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The Raynham Channel
Sewer, Budgets, and Building Plans
(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)
A small board room can hold a lot of pressure when growth, aging pipes, and big regional upgrades collide. We walk through what it takes to keep a town’s sewer system reliable: clearing easements before the rains, swapping the right parts at a temperamental pump station, and relining manholes to fight infiltration that quietly robs capacity. It’s not glamorous, but it’s the difference between steady service and costly emergencies—and the groundwork for smarter budgets down the line.
The conversation turns to a proposed retreat-lot subdivision in Taunton seeking to tie into Raynham’s system. The ask sounds simple—two private eight-inch trunks, ten homes—but the implications are not. We lay out terms that protect local ratepayers and contractual limits: the lines remain private under an HOA, we retain inspection access, full testing is required, and, critically, Taunton must provide certified flow credits so our capped allocation isn’t silently consumed. This is where policy meets engineering: gravity where it works, pumps where it doesn’t, and a clear paper trail to keep responsibility and costs where they belong.
On the financial side, we sharpen three special town meeting articles to put real money behind maintenance and the coming storm. More funding for epoxy relining reduces I&I risk; a larger stabilization deposit earns interest and buffers rates; and a targeted set-aside readies us for Raynham’s share of the City of Taunton’s treatment plant and pump station upgrades. We unpack the math, the timelines, and how “found money” from hookups and developer fees can strengthen the reserve position without jolting users. The theme is simple: prepare early, document clearly, and let growth connect when it truly pays its way.
If you value straight talk about infrastructure, financing, and growth decisions that actually hold up, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a neighbor who follows local planning, and leave a review with your take on the Prospect Hill tie-in—approve, deny, or approve with conditions?
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Copyright RAYCAM INC. 2025
Uh I open the meeting of our regular monthly uh meeting for the Board of Super Commissioners at six PM on uh this lovely day of October ninth. Uh first item uh for operation anyways is approval the minutes of our nine-eleven meeting. Uh I hope our commit my fellow commissioners have had a chance to read the minutes. And if anybody has a comment or adjustment that we need to make.
SPEAKER_02:Looks good to me. I'll I'll uh move that motion. So good, I'll second that motion.
SPEAKER_03:Uh Mr. Bickle moved it, and Mr. Jeff Kelleher seconded it. Any further discussion? Being none, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. 3-0. Correspondent. We have no correspondence. And we don't like that cell phone letter for next month. Okay. Superintendent's report.
SPEAKER_05:Thanks, Rob. Do lots of pictures for you. I excellent. No how you like it. That's it. Last words.
SPEAKER_00:Superintendent's report for October 9th, 2025, under Department of Operations. We have had four connections to the sewer system since our last meeting. The problem we were having at the market basket pump station that I reported to you last month seems to have been resolved. It did take some time to correct the problem due to the original part received from Governor Rupp was the incorrect part. So we have to reorder and uh and wait for that new one to come in. Anyway, so the new suction spool piece has been uh in place for two weeks now. Uh we did have one call from the pump station since that change out, but we are hopeful that it was just a fluke incident. It hasn't called since, and I'm sure now that I said that it'll be calling tonight. But um the guys uh continue to uh with easement clearing uh earlier this week. They were out uh doing the second round of cutting for the year. Uh typically um during this cutting they concentrate on trimming back any of the overgrowth, meaning any like the the trees and the pine trees, especially growing on the easement, so they'll go with the spot and cut the branches as well as the the uh easement itself. Um so they concentrated on the easements that are typically wet earlier in the week to try and beat the rain and get through them. You see some pictures there, they're not the best pictures, but uh the one on the left, I believe that's a 10-week road easement. Um, not the wettest one that we have, but it it once you get in there it does get wet. But you can see the the before and after, uh, the left picture in the middle picture looks a lot better once they're cut. Uh the right picture there, um that was uh again them trimming any of the overhang coming down. And if it's a bigger branch, they'll just kick it off to the side. If not, they can run it over with that brush hog and it'll it'll chew that stuff right up. Uh, one other thing that's come up as the Diabollo pumping station, the ridge vent is starting to deteriorate, so I'm gonna be looking to replace the ridge venting and uh actually some fascia boards over there. So hopefully I'll have that done by uh by the next meeting. Uh, sewer user billing, just a reminder to those residents connected