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Resident asks Stratford to release study behind 'sewer use' billing
Summary
At the Town of Stratford public forum, resident Drew Denbaum requested the study the town used to justify billing wastewater 'by resident' rather than by usage and asked the town to define the term 'negligible.' He said he had spoken to staff but had not received the study.
At a July 8 public forum for the Town of Stratford, resident Drew Denbaum said the town’s posted "sewer use" regulation appears to bill households by resident rather than metered usage and asked the town to make public the study underlying that policy.
"You bill by resident, I believe," Denbaum said, adding that the regulation and its supporting studies assert differences in usage between, for example, a two-person household and a household of five or six are "negligible." He asked officials to release the study and to explain how the town defines "negligible." He told the forum he had asked Joe Gresko for the study and was told, "I don't think so."
Denbaum said many Stratford residents reported "sticker shock" after receiving the town's new bill and that he sought the town's analysis to understand whether a usage-based charge would materially change bills for larger households.
The presiding officer did not provide an immediate substantive response at the podium and offered routine procedural thanks after the comment. No formal action or staff commitment to release the study was recorded on the transcript.
The public forum record shows Denbaum provided his address as 135 Lighthouse Avenue and limited his remarks to the three-minute public-comment allotment. Additional follow-up with town staff would be required to locate the study or any formal justification referenced in the regulation; the transcript records Denbaum’s request but does not show staff releasing a document or quantifying the claimed usage differences.
