Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian testifies last night, telling the Public Utilities Commission that people are already overburdened by dramatic increases in the cost of living.

The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

WARWICK — At a hearing last night before the Public Utilities Commission, nine people testified against the Kent County Water Authority’s request for a 35 percent rate increase. Parts of North Kingstown are in the area served by the agency.

The Water Authority is asking permission to bump up its annual revenues by $5.2 million in an effort to make up for the loss of customers and higher operating costs and to meet government mandates. About $1.2 million of that sum would be earmarked for equipment maintenance by state mandate. The agency would use $1 million to pay off bonds issued in recent years for long-term projects. Those additional costs come coupled with higher utility and gas costs.

“I’m asking you to review the request and deny the increase,” said Coventry resident Robert Lawrence. “They want to raise a lot of money fast, but nowhere do they show a plan on how to save money. They just want to spend money.”

Last month, the City of Warwick was designated an intervener in the rate case, which gives it legal standing in fact-finding and testimony. The bulk of Warwick’s residents are served by a city water agency; the Kent County Water Authority serves 20 percent of the residents.

Mayor Scott Avedisian told the PUC last night that granting the request would have that 20 percent paying more than those served the city agency.

“In addition to the question of fairness, I am also concerned about the amount of the proposed increase itself,” Avedisian said. “In a time when all of our citizens, particularly the poor and middle class residents, are being pinched a little harder every day by increasing costs of living, a rate increase of 35 percent is untenable and unconscionable.”

Warwick resident Alfred Ferruolo Jr. agreed.

“I’m an empty nester,” said Ferrulolo. “I’m paying already $600 a year for two people. What’s a family of four or six paying? What are the elderly who can’t afford their mortgage paying?”

The comments did not fall upon deaf ears, said PUC Chairman Elia Germani.

“It’s very difficult to hear people who are struggling to make ends meet express their opinions on the rate increase,” said Germani. “But the fact of the matter is we must make our decision based upon the evidence presented.”

The PUC is charged with a specific duty, Germani said: to serve as an economic regulator looking at financial evidence, and taking other things into account, but not hanging the case on emotion.

“I have to be unfeeling,” Germani said after the hearing. “This is probably one of the most difficult days of my life. It’s very frustrating because so many things are beyond their control.”

The hearing lasted less than an hour, but it capped a long day for members of the commission. Earlier in the day, they approved a 21.7-percent rate increase for National Grid electricity customers, and an 8-percent hike for its natural gas customers. Those increases go into effect July 15 and will cost the average customer with a gas-heated home almost $30 more a month.

The Kent County Water Authority submitted two alternative rate requests: a flat 35 percent increase, and a seasonal fluctuating rate that would rise in the summer and be slightly lower in the winter. The average customer would pay $156.44 more yearly — an additional $13 per month — regardless of how the increase, if approved, would be calculated.

Deciding on a rate increase normally takes about seven months to complete, according to Thomas F. Kogut, spokesman for the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers. The Water Authority filed its request in April. While this was the scheduled opportunity for residents to voice their concerns, there are other ways, Kogut said, for customers to have their voices heard.

Already a large number of e-mails and letters from customers opposing the hike have become a part of the case docket, Kogut said. Customers can continue to send their comments to the PUC and ask that it be made part of the record, he said.

The commission may also reopen the floor for public comment when an evidentiary hearing is held on Sept. 24.

tbuford@projo.com