to the sewer system, sewer bills have gone out and uh do on Monday, October 20th, 2025, so about a week and a half. Route 44 uh punk control project, uh nothing really to report on that. The contractors still continuing to work with uh time bonus middles and uh programming questions for the for the uh controller and all that. So we're still working through that. The uh Pine Street subdivision, um, formerly known as Layler Estates, they're now calling it East Pine and West Pine. Um West Pine is what was Layler Estates, East Pine is uh gonna be the work's gonna be starting on that shortly, probably uh next month. They may start putting sewer main within that development. Uh, anyways, on the um mandual gauge testing on the remaining sewer main farther project was completed this past Wednesday. Uh, this was the portion of sewer main installed at the end of Pine Street, along with uh one remaining section leading into the subdivision on uh what's labeled as Spruce Street. So that picture below is I don't think you've ever seen what the mandrel looks like. It's basically just a metal cage, and uh it's basically uh 5% smaller than the interior size of the pipe. And what that does is while they're pulling that through, if that pipe has had a has been crushed or anything, a rock shell on the on the uh sewer pipe and and has collapsed it, that gauge will get stuck, and they'll know they gotta dig that up or repair that section. But uh everything went through fine. Uh you'll notice that's a four-way invert. That's uh the main line running through straight is the Pine Street main, and the one on the top is the west side, and the one on the bottom is the east side of Pine. Confined space uh training, the confined space training uh from Apollo Safety went on as scheduled on Wednesday, uh September 24th. Employees of the Center Water District were also in attendance. Um, tripod and harness demonstration for entering a sewer manhole was also performed out back. I was hoping to get a picture of that, but the guys were all wrapped up with it before I got out there. Uh I did get a picture of them in the classroom here. We do have a screen that comes down and they were able to put the class on there. Uh special town meeting. Uh, we have a special town meeting and has been set for November 17th, 2025. Article requests have to be in tomorrow, that being Friday, October 10th. And I do have a few draft articles to discuss with you guys later on in the agenda. Uh, Broadway Crossing 40B project. Last week I had attended a meeting with the developer and contractor who will be installing the sewer and water infrastructure. The developer is looking to possibly get the sewer service onto the property before Mastlock closes down road opening projects for the winter. The developer will need to apply for a road opening permit through the state before that can get accomplished. That window is closing. Typically, they close that work down November 15th. Um, although last year I think they did allow the gas company to work through the whole winter. We had somewhat of a mild winter front, but of course, that was their own project kind of going on. So whether or not they'll let's let this project do that, uh, time will tell. Uh, riverfront, uh, rein in 40B. Um that is uh the development across from Lockwood on 44. This development is currently going through the hearing process with mass housing. Uh there was originally a hearing to occur this past Monday in which I was supposed to testify uh relating to the sewer infrastructure and the limits of RIMA with Taunton. Um that meeting did postpone due to the stenographer being unable to attend. Thank you. Um highway department projects. Uh, sidewalk work is to start next week on Mill Street, uh estimated to take about two and a half weeks. Uh the road will be closed during the construction portion, so during the day they'll be closing it while the contract is working and then opening up uh later that that evening. Uh paving is it's estimated to occur uh the last week of October first week. What's that? Halloween. Yep. Um we do have one sewer manhole which remains to be brought up to grade over there. Once that is accomplished, we plan on um cleaning the sewer main with a back to truck, sewer main and manholes. Uh so we're gonna go down there and clean that up. The paving work on Elm Street East was also accomplished with manholes on the project, also needing replacing or adjusting. After we get them on Mill Street with the back, we're gonna go over to Elm Street and clean that line. You can see the uh the um frames and structures, then the sewer frames and structures being brought up to grade. Um as you know, that was CN Court Mario was doing that, Joe. Um probably may remember him. I mentioned him once in a while. He was seven. What's that? He did sixes, he did the phase sixes, yeah. Seven was CJP. Yeah. Um South Street East Old Colony bridge replacement. This bridge has now been reopened, as you probably know, although um yeah, it is on a temporary basis. Expected bidding scheduled for the total bridge replacement uh will possibly be early next summer. Uh closure of the bridge once again next fall for construction work to begin, and they're estimating the closure time of possibly three years during the construction. That's all I got for you.
SPEAKER_03:Well, thank you. Any questions for the superintendent?
