Board of Commissioners            Village District of Eidelweiss                  1680 Conway Rd Box 1027                            Madison, New Hampshire 03849                                           603-367-9022

WATER SYSTEM METER COST ANALYSIS

For decades, some property owners within the Village District of Eidelweiss (VDOE) have supported the installation of water meters for every property that is connected to the district water system.  At times, this has been a contentious issue.  The intent of this official statement from the Board of Commissioners is to put this debate to rest so that a divisive issue can be put behind the district.

This official policy was crafted in July 2019 by the commissioners with guidance from Rick Skarinka of DES, Drinking Water and Groundwater Bureau, and Stacey Herbold – Program manager for Water Use, Registration and Reporting.

During the 2019 VDOE annual meeting of 2/23/19, the voters approved a total water budget of $225,755 which has been in line with the water budgets of recent years.

Of the $225,755 that was raised for the water system (does not include the new Reinach Tank because that expense is coming from taxes), all but $32,000 are fixed expenses affiliated with having a water system.  These expenses must occur regardless of the quantity of water that is actually used by any home connected to the water system and are therefore a fixed cost that must be shared equally.  The value in our water system comes from having water available in a home at any time.

Our district has approximately 470 homes connected to the system.  That means the total variable cost for water averages less than $70 per home.  For the district to put in meters to determine a “fair” way to raise $32,000 when the most any single property owner could save is less than $70 annually does not make fiscal sense.  The meter alone is hundreds of dollars per house and in some cases would be far greater than that.  These meters would need to be installed ($300+ per home), monitored, and billed.  The district would be better off spending this money on repairing water lines and other upgrades to our system than it would be in determining the “fairest” way to allocate less than $70 worth of water.

This document accepted by the Board of Commissioners on September 19, 2019. 

Adam Leiser

Kathy Koziell

Jay Buckley