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Sewer Commission 02/12/2026
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(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)
Want to know how a small commission keeps a whole town’s sewer system reliable, affordable, and ready for growth? We walk through the practical wins that matter: new variable frequency drive cabinets for the Route 44 pump station, a smart plan for a brief overnight shutdown, and full spare cabinets on hand to slash downtime. You’ll also hear why user billing stays on track for March despite winter delays and how a long-awaited truck is finally nearing delivery after months in upfit.
We step into the field to talk problem-solving: tracing an odor complaint that turned out to be offsite trailers, rebuilding pumps that see daily duty, and installing a redesigned unit that ended chronic ragging at White Street. ARPA funds play a big role this year—seven new generators and transfer switches at critical pump stations, plus three spare pumps for the million-gallon-a-day Route 44 site. Add in fresh carbon media to neutralize odors, bar rack repairs, and ongoing I&I reduction through manhole lining, and you’ve got a clear picture of proactive asset management that saves money and prevents emergencies.
Growth is here, too. Subdivisions on Pine Street are moving fast, and Liberty Way heads to pre-submission. We explain how we coordinate with state roadwork, gas main relocations, and water main replacements to protect sewer laterals and keep projects on schedule. On governance, we post the superintendent role with a minimum starting salary of $95,000, negotiable based on qualifications, and favor a three-year contract with a first-year probationary period. The FY27 budget of $3,184,044 is approved, with standard adjustments pending from town hall. We adopt a modest 4.88% rate change—residential from $492 to $516 annually and commercial from $9.30 to $9.75 per thousand gallons—which still keeps Raynham near the bottom regionally for total sewer costs. The only open question is Taunton’s capital fee exposure; outreach is underway to bring clarity and lock in multi-year stability.
If you care about infrastructure you never want to think about, this is the blueprint: strategic spares, careful timing, fair rates, and steady leadership. Subscribe, share with a neighbor who asks “why did my bill change,” and leave a review with the one improvement you’d prioritize next.
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I'd like to call a monthly meeting to order of the uh order of sewer commissions for the town of Raying here. And as usual, our first uh order of business is the approval of the minutes of January 8th. Uh uh that Mr. Bickle is not here tonight. Uh I don't expect him. He's had a medical problem. Uh I hope he's everything's moving in the right direction. I think he had an appointment tonight, so he may not be here.
SPEAKER_00:Have you had a chance to read there, Mr. Kelly? The minutes are good. I would make a motion that we accept as written. Okay, you didn't see any changes that you made?
SPEAKER_01:I didn't. You know, did they quote uh superintendent properly? I'm sure. I'll second the motion. All right, the acceptance of the meeting was made by the minutes made by Jeff Calvert, seconded by Joe Bettencourt. All those in favor? Aye. Aye, it's a two-hour vote. Correspondence correspondence. Come on. Alright, the superintendents before. Don't everybody follow us.
SPEAKER_00:Two pages and all the pictures in full of it.
SPEAKER_01:One big picture. Is that what's in the bigger?