SPEAKER_02:No, thank you, Ralph.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, new business. Um, yes, we have special town meeting articles. I would ask the board to to uh table that for now until we hear the prospect hill project and then bring that back up. Okay, so we're talking to Prospect Hill Street.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, you're right. All right, thank you. Retreat lot subdivision, all right.
SPEAKER_01:Uh well again, folks. My name is Scott Barrier from Homegrown Engineering. Hi Scott, thank you for taking the time. And I'll try to flip this around so you can see it and the camera can catch a little bit of it as well. Uh but project I'm working on at the uh kind of at the end of Prospect Hill Street. It's 10 newly created lots situated in Taunton. As you folks know, uh the sewer system on Prospect Hill Street is owned by the town of Brainham. So uh I came and met with your uh your superintendent a couple weeks ago just uh to see what the process would be and the uh the likelihood of being able to tie these ten lots in into your uh into your system. So uh the green line that I've got shown on the plan is your existing sewer system. The pump station is right about in this location here. So the green line uh is the existing sewer, the blue line is the uh the beginning of the outline of my project, and I would hope to run uh to run two trunk lines, two eight-inch lines down down the property. This line would serve uh these six houses, this line here would serve these three houses, and then you guys, uh you folks left an existing stub for the uh existing house at 302 Prospect Hill Street, so we're tie that in. So it would be uh two trunk lines, eight-inch trunk lines tying into sewer manholes that already exist out on Prospect Hill Street. Uh so that's what we're hoping to do. You know, we know there's uh you know a whole set of guidelines and regulations that you folks have that we'd have to comply with. What's the size of the pipe on Prospect Hill? Eight inch. Okay. And uh when I met with the superintendent, just you know, one quick thing he had. I I had my proposed line at half percent, he suggested to make it one percent. So uh that line right there would be one percent. The property does drop off significantly, so these houses in the back wouldn't be able to gravity feed in, we'd have to uh have an environmental one or something similar to that to pump it uh to that last manhole to be able to tie those lots in.
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh I usually uh put the blame on our superintendent if something gets screwed up. So if he doesn't recommend it, you know, we don't have to worry. But uh he's the one who uh tells you how many nuts and bolts and what you need uh for it, and uh he knows what uh we are uh curtailed by, you know, our capacity with the city of Taunton. And uh I've been working on that for three or four years, and they can't seem to even sit down and talk about it. But um that's neither here nor there. Um I have absolutely no opinion, either for or against. I'm not against the project, I'm not necessarily for the project, as long as the superintendent has protected grain hair. Sure.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, yeah, I think that was one thing we we did discuss the the line would be uh would be private, you folks wouldn't have any any ownership in the line, it would be maintained by homeowners association. You would have an easement over it just to get into it if you know if you needed to, but it would be privately maintained uh by the homeowners association.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know if we would need an easement, would we? Uh if it's we would not need an easement, no.
SPEAKER_00:That's it's gonna be private. So we would not the only thing I I've drawn up a few things that I'd be asking for. Uh one would be to have the ability to or the right to go in and open the manholes in from time to time just to make sure there's no problems with it, no infiltration or inflow. Uh that would be the only concern we would have. Um if we find a problem, we would just uh I'm gonna suggest you have a homeowners association. Exactly. Yes. Um I would just inform the homeowners that you got a problem in your land, you've got to fix it. Okay. Uh we would have no responsibility of fixing it, but we would want it fixed if it's leaking. Understood. It's gonna have to go through all the testing procedures and whatnot. Um big concern we have is the uh flow allotment to Taunton. Uh we have a 1.3 MGV uh average per day. Um being in Taunton, that's gonna infringe on part of our capacity. So uh I'm asking for a letter from the City of Taunton uh giving us a credit on that amount. I know they don't have they don't have um town or city water there, so we'd have to determine an average flow that they would have to give us a credit on. Okay, but I'd be asking for a certified letter from the city of Taunton, okay, uh stating that they will give us a credit on the homes in Taunton. Understood.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So I do have a few other things. Uh again, sewer line testing and all that, they'd have to go. I'll give you a copy of this. Perfect. Have you guys had a chance to read through that?
SPEAKER_02:I have what seems like we receive all fees, all hookup fees, all hookup fees, all service fees. Yep, biannual service fees, correct?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, any any, you know, uh let's see service fees for uh the user fees, yeah. User fees, thank you.
