NEWPORT, R.I. — Newport’s sewer customers face a sizable jump in what the system needs to collect next year, the city’s top utilities official told the City Council at a work session this week, and he asked councilors to move ahead with an ordinance that would create a separate stormwater fee.
No rates were set and no vote was taken. Utilities chief Robert Schultz Jr. laid out two paths for the next budget cycle. One keeps stormwater costs folded into the sewer bill. The other carves them out into their own charge based on how much hard surface, such as roofs and pavement, sits on each property. Under that second option, about $4.2 million would move into the new fee.
If the city sticks with the sewer bill alone, Schultz said the smallest increase that keeps the system stable is 15% next year. He traced that figure to roughly 4.4% for a new bond, about 5% for operating costs like electricity and staffing, and 5.5% for repairs that have been put off. Even then, he said, around $13 million in capital work would still wait. Borrowing of $20 million for wastewater plant work landed earlier than expected, which is why the department now hopes to have the utility running by July 1, 2027, a target he called aggressive.
The Department of Utilities says the stormwater fee would use the Equivalent Residential Unit method, with one unit set at 2,400 square feet of hard surface, the typical footprint of a single-family home in Newport. Money raised by the fee could not be spent on the sewer system, drinking water or the general fund. Parcels lacking any water or sewer account, which now pay nothing toward drainage, would be billed for the first time.
Schultz said about 1,000 such accounts exist in the city. He said a household that runs through roughly 3,000 gallons monthly would likely see a similar or slightly lower bill, while properties with more paved area would pay more. The draft ordinance includes a credit program for features like rain gardens and rain barrels, along with a ban on double billing. The measure requires two readings, and utility staff hope to bring it to the council at its next October meeting.
Section: More Newport RI politics news
Filed under: Newport RI Politics News