SPEAKER_02:So this is this is what's in the 44. The wrapped items, the spares are openly direct. 44. Yeah. Let me the new ones that are getting ready to go in. Um so uh superintendent's report, February 12th, 26th. Um Department of Operations, we have had one connection to the sewer this month that actually occurred today. Um, and with the weather we've been having, it's been kind of difficult to do anything. So we had a little bit of a break in the weather this week, and it did squeeze one in. Uh, Brender is continuing and nearly complete with the sewer user billing. She estimates a couple more weeks uh before handing it over to the Veda for processing. Uh, customers should probably expect to see their bills around uh the second or third week of March, firing no complications with the Vadar system. Uh the truck ordered back in May has yet to arrive. We keep getting told uh end of this month, end of that month, and yet we're still waiting to go on. Uh the dealer does tell me that the equipment install is in its final stages with emergency lighting currently being installed. Uh title A registration documents are now being put together uh by the dealer, and I am being told delivery of the truck is expected within the next couple of weeks. So I believe we will have that truck for the next meeting. I hope so, because you said the same thing about the truck for the last week. I know I didn't. Yes, exactly. Uh 44 pump uh control project. Um equipment has now begun to arrive for this project uh with the VFD cabinets uh being delivered to the station along with the stairs arriving here at the garage. We are awaiting an updated schedule for the project, uh, but the contractor has indicated uh that on-site work uh will most likely uh commence on the first week of March. Uh the contractor has indicated a short shutdown uh may be required, in which uh case we will be relying on the backup diesel godlined pump that we have over there. Um with that said, we would uh look to probably do that around 2 a.m. in the morning when uh storage flows are low. We're hoping that uh this shutdown would be uh no more than an hour and everything going right. We'll have it back up and running before we start seeing the heavier flows. And you just mentioned uh the pictures on the bottom, the bottom left was the new cabinets, the new VFD cabinets over at 44. The other picture on the right is the actual inside of that cabinet. Uh we do have um spare cabinets out back, which were part of the uh project scope, was to have spares. Um the spares we requested were the VFDs. The picture on the right, the the uh that item with the blue stripe running through it is the actual BFD, the variable frequency drive. That's all I was really expecting to get as a spare. But they gave us complete cabinets. So we have a complete set of what you're seeing there in the garage as spares, which is really beneficial. So if anything goes, we're probably not changing the cabinet, we're probably just taking the parts out and putting them in the in the ones that are at 44. But certainly a benefit to have. On the second page, we've got um fiscal year 27 budget, uh budget and capital forms need to be submitted by next Tuesday, being February 17th. Uh, capital articles by March 10th. The manhole landing project, time one put up put the request for quotes into the central register today. Uh we'll be uploading it to the Convice portal next week and also posted locally and on our website here for the sewer department. Uh, quotes will be due here at 416 Tidicket Road on March 26th, no later than 3 p.m. Pine Street subdivisions, the subdivisions at the end of Pine Street are in full blow right now. Houses on the west side of that of Pine Street, the west side subdivision, uh selling quickly. Uh the east side awaits so you break in the weather to get started on the installation of the infrastructure. So there's 25 uh new lots on East Pine, and there's uh 27 on West Pine plus two retreat lots. So a lot of houses going in down and road down there. Liberty Way subdivision. So this is a new subdivision that's coming uh up soon. Uh there's going to be a pre-submission meeting held on February 17th at the Sluckman's office, not the Sluckman's office, but the uh town meeting room at the town building. And uh, this is for an 11-watt subdivision off of Locust Street. A developer has purchased a home, uh which is 699 Locust Street, uh, which will they be they will be removing, uh, and they also purchased a large parcel next to it, and combining that it'll be 18.9 acres. And again, there'll be 11 watts, 9 watts with two retreat lots. Uh, Prospect Hill subdivision, you may have may remember they were in here, I think, in early fall, maybe late summer, uh, over on Prospect Hill Street in toilet. I haven't heard anything from that. Um, other than all that I can tell you is that I was uh at a house uh basically surrounded by this subdivision. There's a house over there that was for sale, my son was interested in it. So we went over and looked at it. And the real estate agent over there mentioned that um there was a cease and desist on that project in the spotted turtles. Um I haven't been able to find anything related to that online or anything. I reached out to David Craig from Iranian Conservation today to see if he heard me. He hadn't heard either. So that may not be the case, but that's what I was told by a real estate agent. Umplaint, the Board of Health had uh contacted me uh with an order complaint over in the Robinson Street area that was on Monday. Um we investigated the issue and determined it ought to be coming from the pumping station. We usually the first call when somebody has an order, they feel as though it's always the pumping station. Um but the order did appear to be uh from coming from a dump trailer that was um parked in the dog track parking lot. There was actually three side, three of them side by side, and um uh the next day all three of those trailers were gone, so we have a feeling maybe there was something going on inside of them and haven't heard anything else of any other orders over there, but luckily it wasn't us. So I guess I'm a superintendent's report.