SPEAKER_03:That the residents of Rainham have to pay would be the same thing that they'll be charged. And uh we just want to make sure that the city of Tony, who can't give you sewer or won't give you sewer because of your location, uh, gives us the credit because uh we are creeping closer, and um there are things that have happened that we didn't anticipate, you know. Um to be honest with you, we've got uh two good-sized 40B projects under construction that were just blank pieces of land. And take up a lot of the flood. Well, definitely, because they got uh the capacity, how many people they have in a place, you know? One with 140, 152, 138 plus 14 is 152, and the other one is what 240, 240. And the both both parcels were just back end of something, okay? So um anything that Todd's willing to help us on, that's fine. But but uh it becomes critical on everyone that comes in because we have some 1200 or almost 1300 houses on the system that haven't hooked up yet. Okay, but they're entitled to hook because they paid the betterment that we would cross it. So that's kind of a uh the bear and uh the honeybow, you know. I wish you'd hook up so we know what we begin to do, type of thing, but we can't force them.
SPEAKER_02:So Rob, you're not gonna be able to meter that. Use common sense approach on average daily typical two and a half star bedroom.
SPEAKER_03:We have a relatively simple system. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the superintendent mentioned it when we met.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean it is it is just you know, very easy, and uh it's just fair and equitable. I mean, if if it was on a water meter, then you know what it comes out about. You never I mean my member here has a sprinkler system. And uh because we uh don't do the meters on the houses, uh his grass isn't considered sewer water, you know? Uh but they take him to the cleaners with the price anyway. We just try to be fair, okay? Whatever you work out with him is what comes to the board, and he makes the case, and if he's satisfied with it, uh 99.44% of the time we're satisfied.
SPEAKER_01:Fair enough.
SPEAKER_03:It's always that 50.56 that he worries about.
SPEAKER_00:A lot too. One other thing to mention is, and then we do it with all the Tartan residents over there that tie in. Um they would need to sign, the homeowners would need to sign an affidavit, affidavit stating that they're a Iranium sewer customer, so they would be agreeing to pay on the sewer. Um I know uh Iranium does have uh something worked out with Clarton if they don't pay the bill, they are able to lean the properties anyways, but we want them to sign something. But I will give you a copy of that.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, fair enough. Thank you. What would your guess be as to time that the uh owner wants to stop? I would say spring. And that's a total of ten houses.
SPEAKER_01:Nine new houses and the the one existing house. So ten new hookups for you folks. Yeah, that existing house is not on uh on.
SPEAKER_03:They do they share uh frontage on the street? No, they are these Pokemon lots?
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's a bad word. Taunton we call them estate lots in Taunton. So uh so they're they're retreat lots. So they're requiring 35 feet of frontage.
SPEAKER_03:You don't have you don't have the frontage, right? But a group of you together have the frontage. You go in the driveway and there's the your house.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so that's what it is. So each of those lots have 35 feet of frontage on Prospect Hill Street. There isn't much of a house you can put on 35 feet.
SPEAKER_00:But luckily back there, there's a a whole big area back there. So it looked to be on average around three and a half acres per lot.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, three and a half is the smallest one. I think seven acres is the is the largest one. So long, thin lot.
SPEAKER_03:What is the width of that? Say lot number, what's it, four? Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_01:Is that 150 feet? Yeah, that that square right there is about 150, so it's a little bit more, right? These two of the skinniest lots, those up there, they're about 175 feet wide.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, so they're working off of a hundred foot lot.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And uh side lots and back. Because the front lots way the hell up the other side.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So they're probably uh five to seven feet from the property line?
SPEAKER_01:Um, well, the house is the the sidelines, I believe it's 20 foot minimum. So we we'd have to be 20 feet off of off the line. Of course, they take 40 away from a hundred you got a 60 foot. Although it's more than 100, it's about a hundred and like 160, 180. So even when you take that off, we're still left with you know a little more than 100 feet.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, a house that wide or 100 feet is a good size house. For sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So you're not gonna have individual driveways.
SPEAKER_01:You mentioned a common driveway for most sort of? I think right now the plan would be to have one common driveway come right up the middle, and uh the same thing on that side. So one common, a common driveway for these six, and then a common driveway for those three. It just makes sense.
