New Britain herald., 1928-02-01
HATCH CON7RADICTS
 BOARD OF FINANCE
Declares His Policy of Increasing Rates Is
 Sound

1 New Britain people are not paying enough for their water, according to w. l.. Hatch. chairman of the board of water comm ssioners, who spoke at the Kiwanis club luncheon today. He said there are between 1900 and 1900 property owners who are paying as low as $5 a year for water Five dollars" he said, Twill not pay the pro rata rate for over head and meter maintenance, and those who do not pay more than this are getting their water for nothing" {" He opened his address by explain ing that water was the most import ant element taken into the body and that people can more easily do with out food.
 He explained how the board of health analyses samples of New Brit ain drinking water every day to help guard against possible contamina- tion.
 MT. Hatch went into considerable detail explaining the need for the proposed extension of the New Brit ain water system. which will cost between two and three million dol lars. including Altering pant, the construction of which will cover a period of 10 to Is years.
 He told how the board by a ser lcs of investigations, located ex- pensive leaks in the water system | places in the city which do not pay adequately for the water they use. His talk in part, was as follows: The rate paid by domestic con- sumers in this city is much lower than in most cities of the country: less than one half the average, and several thousand consumers actually pay much less than they did 20 years ago, before meters were in stalled and when the rate was based o.i the fixtures and number of per sons in the house. The water board believes that the system of charges should be revised and made more equitable. We believe that the small consumer should pay a charge reasonable as compared with the cost of service, although the amount Of water used by these thousands of separate consumers is relatively a small part of the total output. Pipes, services, and meters also have to be maintained for them, and they should bear fair proportion of the total cost of supporting the system and overhead expenses. This in- cludes interest on meters, meter reading, operating expenses. includ- ing repairs. office expenses and costs of billing and collections. It should also include the average amount of water lost per service or failing to be recorded by meters. The easiest, simplest. and by all means the fair est way of handling gil of this part of the cost is 10 distribute it on the services as service charges. AS be- i tween the large meters and the small meters. it should be distributed somewhat in proportion to the car rying capacity of the meters. so that the large meters will carry a pro- portionately larger amount
 The service charge is a charge for the privilege of having a service and does not include the use of any water. It is device for separat- ing some of the expenses of main taining the individual service which has nothing to do with the delivery of water. and of charging them to each customer as separate item in his bill. This amount Is collected regardless of whether any water is used or not. If water is used, it is charged for.