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know that an order from playing up on Robinson always came in and it always had something to do with something at the door. Right, indeed. Yeah. Well, thank you. Yep, thank you very much. All right, uh new business, the annual report. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So something that we do at at the end of each calendar year. Uh, this usually goes in the annual report book that the town gives out. Do we have the master in the system? Did we just change the date? We just that's all we did. Yeah, simple. You were cheating because you were reading my computer that day. Uh so, anyways, any report for 2025, and and as uh Commissioner Bettencourt just mentioned, some of this might be repetitive. Um, anyways, to the honorable board of select them, the Randy M sewer system has approximately 114 miles of sewer, approximately 80 miles of which was publicly funded, and approximately 34 miles of which uh was installed privately. Now, one thing I will mention that is repetitive, but I would have to think that the 34 miles of private will be changing at some point within the next couple of years once the town starts accepting these subdivisions that are being built. So I'd have to think that number could change. We currently have uh 4,948 residential units and 398 commercial units connected to the sewer system. Rhanium conveyed 324,940,000 gallons of wastewater for an average of 890,247 gallons per day to the wastewater treatment plant for the year of 2025. The sewer commission has 34 pumping stations in which it operates and maintains. The sewer department of staff is required to do daily operational inspections and maintenance to include holidays and weekends to each one of these pumping stations. And once again, the sewer commission consists of three, a three-member board, superintendent, administrative technician, chief pumping station operator, an inspector, pumping station electrical technician, and two sewerage collection system operators. Ongoing work that happened this year, the sewer department staff rebuilt eight glomerut pumps this year. Impelled wearing adjustments were performed on an additional 30 pumps. Seal and bearing oil changes were performed on all 68 glomerut pumps as part of this maintenance work. Engine oils were changed on 28 emergency generated backup generators. And the reason there was 28 and not 35, because we have 35 pump stations, is because seven of those generators were moved this year. One complete pump at the White Street pumping station was changed out to a newly designed Bournemouth rut pump. This pump is uh currently in trial stages, uh being designed to help eliminate pump failures due to ragging issues. And one thing I will say about that, I think have been working flawlessly. Haven't had any problems with it since then. And we were having ongoing issues with that one pump over there at White Street. Um it was some sort of a medical device that's getting it's getting flushed into that line and ending up in the wet wall at the pump station, and it was non-stop clogging that pump up. And it was only addressing that one pump. It was only impacting that one pump. And we feel as though however it was falling into that wet wall, it was landing right at that suction line. And again, it was non-stop, it was once, twice a week sometimes they were forming that pump together, pump apart, and haven't had a problem since. So that uh the new uh newly designed pumpkin. When you when you had the blockage, what did you find was causing the block? It's a little like a one-inch silicone plug of some sort. Um I believe it's used for some kind of in inconsonance of some sort with females, but um, it was going up into the ear release line, which is only a one-inch line, so if the pump loses prime, it can't reprime unless it releases the ear. It was plugging that up. And they'd have to remove that. It was a quick, easy pull the thing out and pump a prime up. But it was again, it was like twice a week where they would take that thing apart to do it. Um programmable logic, uh pump controller failed at the old King Street pumping station. Uh this was replaced with an updated uh newer style controller, which required uh the rewiring of the entire pump control panel. The pumping station was kept online with a standalone temporary control panel fabricated by the uh department's electrician. This panel proved to be extremely beneficial during this operation, eliminating the need to shut down the station. Uh one one thing that was beneficial about that panel that he made up is we can use that at any any one of those dorm up stations. If we have a problem, we bring the cabin in and we wire the folks to it and it keeps the station running. Uh pump control operator interface field at the locus street pump station that also required replacing. That wasn't as extreme. That's just a little uh little push-button thing that you can control what the pumps are doing. So that was a quick, easy fix. The uh bar rack at the Route 44 pumper station was removed and reinstalled after being repaired. It was rotted out and had to have some metal welded back on it. Uh the rack uh bar rack is utilized to assist with rag removal