SPEAKER_03:Would that require you to give uh all of them uh an easement on that driveway? Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so there would be a driveway easement and a utility easement.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because you're everything would come up the center. Exactly. Pretty much right where I think. That one there that you're pointing to is probably the last floor on the left there. Yep. Three. Yep. Everybody will just kind of just uh essentially it looks like a hallway in the end.
SPEAKER_01:Everybody will just fork off the room.
SPEAKER_03:And you put big sun in the mountain, no entry, no exit. Sure. Yep, yeah, that type of thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, yeah, but they will utilization.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it is. Did the building department require a cistern or anything for fire suppression? I'm just curious. I know I just happen to know the Heritage Drive has one.
SPEAKER_01:Because it's uh they're considered AR lots, formate lots, so it's not a subdivision, so you don't really get into that whole fire protection, although the fire department, in allowing the retreat lots, the fire department has certain requirements with you know roadway and access, correct uh driveway widths and things like that. So they do have they do have some certain requirements. I just wondered it because I happen to know the heritage drive has moved in. Yep. Again, with that being a subdivision, it kind of opens up the opportunity to use.
SPEAKER_03:And every house is on a well. Yes, individual wells. What are the what is the fire get the water?
SPEAKER_02:Do they have to bring tankers in? Yeah. They'll be pumping it from Bridge Street around the corner. They'll drop a manifold at the driveway, the beginning of the driveway, and they'll lay all the way in, and then they'll pump to that manifold. Yeah, and they may make they may suggest residential sprinkle systems with some of these. I don't know what the type of homes they'll be building, but they they may suggest it may be a stipulation. We're getting off track. My comment. I try to leave it away one hit at a time. He's got an insurance question.
SPEAKER_05:All of those seem like Taunton problems, not our problems. Don't care. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but uh, you know, it's uh it's uh different eyes are looking at it in a different way, that's all.
SPEAKER_05:On a serious note, the comment I would make is I would get on Taunton sooner rather than later if you want this to happen in the spring with getting that letter. That document. Yeah, document.
SPEAKER_02:That that would be my it's a good spot because heading west, it is a long way. It is the end of the earth. It's really pretty. Yeah. So that's great. Yeah, excellent. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Well, good luck with your project.
SPEAKER_01:All right, thank you for time. Appreciate it. Great. Very comprehensive. We're working out with the superintendent, and I'll speak to you soon, I'm sure. Yeah, this is uh perfect.
SPEAKER_05:Thank you very much for the great evening, Scott. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:All right, now we're back to special time.
SPEAKER_05:How many do we have? Three hours. All right. It seems like a good project. Yep. Nine new lots.
SPEAKER_00:So these would be the uh three articles I'd be recommending. Uh two of them being a somewhat of a uh annual uh articles that we've been doing for the past few years. Um first one being to see if the town will vote to appropriate and transfer the sum of$750,000 from sewer enterprise retained earnings for the pro uh for projected payments uh to be due to Rainham's share of capital improvements to the city of Taunton's wastewater treatment plant in Maine Pumping Station, or take any action relative uh there too. Uh intermunicipal agreement with the city of Taunton, the town of Randham is responsible for a share of uh 15.5 percent of the project cost. That was not 15.3? I think it was, yeah. I think Joe mentioned that, or somebody mentioned that last year. Was that 15.3, Joe?
SPEAKER_03:Uh it's not 15.5, that's for sure. Yeah. I think it's 15.43 to be exact. Oh, yeah. Can we check on that? Yeah. That's just a number that we've been trying to change, that's all.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so I don't know if you guys have any um ideas on the amount, keep the amount at 750. Um that's what we did last year.
SPEAKER_05:Question Do we have the ability to put more away and be fiscally responsible?
SPEAKER_00:So this is what we have for now not certified as of yet, um, but Chris Labellot, the accountant, is confident the number will stand. Um it's just uh Department of Revenue hasn't officially certified it yet. So you'll see 3,374,000.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I personally uh I'm going to change the numbers he's looking for, and I'll explain the reason why. So I jumped again, is what you're saying? No, uh a little bit more, a little bit more because there's a there's a um an emotional reasoning. We start with 3.374 million. Okay. Rob talked to me about the article three for the epoxy coding of ground service. And they said they were about twenty thousand a piece.
