Chester board proposes $1 per 1,000 gallons water-rate hike for five years

Town of Chester board members discussed a plan at a Feb. 25, 2026 board meeting to raise municipal water rates by $1 per 1,000 gallons each year for five years, a measure presented to the board for consideration and debate. The meeting packet and minutes have not been released with full implementation details such as the baseline rate or an effective start date for the proposed increases.

The rate discussion comes amid recent municipal budget pressure documented in January 2025, when Town Manager Julie Hance told the board she and department heads "had worked on cutting as much as possible while maintaining the personnel and town services." The January 7, 2025 draft budget showed an increase of $262,203, "or a little more than 6 percent," over the prior year's approved budget of $3.975 million, with the board scheduled to review the draft at a Jan. 15 meeting and approve it by Jan. 17 to meet the Town Meeting Warning deadline.

Infrastructure and staffing moves are already underway that intersect with the water account. In January 2025 the town's water commissioners voted unanimously to contract for a remote cell-based meter system; Hance said she and Water Superintendent Jeff Holden "would be happy with either" of the two options discussed and urged completing the physical meter changeover while Holden remains on the job, as Holden is scheduled to retire at the end of 2025. When Holden leaves, the water and sewer departments will revert to three workers from the current four-person crew used to prepare for the succession.

A separate set of records from the Chester Water Authority outlines a longer-running, higher-stakes financial dispute with the City of Chester that predates the town's board discussion. CWA documents trace a Mayor's letter in October 2017, a March 15, 2018 standstill agreement that expired December 31, 2018, and a Jan. 24, 2019 CWA board unanimous approval of a proposed settlement that would have had CWA make a one-time $60,285,000 payment to the City financed by bonds, with customers bearing a proposed rate increase of up to 10 percent to pay the bonds.

The CWA separately announced a rate action effective Jan. 1, 2026, citing higher borrowing costs, inflation, and more than $1.7 million in unpaid bills from Crozer Hospital and the City of Chester. In its ratepayer letter the CWA warned, "We want to be upfront with you about serious challenges facing the Chester Water Authority (CWA) that could have required an emergency rate increase before the end of 2025," and added, "Please be mindful, if the City’s efforts to take over and monetize CWA eventually succeed, rates will continue to rise much more aggressively, threatening the quality, reliability, sustainability and affordability of the water our customers have enjoyed for over 80 years." The CWA said a specialty lender priced the loan at roughly twice the rate it otherwise would have qualified for and noted that over 80 percent of CWA’s customers live outside the City of Chester.

The public record shows three distinct rate-change formulations in play: the town board’s Feb. 25, 2026 $1 per 1,000-gallon-per-year-for-five-years proposal, the CWA’s 14 percent increase effective Jan. 1, 2026, and the 2019 proposed settlement that contemplated up to a 10 percent increase to cover bonds. The documents supplied do not state whether the Town of Chester’s municipal water system is the same operationally as the Chester Water Authority, leaving unresolved how or whether these different rate actions would interact for specific customers. Town meeting minutes from Feb. 25, 2026 and any accompanying rate studies will be necessary to determine who proposed the town plan, whether the board took a vote, and how an incremental $1 per 1,000-gallon change would affect residential and commercial bills.