entering the station's wet well. Uh the carbon media was replaced in the order control unit at the Route 44 pump station. This work consists of removal and replacement of 1,000 pounds of carbon uh media utilized to absorb um absorption of orders at the station. And that's typically we'll usually get a year to year and a half, usually a year and a half out of that media. But so that's kind of an every year uh item that we have to do as well. The sewer department, as uh as part of its biannual maintenance program, continued with cutting of the approximate five miles of cross-country sewer easements throughout the town. Uh, down trees were once again removed from easements after a couple heavy storms, this time particularly at the Sell Street East season. We had to go up there a few times uh with some down trees that were uh coming down. Actually, one impact is one of the Navy's fences we had to repair. Um, one thing of interest is the past previous two years to that, we had run into um homeless encampments, and this past year we did not have that problem. The sewer department continued with its work related to uh infrastructure maintenance and I and I removal. This year's work included repairs to additional manhole throughout the town, resulting in the replacement of 23 broken cracks or badly worn sewer manhole frames and covers. And a majority of these were replaced during uh the Elm Street East and Mill Street paving projects that the highway was doing. You got a couple pictures there. That was uh work that had to be done at the end of Queen Circle. Uh that was back in last March. And uh so you'll see that that manhole is actually off in the in the dirt area, but it's actually at the end of the cul-de-sac. So when they were plowing, they went to push the snow back off the roadway and knock the uh that frame off the off the manhole. So uh on the left you'll see that's Sean that's dressed up in the in the white um suit there and going down into the into the manhole to clean all the dirt out. And on the right, you can see where they replaced the manhole structure and then cemented it up. So I think they I think we ended up putting a uh a ballot in front of it, sort of a truck. Uh I'll have to double check. We usually do that. We'll put it down a ballot in front of it. We got some on Route 44 across from the Ford dealer that was constantly getting knocked off. And uh we had to put ballads in front of it. The uh Rain Hand Sewer Department will be updating and replacing the variable frequency drives at the pump control, at the pump, I'm sorry, the rain hand sewer department will be updating and replacing the variable frequency drives in pump control panel at the Route 44 pumping station. This project was bid out in 25. Um, and well, the work is expected to start at early 26. The sewer department was awarded the use of ARPA funds for the replacement of generators at seven pumping stations throughout the town. Generators for this project were ordered early in 24. Uh replacement started in late November of 2024. Work continued and was completed in 2025. With this project, seven generators and transfer searches were replaced. The project cost, including engineering services, was uh$696,521, without the funds covering$568,321 of those trucks. Pumping stations benefiting from these new generators are the Grainbullwood Drive, Nottingham Drive, Judson Street, King Phillip Street, Mill Street, Market Basket, and O'Brien Lab pumping stations. And again, one of the things that once we replace them, we weren't having any more problems. We were having constant problems with the generax that we had over there. These codless have been flawless to having any issues with them. Ums were also utilized to purchase much-needed spare replacement pumps for the 44 storage pump and station. Uh, with this critical station seeing at times over a million gallons a day of flow, it is important to have replacement pumps on here in case of a pump failure. The purchase of these pumps through these three pumps covered by APA amounted to$254,510. Uh, one thing I don't have on there, and maybe I might put it on there, is um we also utilize Apera Funds to um purchase 50 manhole frames and covers. I forgot the total amount of that, but I'm gonna say it was like$30,000 to$40,000 that we spent on that. It might have been as much as$50,000. But we also used the Aper funds for that too.
SPEAKER_01:Are you going to put that on? I'll add that to send it to the top.
SPEAKER_02:I'll add that. Um so work continued in 2025 on uh 138 reconstruction project with uh gas with the gas company relocating their gas main. Uh the sewer department staff continued to be involved with this state project with oversight while excavations were being performed in and around the sewer infrastructure. The gas main relocation work being phases two and three of the gas company's project started in the dog track area with completion being up in the area of the milk bottle. The stretcher roadway had uh multiple sewer service laterals to contend with. Um, another project that I I can add on here too is um uh we also were involved with the North Rayan Water. They replaced their sewer, a water main on Britton Street. Uh Salt Coal construction did the work for them, so they they were pretty familiar with what was in the ground because they put it there for sewer relations. And um, but we were involved a little bit of that if they had any questions. And uh pictures on the top you'll see um at that's at the Wu 44 station. Uh that was them um lowering the spare pumps down into the into the uh into the station, the bottom floor. So the 30 feet down is where they are being stored. That's what I got for the annual report.