SPEAKER_00:They're based on uh so a ten-foot deep manhole, which is a the three that I uh I want to get on uh as soon as possible. Uh they were saying could be from anywhere between 15,000 and 20,000. So they're saying roughly give or take 1500 per vertical foot. Uh how many manholes are we going to do? Then they're the first three I want to do, uh, but there's multiple in town that I'd be I'd be looking to jump around and look for, you know. So we would have to certainly have extra money there to do this.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, that's one of the reasons I suggested to him 275 was that the money would be put aside to do these man holes whatever time he wants to do it. We don't have to come back and ask for more. If we don't spend the 275, we close the article back into retained earnings. But I wouldn't want him to start and find out that he should do five instead of three, and he hasn't got enough money to do it. So that was the one that uh we talked about. And um stabilization, uh I put in$370,000 instead of$300,000. And the reason uh we did that, oh, I'll back up. Article 3, the$275, we had uh several articles that had to be closed out of the books with extra money, and it was$247,000 that we didn't spend, right? That went into the 3.3. So I said take out$275. So we kind of swapped on that. So that was an easy one. Uh and is the stabilization. Um, the reason I was looking for that was because uh right now we have$950,000. Uh, if I had known what they were doing, I would have put in a hell of a lot more because we put in three and we've already made$50,000 in interest. Um the town accountant explains that it's done statewide and it's they get a very high return on that shot money. So it's great. And uh with 950, this would bring it up closer to a million three. And uh stabilization uh there's a number of things that that's gonna bring it higher in the next couple of years to a two million dollar number, and that's where there's plenty of comfort to do it. And as far as the the city of Taunton, we got a million three fifteen already set up in articles. There were in um three of them, and I suggested we put eight hundred in. That would leave us a million nine hundred twenty-nine in retained earnings. And that's almost two-thirds of our operating budget. And that keeps us very financially comfortable and stable. And if the city of Taunton ever gets around to telling us what we're going to have to pay for the debt service, we will be able to work it out, I think, because we wouldn't necessarily go to those articles and take all that money out the first time. I would say whatever we create in our budget plus that. So that might be a 10-year shield as we go down. If we can generate 800 and it's 970, I need 170,000. Well, we go to these articles and take 170 out until we run out of money.
SPEAKER_05:Can I um interject and just do some math? So if the project costs 120 million over there, 92. I would error on the side of it's going to be more than that. Anyway, we'll do 120 from by my calculations. 15.3, whether it's 15.43, 15, 30, whatever it is. That Rainham share is 18,360,000.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_05:Divided by how many years? Is that a 30-year 30 year old?
SPEAKER_03:I don't know. I was going to go over to I was going to go to Chris and ask him to give me two ways of doing it for this amount of money. That was the follow-up as to what we're going to what I want to do with with uh Rob in the next couple of weeks is start the budget for next physical year so that we can see where we can change things and how much we can uh I won't say thin the budget down, but if we're not spending as much, we don't budget as much and work our way down, not changing the bottom line and whatever we can save dropping down to that debt service number so that we know what we could cover without increasing the budget.
SPEAKER_05:Well, where I'm going with this is if$18,360,000 is 15.3% of$120 million. If it would be 30 years with no interest, just principal only, just for round numbers, is$612,000 a year. We're already at$750,000 in our budget, correct? That we're carrying. We were carrying five, but we're going to move things around to it. So what you're saying is as we build up this account that we're going to put$750 or$800 in, it's going to have a lead time of 10 years, give or take, before we run out of that money and have to put more money in. Or annually, we if the difference is$150 or whatever, whatever the number is.
SPEAKER_03:Okay? One of them was a half a million dollars. Up until last year, that was going into pay the shortfall that we had to make up, the two million dollar shortfall we had to make up. And now we're putting it aside specifically for Taunton. And at the same time, I call it funny money. It's that amount of money that they pay for hookups, uh for licenses, for whatever. And it comes about$225,000 in a year. That's found money. And I know we've mentioned in the past the uh 40B project on 138 is about to go into construction, and they have to give us 50% of the total fee, which would be over$300,000. And that I want to take next year and put it in the stabilization account. So if you had to pull something out to stabilize, you got money to go, and you got the other one paying one particular line of item. And we don't play too heavily on kicking the rate up. We might have to, because uh we haven't figured out what Taunton's rates are going to be. They had already indicated increase in water and increase in sewer. Of course, we just have to pay the same as the sewer bill. But we carried$400,000 and you got$500,000, okay? And uh the last bill was$150. If multiply that by four, it's now$600. So you know there's still floating someplace, and that's what we want to try to put together a preliminary that we can talk about before we have to come up with a hardcore number. I like to spend the time up front pulling all the nuts and bolts together so that you get a a sense of what we really have. We're very fortunate to have this sitting in uh in uh in our capacity because the city of Taunton could come up with a bill and you know we could laugh at them and I say, you know, say, hey, isn't that wonderful? You know, you guys are six years later, uh, all that stuff. Uh give me 20 minutes, I go down to town hall and say, we want to know we want here's it, this is la-da-da, and let's get a check and show them that we know how to do business in Brainham. So I have played with the numbers only because of spending considerable time with with Chris and talking to him and with Rob. You know, I said I never gave him back a full number, but I think that uh leaving a million nine as uh retained earnings, that's two million bucks of a three million dollar operating budget.
