WOODSTOCK — The Vermont Public Utilities Commission has suspended a rate hike proposed by the Woodstock Aqueduct Company that would have more than doubled water payments for its some 770 customers in town.

The company is more than $1.5 million in debt, according to filings with the state regulator, and struggling to fund state-mandated repairs to its system, which provides water for residents as well as Woodstock public schools, the Woodstock Resort and Billings Farm and Museum.

The rate hike proposal included a more than 50% increase on both the customers’ “base charge” — up from $240 to about $504 per year — and their per gallon charge, which would have gone from three cents to seven. 

The company’s proposal came in the midst of conversations about its potential purchase by the Town of Woodstock. 

The commission has opened “an investigation into the justness and reasonableness” of the proposed rate hike, with a determination to be made within seven months of the May 14 decision to suspend.