BENNINGTON — Sewer rates will rise while water rates will remain unchanged under the budget and rate plan approved this week by the Select Board for fiscal year 2022, beginning in July.
The board also agreed to amend Bennington’s animal control ordinance to clarify sections pertaining to vicious or nuisance pet complaints and hearings before the Select Board.
The board approved water and sewer budgets Monday that were the subject of a board work session June 23 involving town office and department officials.
Town Manager Stuart Hurd said the sewer rate will be 10.5 percent higher, while the water budget will not require a rate increase under the proposal.
Chairwoman Jeannie Jenkins said the sewer rate hike is the second of four expected annual increases to deal with depreciation at the wastewater plant in anticipation of regular maintenance and replacement of equipment.
The board previously agreed to a plan to raise the rates temporarily for a few years in light of past postponement of regular maintenance that was said to cost the town more when problems because acute.
The amount to be raised through sewer rate payments is $2.7 million, up from $2,685,319 for the current year.
The amount to be raised for the water system is $3,107,584, the same as the current budget year.
ANIMAL ORDINANCE
The board approved an amendment to the animal control ordinance that was requested by officials after a vicious dog complaint in 2019, which resulted in a hearing before the Select Board.
In that case, the board rejected the option of euthanizing the dog but ordered that it be restrained, both on and off the owner’s property.
Afterward, then-Chairman Donald Campbell said the discussion caused the board to realize “we need to do some work to clarify exactly what our nuisance animal ordinance means.”
Jenkins said Monday that the board “found we needed more guidance from this ordinance.”
Board member Bruce Lee-Clark was designated to take the lead in considering revisions to the ordinance.
He said this week that the proposed revisions – included on pages 27-33 in the Select Board’s current meeting packet — was worked out with town counsel Robert Woolmington and after a review of relative municipal or state ordinances or statutes.
The amendment includes “four levels of response” that the town could pursue when receiving a complaint, and it “clarifies the procedures for a hearing,” Lee-Clark said.
The process involves a possible taking of someone’s property at a minimum and due process must be allowed for both the owner and those complaining about the animal, Lee-Clark said.
Another change, suggested by Woolmington, was to include citations or references to the Vermont statutes involved on such topics as dangerous pets, feral animals, rabies and wolf hybrids.
Hurd said the ordinance as revised will be posted within 14 days and comments will be accepted from the public.
There is also a 60-day period in which a petition drive seeking a town vote on the issue may be filed, Hurd said.
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