WHATELY – The long process to merge the Water District and Water Department, which began about six years ago, is nearing completion. For some residents the biggest difficulty is still to come: the $5,000 hook-up fee.

“The town helped out people when the system was created (and) the town should still be helping out the people who are hooking up,” Selectboard Chair Jonathan Edwards said. “I think we’re a town and we’re not acting like one, sometimes.”

While prior discussions may have been contentious, at the Selectboard meeting last week Town Administrator Brian Domina proposed a remedy for the hardship of paying the fee. He told the board the town has a water agreement residents must fill out and submit to get service from the department. Domina suggested information and an application be included that residents complete, that would qualify them for an extended payment schedule.

“It would be a charge on four water bills,” Domina said. “That’s about it.”

Current Water Department customers will not receive a bill for connecting. The fee is only for customers of the water district that serves the town center area. The Whately Water District was set up in 1970. A previous water supervisor, Nicholas Jones, first proposed the consolidation of the district and department in 2016. The district now supplies a few government buildings, the Whately Inn, and 42 residences.

The stumbling block to offering a payment plan for low-income residents is a funding source. Domina explained that if residents pay a portion of their connection fee the unpaid portion will show up as a shortage in another account. That shortage must be covered in the near term with monies from somewhere else. The town will apply for covering funds next year and receive them in the following year.

“This needs a funding source for a two-year period,” Domina said. “One [source] that sticks out is ARPA (American Recovery Plan Act) money in two eligible categories, building water resources and the impacts of COVID[-19]. We would get the money back after a two-year period, but it allows folks to not have to come up with $5,000 at the end of this year.”

Edwards, concerned with the challenges facing residents, wasn’t satisfied. “I wish we could extend it to eight [payments] instead of four,” he said. “For some people it’s still a challenge to come up with a quarter. There’s no telling what those people will do if they can’t come up with the money.”

A quarter of the connection fee would be $1,250. Eight payments would be $625 each. Board members discussed the option of tapping free cash over ARPA monies to balance accounts, which would require a Town Meeting vote. Board members were lukewarm, citing the additional delay in securing funds. Selectboard member Joyce Palmer Fortune calculated how much money is involved.

“It’s something like forty people,” Palmer Fortune said. “Forty hookups times $3,750, which is what they would not have paid. That’s $150,000 out of free cash and that’s a lot. If it was three, four, five people, that’s different. That’s about $20,000.”

Selectman Fred Baron noted that it’s difficult to go to Town Meeting without a specific number to request from free cash, a figure which can’t be known until payment plan applications are received. He also countered Edwards’ suggestion that every household pay $1,250. Baron also said that homeowners who sell out before the last payment will have to close out the obligation, the same way a final water bill must be paid.

The Selectboard voted 3-0 to authorize the proposal introduced by Domina, with adjustments to eight payments of $625, with money from the American Recovery Plan Act to be used to balance accounts.