NAHANT — Households will pay more for essential services this year, with water, sewer and trash rates rising 3%, 4% and 6%

The Select Board recently approved these rate increases, a yearly undertaking where the board sets rates at the start of the Fiscal Year.

“We vote on our entire fee schedule annually at the beginning of the new fiscal year. So it’s around this time. We just started FY27, so there are a number of fees that have been approved, although there aren’t really any changes to most of them. It’s really water, sewer, and trash that are the major ones,” Town Administrator Alison Nieto said.

Water fees have increased 3%, and Sewer is up 4%; both are billed per usage to residents.

Nahant’s FY27 budget raises the water rate to $11.42 per 100 cubic feet and the sewer rate to $13.97 per 100 cubic feet.

Bills are issued three times a year, with the first under the new rates expected in September, and what residents pay will still depend on how much water they use.

Water and Sewer operate as enterprise funds, meaning they are supposed to fully cover the cost of the services — from Public Works staffing, which is seeing an increasing rate, to annual water and sewer assessments from regional agencies including town sewer from the Lynn Water & Sewer Commission and water from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

“Those are the big drivers of the cost increase on the water and sewer side,” Nieto said.

Trash fees saw an increase of 6%; each Nahant household is billed a flat rate three times per year. Like Water and Sewer, it operates as an enterprise fund.

The trash fee will increase to $456 per residential household and $600 per commercial property in FY27, primarily to cover the cost of the town’s household collection contract.

The increase is driven by a higher-priced one-year extension of the town’s Waste Management contract.

Other adjustments this year include small increases to police and fire detail rates, certain Town Clerk fees and storage fees at the town wharf, Nieto said.

Nieto noted the increases are not related to the failed Proposition 2 ½ operating override; rather, water, sewer and trash are funded through separate enterprise accounts, not the town’s general fund.

“These are increases each year really based on the increases in those large operating expenses. The override was for a general fund override for a tax override. Water, sewer and trash are not funded through our general funds,” she said.