SPEAKER_01:Very nice. Heck of a year. Yeah? Yeah. Same as last year with a few adjustments. Yeah. Uh okay, uh this is the so superintendent job posting is the next item that's in the business. Um have you got the format there for me? Uh contracting me on was he he wanted to put in a salary range for the product uh for the job. So um I said, well, what we're doing is um let him know and uh uh your salary's dependent on qualifications and uh uh you know your the history of your work and so on and so forth. And it whether resumes should include history of employment uh with references for the past ten years, along with educational background. So three people come in, they're gonna have a little different story, and they may be observed as maybe not being of the same background, solid type thing. So if you were to say that this job has got a starting salary of X, anybody who couldn't start at that wouldn't apply. But there is um it's not a huge giveaway of anything. Uh it it uh sometimes it's a matter of when you say, well, here's the range, and the range isn't big enough for what they want. And there is a cap that we could go on, actually. I shouldn't say there's a cap because we whatever number we come up with, we make an adjustment in the budget without changing the bottom line. But what do you do? You know, there is no basic salary as such. This is is there a you want to say this is a ninety five thousand dollar a year job? And uh uh could go higher depending on something like that. I think that's what Joe was trying to do to give them an idea what they would start with. Uh I try to I try to keep it a little bit open and negotiable. And I think in many cases it uh it makes it very, very, very comfortable that uh they can voice their opinion on what they've I don't know how many times you've applied for jobs that uh you you know they don't necessarily say what the starting salary was going to be. When you were a kid, you cut the lawn for 50 cents, your neighbor would give you a buck, but you didn't have to go over and negotiate. When you went over, your mother says, go over and cut the lawn, and he gives you a buck. Well, you were happy to get the buck type of thing. But this is a uh a professional job. It doesn't have to be a professional engineer uh type job, but this is a job, it's administration, it's uh dealing with um six people that uh uh they work under your supervision and dealing with the fire department when they have a question, the police department, because we're in a municipal setting, so they're gonna have to learn how to work with people. It's a lot across the law. And if you have wonderful skills and how to manage, but you have no people's skills, it's my opinion. I don't want you at job. Anybody can push a button and add a column, but they've got to know how they can work with their other people. So uh I don't want to change this, but I'm I'm willing I'm willing to go along with a uh an adjustment to saying a minimum starting salary of something, if that would be what you would like to.
SPEAKER_00:I think there should be a range. I do. I think the a minimum starting or a minimum starting range there should be.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I don't want them to know how far off they can go. Okay? Because uh if you knew the job could be paid anywhere between 85 and 110, you're going in there, you'll oh I thought of it, 110. Okay. Yeah. But they may not be a hundred and ten thousand dollar a year person. But they could be a ninety-five thousand dollar a year person. And uh uh in in the final negotiation, it would be very simple, okay. You know, is any number of things you could do? Well, okay, let's see how the year goes. If everything goes well, we'll give you a three-year contract. Everything goes well, we will talk about what the adjustment will be. So you know you've got something to work towards. There's no scale. It isn't you start at this, and every year you get this, this, this, this type of thing. So, but I will acquiesce to his interest and your interest, depending on how far, you know, he's not here to vote it. I'm just voicing what he has said to me. And he, I thought there's two of us, we'll we'll come up with something.
SPEAKER_00:It should there should be a minimum and it should be negotiable depending upon uh the level of qualifications of the candidate. Can you word that properly, Mr.
SPEAKER_02:Superintendent? We can do um starting negotiable annual salary, 95,000. Is that what you're saying? It is dependent on qualifications and includes municipal benefits.
SPEAKER_01:That sound ring a bell for you. Say that one more time. Starting salary of 95,000. But you want it to be negotiable, you don't want it to be negotiated. A minimum of 95,000 minimum. Starting at 95, but can be negotiable. So if they're raising a starting negotiation, so everybody knows that they're gonna get 95,000 when they walk in the door. Yeah, some of them are gonna say, well, gee, I really need uh a little more than that. Well, how about 95,250? Is that enough? Type of routine. It's uh sometimes what you call a fun game. Okay, but put in it uh with a minimum starting salary of ninety-five thousand.
SPEAKER_00:And are you thinking what length of contract were you thinking?
