Select Board approves FY26 water rate, authorizes staff study of penalty for missed readings

The Woodstock Select Board voted to set the FY26 water rate after a presentation from Finance Director Robert Desmoor, and separately authorized staff to research the legality and a reasonable structure for a penalty aimed at customers who do not cooperate with meter readings.

Desmoor told the board the water operating budget approved at town meeting was roughly $735,000 and that the rate calculation requires raising $296,269.85 to cover 0.75 of the operating budget. He summarized the metering situation: "While we have 1,006 connections, there's only 748 meters," and he said the town received more than 100 blue cards for missed readings and still had "between 80 and 90 of those blue cards" outstanding. As a result the board increased the annual minimum connection fee for this cycle from $240 to $360 and set the usage-based rate to produce the necessary revenue.

The board also voted to authorize staff to spend time investigating whether the town can legally impose a penalty on accounts that fail to return blue cards or otherwise prevent a reading, and to propose a reasonable penalty. The motion specified any change would take effect after July 1 and requested staff return with legal guidance and implementation options.

The finance office described plans to migrate to a cloud-based radio-read meter system that would allow remote reads and detect leaks more quickly. Desmoor estimated replacement of all meters would cost in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars (he gave a per-meter range of about $230–$240 and a rough total in the low hundreds of thousands to replace outstanding units), and board members discussed splitting costs across water and sewer where feasible.