SPEAKER_02:Do you want to amend these? You want to amend this first one you said?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I I was I wanted to explain my rationale as to because we had just generally spoken on that, and uh it was easy for the 275 because we put 247 back into it. Uh the 300, you know, for the enterprise retained earnings, I figured you could kick it up a little bit because we did have a little more retained earnings. And instead of leaving it there, do something with it. So we're putting it into our future need. You know, because then we'd have to have a special town meeting to go in and ask, can we borrow, can we use another$150,000 to reline six more of our manholes? He's got it. He does it. And if he if it takes them three years, or whoever's doing it takes three years, the money's there. They don't have to go in and try to get it every every time.
SPEAKER_05:What was the 50% that's going to be due for the 40 beyond 138? Oh, 360. Is that total or that 50%? 50 percent. That's 50. All right, so what you're saying 720. Yeah, okay. I couldn't remember that. So what you're saying, Joe, is if we take Article 2 to transfer 300,000 into the stabilization. Well, the stabilization at 950 that we have now that brings it to 102, and then you're calculating to be a whole 720 going into that to bring it up to the two million dollar number? Or are you just saying it's stabilization? Stabilization is not fifty. Yep, plus three hundred. Well, are you bumping this article two to three seventy? Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Why do I think 370? Because I closed my eyes and we got the check for 362 from Broadway. And that's that's going to be deposited in the next couple of weeks, maybe? And it's there.
SPEAKER_00:That's coming this couple in a couple of weeks. I couldn't tell you. I don't know when they're coming. I mean, all that they can tell you is like I said on the superintendent's report I met with them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Um, they were crying a little bit, but but if if the if Mass DOT doesn't give them the okay, they're not going to stroke that check.
SPEAKER_00:No, they're not writing, so that that check doesn't get written until they pull the building permit. So this work, even if they go to Mass DOT and get the pipe over, I still don't see a check for that. It's in the agreement.
SPEAKER_03:Building permit.
SPEAKER_00:They've gotten foundation permit. Yeah. You'll see the work that they're doing over, not technically the building permit. Well, that's because we're watching to get the building permit because they can't.
SPEAKER_03:When they looked at that, they saw that they could get the foundation and not have to do it when they saw that. Oh, wait a minute, we don't have to go one from each building. Whoa, whoa, whoa. They questioned the fee. They questioned the fee. That we discussed with them in here. Yeah, you know, and uh it is a uh it's the deal you got to be thankful you got. Yes, you know, when you pick a package and they sell the package, and new guys don't pick up. Nobody took them.
SPEAKER_02:So on article one uh Rob, make sure you get the correct percentage when you do submit the article.
SPEAKER_05:My own opinion is I would rather put more towards this Ton project as much as we possibly can. That would be that would be me because when you you mentioned the stabilization, when you have a three million dollar operating account, we got eventually close to two million dollars. That's a huge percentage that you say. But we know a big nut is coming down the road with Ton. I'd rather.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you see, there's uh one of the things this is stabilization. Uh, if you think of it in a broad sense, that stabilization account is to help stabilize the rate we charge. We could take it out of that and apply it to Taunton so we don't change the rate. Okay? So in the biggest of pitches, if you wanted to. It's the same dollar. Yeah, okay. No, that's fine. You know, but if we can handle Taunton the way it's, if we can get it, if there's like a the two numbers we need is what they're gonna charge for the user fee and what they're gonna charge for the debt service. As soon as they do that, we can have a budget put on the table, we can say this is gonna do this and this, we trim this here. Because very few articles, very few line items went over. So I'll use a number, five thousand dollars. We spent twenty six hundred dollars. I changed that five to three. Take the two and add it on the bottom line, not changing the total. That's the next exercise that I'd like to go through so that we have a sense of can we do this without shock? You know?