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know, it it it you know kind of depends on who who's applying. Uh if somebody was a short-term who only wants it for one or two years, maybe they'll voice that opinion in their in face interview with the board type of thing.
SPEAKER_00:Um I would say at least a three-year. Yeah, I'm not a fan of one year, but I think that's a big risk for any candidate coming in that, for instance, if someone's 45 years old.
SPEAKER_01:I could do, I could, if the right person came in, I I you know, I'm not afraid to go with three to five years.
SPEAKER_00:You could have a probationary period, you should always have that clause that's the first year. First year probationary.
SPEAKER_01:First-year period, and that's all in the contract. Yeah. But when they talk to you about what it is, and you say, look, it I know you want more money, but I gotta see whether or not you can handle this.
SPEAKER_00:I agree with that. Um, like I said, if you someone's 40 plus years old and they've got three children at home, they might not want to come for a one-year contract. So I think three is a good number with a probationary period. Yeah, that's what you know.
SPEAKER_01:We'll see how you do if you, well, you know, you could say if you accomplish this in the first year, then uh, you know, individually, we could give you uh rather than the two percent raise that the town sweeps across, uh, we could give you a little bit more. But that's all in the negotiation. So why don't you just put in there with a starting salary of 95 that is negotiable?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I'll do a minimum starting annual salary, and I'm gonna put in parentheses negotiable. Sound all right? That's fine. It was dependent on qualifications and inclusion officials that were some people that wouldn't come for ninety-five.
SPEAKER_01:They want more. See, I'm a firm believer that the person with the most responsibility should be the highest paid person in the department. So I think you're gonna get a big raise. There's a uniqueness to the union contract that they have, and it has any number of things, but in the long run, your pension is only a piece of that agreed. Okay? So, and I will very simply uh acknowledge the fact that when I hired or convinced Rob to apply for the job, uh, that I told him you uh you will make more money than you're making now, or not an awful lot more, but you will get you will move from that position to a different position with more money, and it's that's all your base. So the hook was instead of 80, now it's 80 percent of 100, not 80% of 80. Because it's the union doesn't affect this.
SPEAKER_00:The flexibility is still there. How much crossover time-wise are you gonna have with this new superintendent? Uh would we get it on a month?
SPEAKER_01:Probably a month, three months if you can get it for a month now. What in in let's put it to it this way, Jeffrey. He's secure before Jeffrey.
SPEAKER_00:That's when I'm in trouble at the house. That's what your father used to say. My mother. Jeffrey!
SPEAKER_01:My mother. Yeah. I know the same thing. When I was a kid, Josephine! Yes. My father was Joseph. Yeah, you uh you you can do that, you know. It just happens, and you you take care of it, you know. They'll understand. And the purpose was uh meaningful. Now, I'm hoping that some of the people that are applying for this aren't making$95,000, and this would be a good increase, but that still could be higher if somebody who is making$95,000 and wants this as a step up and looks to be somebody that might want to stick around, say, five, seven, eight, nine years, maybe young enough to be able to be happy for a period of time, that type of thing?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I wouldn't expect anybody to come in the door with his efficiency, but I would love it if someone could come through with his capabilities.
SPEAKER_01:Well, let's put it this way.
SPEAKER_00:And we should be prepared to pay for that.
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna say that the vast majority of the applicants, and I don't know how many we're gonna get, are going to be qualified to do it. Uh as he loves to say, he was the first permanent employee in the sewer department. So he grew up with it. He's a great guy to have. Yes. And that was one of the things that drove me to get him because of the situation that we were confronted with before you became a commissioner. When I first became a commissioner, the turmoil of everything going this way and that way is that I want somebody to sit over there who I know understands the system, takes care of the system, and just gets me the information I need and work with me to solve this problem. Once we got the two people on the board that were thinking the same way, and we asked, we want to go for this goal, it took us three years to get to the point where we actually pulled the trigger and we moved along. I'd like to find somebody. I don't know, you're gonna stick around for six years, ten years? I'll give you a five-year contract. All right? And that would, he's gonna, his wills are gonna turn off that, what he's now boom at 80%, what now this new price would be, and he's moving out. That's the incentive, and they'll stay because there shouldn't be any major problems to be solved. The only thing that we have left is that one section that is cost prohibitive to do, unless we could force into doing it, and those people had a betterment of$24,000, and they take a deep breath and say, huh? Well, that's why it isn't being pushed. Because the denominator is too small, it wasn't laid out as a steady flow, and when they did and they stopped for a period of time, that's when the bubble got created, that nobody was paying attention to, that big$2.8 million bubble, because we weren't doing construction, but somebody borrowed the money, and he had to pay it back. But that the cost of revenue, the 25%, that the homeowners had to pay, they didn't have to pay until we had the pipe in the ground. But they went two and a half years without owning any pipe in the ground. So it was all a turmoil. Everything's kind of squared away and clean, a relatively good thing.
