LIMESTONE, Maine – Despite recent complaints, the authority in charge of the former Loring Air Force Base is arguing that their proposed hike in water rates is necessary to maintain an aging water system.
In October, multiple residents and business owners said that they cannot afford such a sharp increase to their quarterly water bills, even with the 50-percent subsidy that the Maine Public Utilities Commission approved alongside the new rates. For instance, one resident said that her bill would jump from $132.80 per quarter to $855 per quarter, each of which covers three months.
Less than a month later, 10 residents and business owners filed a complaint to the Maine PUC about the rates, and also alleged that the authority did not properly notify them of the proposed rates or opportunities to comment.
In a response filed with the Maine PUC Friday, Loring Development Authority President and CEO Jonthan Judkins said that officials learned in 2023 that Loring Commerce Center’s water system was not being regulated under the PUC and had not increased rates since 2016.
The authority agreed to evaluate the water system in part because the current rate structure was “significantly underfunded and insufficient to support operational expenses,” Judkins said.
Total operational expenses plus debt service for 2025 are estimated to be $990,200, but under the prior rate system, the highest quarterly bill a customer could pay was $522.50 for using 50,000 cubic feet of water plus a little less than 2 cents per cubic foot, according to the authority’s proposed rate structure to the Maine PUC, filed in September.
The authority’s water system is now operated and maintained in partnership with Maine Rural Water Association, which has placed several staff members on the Loring campus, Judkins said at an authority board meeting Thursday.
Loring and Maine Rural Water came up with a rate system that they knew would affect customers but ultimately was necessary, Judkins noted. He asked in his letter to the Maine PUC Friday that the commission not change the rates, which went into effect Oct. 1 and will first appear on January’s bills.
“The setting of rates that will cover costs and facilitate improvement in operations and facilities was long overdue,” Judkins said.
Judkins also said that the authority’s board of directors has been discussing a potential overhaul in water rates regularly since their March 2024 meeting and other meetings also included officials from Maine Rural Water, according to meeting minutes from May, June, July, August, September and October 2024.
Although the authority held a public meeting on Sept. 25 to discuss the proposed rates, no customers attended, Judkins said, and multiple attempts to reach out to customers prior to that were unsuccessful.
If the Maine PUC later finds that the authority has taken “adequate steps to remove the cause of the complaint” or that the complaint is without merit, the PUC can dismiss the complaint. If they do not dismiss the complaint, the PUC would proceed with a more formal investigation, wrote PUC officials in their letter acknowledging the 10-person complaint about Loring earlier this month.
