A special meeting was held on Tuesday night at town hall to start the proceedings to bring relief to 1,493 house-holds who fall under the new and poorly planned water rates. The newly formed committee is comprised of five members of the board of selectmen and four members of town meeting.

Present at the meeting from the board of selectmen were Chairman Donald Wong, who had to abstain from the meeting under the advice of town council John Vasapoli, Vice Chairman Steve Castinetti who chaired the meeting, Selectman Mike Kelleher, Selectman Peter Rossetti, Jr., and Selectman Steve Horlick. Representing town meeting was Steve Sweezey, Joe Attubato, Sean Maltais, Jeff Moses, and Jim Smith.

The meeting got underway with background information on why the water and sewer rates were changed and what the committee could do to help the affected residents. This summation was deliver-ed by Mike Kelleher and after explaining how and why the water rates were changed, he also hoped that the committee could find a permanent solution to any rate changes.

A large crowd of over 40 residents from the Route One Mobile Park, who have been some of the hardest hit in Saugus with as much as 200% rate increases in water and sewage bills, asked committee members why the in-crease was so large? They voiced their concerns as to why they were singled out with such insurmountable water bills.

Selectmen Rossetti ex-plained to the audience that every year the water and sewage rates the town of Saugus pays the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), the agency that provides whole water and sewage to the greater Boston area, were going up and the present water rate structure was not providing enough funds for the town to meet its obligation.

Lt. Sweezey of town meeting explained that the enterprise account which held the funds for such things as payments to the MWRA were continuously underfunded and had to be fixed. Town meeting hired a rate consultant and gave town meeting different rate structures as a guideline to follow. After reviewing these different rate structures, the new water rates were instituted with the low end water users received a $20 cut in their usage and the high end users were given a $20 increase. Usage was determined by household water meters.

Last year, new and more accurate water meters were installed in Saugus. The problems started when mo-bile parks, apartment buildings and condominium units that were under one water meter were using large amounts of water for all the combined mobile homes and apartments which brought these residents under the high-end user rates.

The new rates, combined with the more accurate water meters have created a windfall estimated at between $200,000 and $1 million in projected water rate fees.

Town meeting member Joe Attubato cautioned committee members that any decrease in water rates this far into the fiscal year could seriously jeopardize present and future water and sewage projects in town.

Selectman Mike Kelleher asked the committee why was any of the projected increase in revenue being earmarked for any project and maybe the town should hold off on these projects until the mess is straightened out.

“There have been over 40 water main breaks this past winter and to think this problem will not happen again is not thinking clearly,” said Town Meeting member Joe Attubato. “Part of the surplus would go to fixing these water breaks and other maintenance needed on our water system.”

Acting Committee Chairman Steve Castinetti allowed questions from residents and ran the meeting smoothly and professionally. “We as a committee need to take swift and appropriate action to help the residents out of this mess,” he said. “These water rates were not thought-out clearly enough. These residents are in need of relief now and we will do what we can to assure this.”

“We need to give some of this money back to our residents so they can use it to buy food and other essentials,” said committee member Selectman Steve Horlick. “This was a poor-conceived plan and we need to fix it now.”

Committee member Mike Kelleher said, “This water rate problem is the town’s problem and we need to do something now. It’s not the taxpayers’ problem, it’s ours and hopefully we can bring relief to who ever is affected.”

A motion to ask the town manager how much is in the enterprise account from the recent billing cycle of money’s collected from water rates and how much will still be needed to offset the drop in water rates if town meeting reverses its decision and returns to old water rates.

At next Tuesday’s board of selectmen meeting, the board will send and article to town meeting asking to return previous water rates so as to allow relief to the residents of the Route One Mobile Park and the other 1,493 units affected by the increase. One thing is for certain, this issue is far from over. It’s up to town meeting now.