The North County Water District’s board met last week at Dunkirk Town Hall.

The North County Water District won’t raise its rates, after all. Dan Pacos, who chairs the district’s board, made the announcement at the group’s October session.

The board signed off on a 40-cent rate hike in the next budget, at its September meeting. However, the Chautauqua County Legislature had to approve the budget.

After Pacos and Kathy Tampio, the legislature’s clerk and financial analyst, met recently with the legislature’s Public Service Committee, “they agreed with us that we don’t need to raise our rate,” he said.

The rate hike was proposed to get the water district closer to a break-even point. It has consistently run in the red since it was enacted, mainly due to start-up costs.

According to Pacos, the district will now seek to increase revenue not through increased rates, but through tighter billing of existing accounts, including an effort to cut down on unmetered water.

The district reportedly had a $26,000 loss for September but is lagging in billing for the month, so expects to catch up.

Pacos commented on the rates, “When they were originally priced, it was based on volumes we never hit.” He specifically noted that expected water consumption by Athenex was factored in.

He added, “Basically, our residential customers are picking up the unmetered water from the industrial districts.”

The district will be checking its meters to see if some need replacement due to age. Pacos said water meters generally have a 20-year life expectancy but many in the district are far older than 20 years. He noted that bad meter readings negatively affect revenue.

He’s hoping for a high-tech system that would allow remote reads. “My hope is we can read them from the office without sending someone out,” he said.