Hawthorne Utilities is reminding their Hawthorne residential water users of the annual time period for calculating the sewer user and sewer cap on the utility bill. Hawthorne Town Ordinance 132A was adopted July 1991 to bring Mineral County in compliance with state and federal laws. It requires the collection of data to support the average of the sewer user and sewer cap fees on your utility bill. The collection period will begin the next meter reading date of Oct. 19, 2015 and continue to Feb. 19, 2016.

What this means is the sewer user and sewer cap will be based on actual water consumption during the next four months. The average water usage of these 4 months sets the basic sewer rate for the next eight months. If outside watering continues during this time, it will have an impact on your future utility bills.

Hawthorne Utilities is suggesting that you limit your outside watering starting Oct. 19 and ending Feb. 19, 2016. A more accurate and fair rate will be calculated by the conscious efforts on the part of the utility customer during this period.

New customers since last years’ collection period have been billed on a minimum estimate. After the collection period, their bill will reflect charges based on the average of actual usage.

This does not affect any business or commercial account. It only affects the residential customers within the town of Hawthorne.

During the averaging period any outside water breaks in Hawthorne needs to be reported to the Utility Office at 945-2486. The sewer cap and sewer average amounts will be manually calculated to disallow a larger impact from the water break. There is not a reduction for the water usage amounts; only the sewer amounts will be affected.