SPEAKER_02:So you need to add some language? Yeah, well, and uh what you want for the 95 minimum starting salary of 95,000 being negotiable.
SPEAKER_01:Because every part of it will be negotiable. How many weeks' vacation do I get? You know, what do I start with? You know, what's this? What's that? There's certain things that they want, they'd like to have in writing. So make that change. I'll send it around and make sure everybody's through it. No, you make the change the way we said and just get that out and post it.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, well, I'll jump it around. I mean, it's a minor change, but I just want to make sure it's worded the way you guys want. So once I do it, I'll send it to you as a and we'll keep it at uh noon, April 30. Yeah, no, um, I'll I'm thinking I'll go see Kelly Usher, and she can put it in that mass municipal uh website. And we can try to see. Yeah. We'll post it internally, we'll post it over to town.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So get that part done. And all business is the FY27 budget, and so we use a rate review. Now we you we've we've talked about this two or three different times, and uh we never definitively decided on anything. We cabled it. And I mentioned to Joe that we were going to uh I'm glad you corrected you had uh January 25 instead of 26, but I noticed you're you cut you caught you caught yourself. Um so what I proposed, Jeff, is that back to Jeff? Jeffrey, no, you would prefer no Mr. Gelliher, would you um uh what I propose is to uh we've we beat this as far as we can to approve the budget for$3,184,044 for the annual fiscal year uh 27. I'll make I'll make that leave it like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'll make one note line item. Does Mill mentioned it the last time about the health insurance? You thought we should carry 15%.
SPEAKER_01:And a statement that goes with that subject to adjustment from town hall on the aspects that they have the the pension, the uh the health insurance, and the uh uh transfer to the general fund. Yep, uh those are three items that they have to give us a number for.
SPEAKER_02:Right. So what I'm getting at is at my department head meeting, this most recent one, they're still saying 10% at that, which is what I'm carrying. Um so they're saying 10% on that, and uh again, adjustable, like you're saying, and they're saying um five five and a half percent of retirement. So I'm a little heavy on that, and this goes on every year, so I it's usually just a swap. So well, even if it was 15%, we got enough in the retirement way that we carry back up to it.
SPEAKER_01:So just as long as the numbers don't blow the bottom number too far. Yeah, we can cover the 3184.044 with a small amount of adjustment without having to do any other problems with it. And then uh as far as the adjustment of the rate, this um the history of our rent adjustments, uh user fee adjustments, uh was adjusted in 2019. That was the large adjustment, went from$3 to$420. That was when we started to protect and take care of the bubble. Three years later, we made another adjustment. It was a$72 a year adjustment, and that's only in the housing, and commercial went up proportionately. And this year um we had talked about$2 a month, which was$24 a year, and uh Mr. Bickle thought we ought to go a little higher. I feel that the$24 a year uh will get us over the hump, and the only time, the only reason we would have to increase the user fee is when we get the hard number for tartan that we know isn't going to change. And once that is, we can do the calculation, and we should be able to maintain that rate for at least two or three years before we have to go in and do something.
SPEAKER_00:Rate adjustment should be in the form of a motion, correct? And the budget too, or yeah, I would say the budget. Okay, take them in that order? Yeah, yeah. I make a motion we accept the uh your proposal with the tangibles, the wild cards, uh, for fiscal twenty-seven from three million one hundred and eighty-four thousand forty-four dollars. Seconded.
