BY DARRELL HALEN

Water and sewer rates in Salem are going up for the second time in four months.

Selectmen approved raising the rate for water from $2.58 to $3 per 100 cubic feet, and the sewer rate from $2.60 to $3.35 per 100 cubic feet.

The new rate for sewer took place Oct. 1, while the new price for water goes into effect Oct. 24.

Selectmen had originally set the water rate effective Oct. 1, but were later advised by Town Manager Henry LaBranche that a 30-day notification period was required.

There is no notification period for sewer rates.

According to Jane Savastano, the town’s finance director, two factors responsible for the increases are an unexpected 11 percent drop in water use from last year, and the passage of two warrant articles last March to extend sewer pipes to Dawn Street and Marsh Avenue.

Bringing sewer to those streets cost more than $1.5 million. The articles were put on the town warrant by citizen petitions.

“I think the main issue here is those two projects,” Savastano said. “They were not bonded.”

In July, sewer rates were raised from $2.27 to $2.60 and water rates were raised from $2.40 to $2.58.

Commercial customers are billed monthly. Residential users are billed quarterly. Each billing is based on their previous three months consumption, so new rates apply to water that has already been consumed.

“It’s not fair what’s being done to these people,” Stephen Campbell, a Budget Committee member, complained to selectmen last month.

Because of the town’s meter reading cycles, it would require 90 days for all residential users to be billed at the same rate.

Savastano has proposed a change in procedure for the future – that selectmen set all rates annually no later than Oct. 1 and those rates go into effect on Jan. 1.