four year plan for Oxford’s water and wastewater rates.
In addition to the public meeting, the county will also be holding a meeting for area municipalities, local chambers and local industries, who are larger water users.
Director of public works Rob Walton said the rate change is more inflational.
“Some of the people in the township’s, when they get their water meters installed in early 2017, will see water rate decreases,” he said. “The revenue increases that we’re estimating on some of the systems are more inflational, like one, two or three per cent. Not like some of the ones we’ve had in the past where they’ve been 15 per cent increases.
“I’m hoping that generates less concerns than we’ve seen,” Walton added.
Walton said that the county has done projection for low water users, average water users and high water users instead of the typical cubic meter measurements.
“Every household is different,” he said. “This will give them more of an idea, if they are a higher water user what this will mean for their rates and if they’re on the low end of the scale what this will mean for their rates.”
With the switch to having the full county under a metered system, Walton said the one inquiry they always get is about leaky plumbing.
“A running toilet can be an immense amount of water in a month,” he said. “Those people then do pay attention to that, because once they get that bill and all of a sudden it’s gone up, sometime two, three or four times, that does catch their attention… It’s interesting what your perceived water use is and what your actual use is.”
Following this public consultation meeting, Walton said they will be returning to council early next year with a finalized proposal.
The public meeting will take place in the council chambers at the Oxford County administrative building from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The proposed rates for the municipal water and wastewater systems can be found online at www.oxfordcounty.ca/speakup.
Public Meeting
Wednesday Nov. 30
Oxford County Administrative Building
21 Reeve Street, Woodstock
6 p.m. to 7 p.m.