Mattabassett Budget Increases for 2016
By Robin Vinci | Editor at March 3, 2024 | 6:00 pm | Print
Art Simonian, executive director of the Mattabassett District recently spoke to Council members explaining to them the 2016-17 district budget as well as the impact of Middletown joining the district.
“I started in June at Mattabassett and felt it was important to come to the town and talk about the funds,” said Simonian.
When Middletown became a member, it paid $13 million in admission fees. Middletown is in the process of building a pump station and will come on board by 2019.
According to Simonian those fees will help offset the assessment to each town for the next 19 years for the clean water fund.
New Britain will get $8.4 million, Berlin $2.2 million, Cromwell will get $1.33 million and the district will get $1.067 million.
Aboou $3 million was paid early to the clean water fund to lower interest.
The new budget for the district is expected to increase 3.8 percent or $285,000.
“Most is electricity, salaries, health insurance and retirement benefits,” said Simonian. “There are also some line item reductions.”
Capitol improvements rose about $500,000 for pumps and equipment upgrades.
Based on current flows, New Britain would see a drop in allocation from 61 percent to 49 percent when Middletown comes on board
New Britain pays based on reserve capacity of the plant which is based on a five year average flow.
“Once Middletown comes on board it will have a positive impact on other towns,” said Simonian. “Mattabassett is the third largest plant in Connecticut. It handle 6.6 billion gallons of flow a year.”
“I’m in my 7th year on the council and this is first time the executive director from Mattabassett has come to town. In that time, I have seen our Mattabassett budget expand and increase,” said Alderman Carlo Carlozzi. “Sixty-one percent of the budget is charged to New Britain. With all the improvements we have been doing. less and less water is going to Mattabasett yet our costs are going up. We were around the $2 million mark when I was first elected and it has almost tripled. we are using less and less services, but our budget keeps going up. It boggles my mind that they don’t jive.”
Carlozzi added that he is hoping those numbers will change when Middletown comes on board, but doesn’t like the way Middletown’s inclusion played out.
“We lost seats on the board (when Middletown joined). We have 61 percent of the budget, but less than half the seats on the board,” said Carlozzi. “We had to take in order to get Middletown. We now have only 5 seats.”