SPEAKER_01:Any further discussion? None. All in favor? Aye. Aye. The vote is two row to accept the budget as presented.
SPEAKER_00:The next one is for the rate. Yeah, I'll so make a motion. We accept the proposed four point eight eight percent increase from four hundred and ninety-two dollars per year to five hundred and sixteen dollars per year for residential and nine hundred and thirty per, I'm sorry, nine dollars thirty cents per 1,000 gallons increased to nine dollars seventy-five cents per gallon under commercial route.
SPEAKER_01:Motion has been made by Mr.
SPEAKER_00:Kellagher. Second by Mr. Benton. Go ahead. We'll discuss there, Mr. Chairman. Um, I did ask the superintendent for a map of our dozen towns that we have but and Rainham is currently second from the bottom, uh, only ahead of Brockton and its overall sewer rate. Um, even with this increase, we we won't even move up one spot. We will remain at second from the bottom. Um some some towns nearly double ours in many areas, 70, you know, 60 and 70 percent higher than I saw. Um still good work. Yep, yeah, it covers the annual expenses. I think it's great management. So motion made and seconded.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, all those in favor of the increased rates as proposed by Mr. Kelleher. Aye. Aye, it is a vote 2-0. All right, those and again, those numbers are subject to change depending on the effect the city of Tonta is going to have on our annual budget taken care of our share of the capital improvements once they figure out what the numbers are.
SPEAKER_02:So, one note on that I did. Reach out to uh Catherine Noons uh two days ago and um requesting a meeting with her. Catherine Noones has taken the place of Fred Canaglia, DPW Commissioner. She's the interim DPW commissioner. Uh she was said she would get back to me at the end of that day with a date for a meeting. It's no meeting. So I'll try and reach out to her again early next week and see if I can get a meeting together, and this would be to discuss those capital fees that uh Commissioner Becker Clinton has been mentioning.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it would be nice if she could respond. Uh I I look with uh anticipation and hope that she can uh answer the questions reasonably. Uh we're not adversaries, uh we have an obligation that we want to face and we want to plan for. So uh if she can't tell us what we're gonna do, then she may be able to tell us who can tell us. As once explained that uh sometimes in the the processing uh in the municipal processing in Taunton uh uh staff members uh told do not uh speak with people who are elected officials, you know, involved, let the elected officials talk among themselves. So it's almost like saying, well, I'm gonna find out who's in charge down there to get it squared away. Okay. Any other questions for the superintendent?
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_01:There's gonna be a number of times between now and uh in um you'll that you'll be roasted, but uh uh and I will say it a number of times every time. Um I thank you for the service that you've given to the town of Rainham, specifically to the sewer department, under my trawer duty here, anyways. Um you made the transition to where we are today very easy. You might not have slept nights and might have had nervous reactions when the phone rang and you saw who was calling you. Oh no, not him again, but uh it it was um it was just one of the learning processes for me and uh picking your brain, and I found after I picked up a little while I could get the information I needed very easily because you could dig far enough into the hole and come up with it. And uh I appreciate it. You made my part of the job easier.
SPEAKER_02:Well, as I said in my uh my resignation letter, my uh title letter, it was uh I I wouldn't have this had the success I did without the help of the board. Um it was certainly beneficial to have you guys help me out. My great experience. It's two-way street. And and the guys out there. I mean, uh I always told them, you know, sometimes they call me the boss. I didn't really like that. I thought we were a team, you know, but the Patriots. We're a team, you know, to make things go as a team. So and then it's always worked that way for me. You know, I like it that way.
SPEAKER_01:You see, that's the that's the intangible I'm looking for when somebody comes in and handle people and work with them because life becomes good and nobody's picking on this or that type of routine. Okay. Well, and if you have any other items uh well that would be uh okay for uh to say uh there is uh no other commission report, no public forum, uh press time is time to go. So I'll be looking for a motion to adjourn for the purpose of performing administrative duties and taking no action. So motion to adjourn, moved by Mr. Kelleher, seconded by Mr. Battencourt. All those in favor? Aye. Aye, we are adjourned at uh six forty eight. Thank you. See you next month.