HopNews
The Select Board will hold a public meeting to set Water and Sewer rates and receive feedback from the community on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at 6:10 p.m., at Town Hall, 18 Main Street, Hopkinton. The meeting will also be held via Zoom for residents unable to attend in person. The new Water and Sewer Rates will be effective for the period of July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024.
After review of the five-year rate plan, Town staff recommends adjusting the estimated 9.5% (FY 2024 ) to a 17.5% rate increase for Water user fees due to projected capital costs and a 5% rate reduction for Sewer user fees due to a projected substantial surplus in the Sewer Enterprise. More information on the recommended Water and Sewer Rates can be found here. The Select Board will also consider whether to offer a Water and Sewer Rate Discount for eligible residents and, if approved, the amount of the discount.
Public input on the rate-setting and discounts are welcome and encouraged. Feedback can be submitted to the Water and Sewer Manager Eric Carty via email at or by phone at (508) 497-9765, submitting feedback to the Town Manager’s Office located at 18 Main Street, Hopkinton, or by attending the public meeting.
Great that we can now pay more for poisoned water. Makes sense.
Every time hopkinton makes an expansion forward we seem to take three steps back. We can’t drink the water right now because of the Fruit Street Fields are poisoning our water supply. Our new schools are out dated and over occupied before the students step foot into the new schools on day one. Center School was allowed to rot out from within, even after making expansions and up dates over recent years. This was all done intentionally because the powers to be needed their new school(s) at any cost. When will the bleeding stop? It sickens me when I see generations of families from Hopkintion being forced out of town because they can’t afford to live here longer.
Isn’t the title misleading “Water Rate to Nearly Double” but then goes on to say “a 17.5% rate increase for FY 2024 for water use.” The title seems to say you will pay twice as much.
According to the title, it’s the increase that’s nearly doubling, not the rate itself. But I agree that it’s very easy to misread.
Hopkinton does not provide quality drinking water. I installed a filter system (5 micron filters) several years ago and I have to replace the filter every two weeks because of the amount of dirt and sediment. The filter manufacturer mentions in their brochure that this should be done every 6 months or longer. When our filter gets clogged with sediment, it reduces the water pressure to a minimum. We have had situations in the summer where I have had to change the filter every 24 hours. I am not sure how this increase in premium is justifiable. I am also unsure why the town does not require new developers to pay into a fund that can be used for the water department to upgrade the system so that all the new housing is not a strain for our water system in town.
It is worth mentioning that we had our water tested by an accredited testing company and it seems to be OK based on the current water standards; however, that does not change the fact that we are paying to drink mud. I think it’s a better Idea for the City to pay all the residents to install filter systems in the homes.
We have had whole house filter for several years. Our installation has a .35 micron pre filter which we typically change at least twice a year, primarily for the reason Marco mentioned, loss of pressure. The actual filter contains activated charcoal, which is a very effective filter used in a variety of applications. Our water, pre filter, tested 21.8 ppt for ‘PFAS’ in May, and post filter essentially 0 for ‘PFAS’.
We took advantage of the testing service offered thru HopNews, a facility independent from the manufacturer of our filter system.
Hopkinton outgrew our water supply some years ago.
AP reporting that 3M has reached a $10.3 billion settlement over contamination of water systems with ‘forever chemcals’. Like the ones found in firefighter foam. Wondering if Hopkinton would be entitled to any of the settlement and if so what effect would it have on water/sewer rates.