OLDTOWN — A proposed rate increased for the last privately owned toll bridge in Maryland does not have the support of a key Public Service Commission investigator.

Randy M. Allen, director of the Accounting Investigations Division at the Baltimore-based PSC, said in a Nov. 18 report regarding the Oldtown toll bridge rate increase that he does not recommend a rate change. Oldtown Toll Bridge LLC owner John F. Teter has requested the PSC to approve doubling the current rates to $1 from 50 cents for cars and private pickups; to $28 from $14 for a monthly pass for cars and private pickups; to 50 cents from 25 cents for motorcycles; and to $4 from $2 for tractors-trailers.

A public hearing is scheduled for today at 1 p.m. in the Schoolhouse Kitchen Restaurant in the former Oldtown School, 19210 Opessa St., Oldtown. A 6 p.m. public meeting is to provide the public an opportunity to comment on the proposed rate increases. Teter submitted his request for a rate increase in July for the one-lane, wooden bridge that spans the Potomac River and connects Oldtown to Green Spring, W.Va.

The bridge was built in 1937 and collects fees daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

But Allen said Oldtown Toll Bridge LLC has recovered all reported expenses in 2007 and 2008 “and realized a profit ratio of 30.5 percent and 28.8 percent in 2007 and 2008, respectively. This also equates to an approximate 50.5 percent and 35.6 percent overall return on capital,” Allen said in testimony provided to the PSC.

“Based on these results of operations, one could conclude that the rates are in need of reduction,” Allen said.

Allen said Teter has been cooperating as best he can with his division’s request for documents but “the needed information has not been provided.”

Allen said the relationship between his division and Teter “has not been adversarial. However, staff cannot attest to the reasonableness of current rate levels, let alone the requested in-creased level, without this and other necessary data and information.”

Some of the complications is due to Teter’s accounting, Allen said. Teter does not charge for his time working on the bridge “and the bridge is in need of repairs for safety reasons,” Allen said. “However, these and other cost considerations raised by (Teter) have not been adequately documented and are thus, unknown and immeasurable.”

In correspondence with his office, Allen said Teter notes the bridge owner “‘does not keep track or charge, for all the hours spent on and connected to the bridge.’”

“Yet, the proposed rates include some unknown salary amount based on 260 hours of estimated time,” Allen said. “Likewise, the proposed rates include some unknown amount for capital repairs.”

Allen said his workers are able and willing to assist Teter in obtaining and presenting the relevant expense data “that would be needed to support a properly documented request for rate relief ... At this point in time, however, information has not been provided to establish an appropriate revenue requirement.”

In a 2007 annual report on file, Teter claimed $99,228.50 in gross income and total expenses of $68,921.15 — leaving a net income of $30,307.35. In 2008, that net income dropped to $20,668.77 and revenue increased by less than $300.

The PSC has assigned the case as Case No. 9213 . More information can be obtained by logging on to www.psc.state.md.us.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.