SPEAKER_05:We've been planning for it for years. So I'd like the$92 million dollar number. That'd be nice. To where? For Taunton instead of the one. That would be$469,000 annually over 30 years without interest.
SPEAKER_03:Well, Taunton at uh million three goes up to two million one with the 800. And if Taunton doesn't come around with the number to work with, I could pretty well say that there'll be another 800 next year to do the same thing so that we will have a bigger number in there. When they finally come up with it, then we can figure out how we want to work to go with it. Yeah. I mean, and that's when you get it the taught in the articles, that's sitting down there just waiting for a check to be drawn against it. It's already approved. Collect an interest? Well, I don't know what to collect interest on the uh an article account. I don't think he can do that because that's a like a demand deposit of your checking account. You know, it's it the stabilization, he's got in statewide and he's doing very well with it.
SPEAKER_02:Get some amending to do.
SPEAKER_03:And you know, it'd be nice if he had a checking account that get they paid you interest. Uh, but uh I've never seen the full lineup that they have at uh the town hall. They've got multiple checking accounts, multiple banks they do business with. Yeah, you know, so our little fistum is well you know is if this is a private business, that money we have in Tartan would be in uh six months CD. Yielding, yeah. Three and a half, no, that's huge, four percent, four percent, you know, whatever type of thing, it would be making money. So because we could just take it and do it, but because of we're under the restrictions of how we can spend the money or what we have to do, we don't want it like a quase life. Is this you know an enterprise account? Robbie did a good job. So what's the feeling? You gentlemen like his numbers, or would you think we I know you like to put more away too, so it's I don't think we have any problem with the um 275. It's just a matter of whether or not you want to increase uh the stabilization and uh increase uh the taunt thing. It's another$50,000 and taunt and$70,000 on the suggest an$800 on Article 1 and up to$370 on Article 2.
SPEAKER_02:You want that in the form of a motion? No, I think he just needs to amend the article, correct?
SPEAKER_03:No, we did it's uh uh he presents it to us and we tell him which ones we want. That's we he didn't he this was a suggestion exercise. He had articles and how are you with those numbers?
SPEAKER_02:Are you comfortable with those numbers? And if the chairman thinks it gives us added assurance on the back end, and for time and time does come calling, which is inevitable. Yeah, I say yes, but yeah. If you need a formal motion, we'll do that, or if you just need to amend the article, just to rent them the luxury to do that, the number in the article, right?
SPEAKER_05:Just adjust the articles and uh it's not like we're spending money, we're putting it aside in the savings account per se. Yeah, the final.
SPEAKER_03:The only place we're spending money is the 275. We just we got two we just put it back because that you you have to spend it for what the article says and on article one, make sure the percentage is correct because it's being recorded.
SPEAKER_02:Perfect.
SPEAKER_03:So good, and it's still leave, it still leaves us a million time. Very good. Okay, nice job, Rob. That's the easy part. Okay, is it where I get the hatred job? This is where I get the hatred. Oh no, the hatred is when we we're gonna get together and start a budget. You're gonna learn how to do your job. You're gonna learn how to do a budget. We look at what you did, what actually happened, and come up with a new one. It's not just stone. We want to see what we can do to come up with the same number on the bottom that's there. Just reorganize certain things. Easy enough. And we can't uh we we don't have we we we need you to put in the labor.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so contractual obligations and health insurance. Those are the those are the line items generally recently. Yeah, the rest of it we can work on.
SPEAKER_03:You say health insurance actually is really okay.
SPEAKER_00:That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_03:That is it for me. Yeah, thank you. Okay, gentlemen, thank you for putting up my foolishness at times and playing with the numbers the way I do. There is no old business, no emergency business, and um commissioners reports, and nobody here wants to talk to us, and the press time has transpired. So I will ask for a motion to adjourn for the purpose of just doing administrative work and no other activity. So moved. Second. Moved by Mr. Bickle, second by Mr. Keller. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. The vote is 3 0, and it's 6 49 p.m. Thank you. See you next month.