Sewer Commission 12/11/2025

(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

Ever wonder how a small town funds big, mandated sewer upgrades without blindsiding residents? We walk you through our playbook—clear numbers, careful maintenance, and a modest rate tweak that keeps us stable while a regional treatment plant completes roughly $100 million in improvements. Our share is 15.48%, and we explain exactly how different debt structures could shape annual costs and long-term interest, including why a fixed-principal schedule might save nearly $2 million over time.

On the operations side, we unpack a puzzling drop in reported pump output that turned out to be a faulty flow meter, not a failing force main. Cross-checking gauges, runtimes, and instrumentation saved us from unnecessary excavation and downtime. We also detail ongoing sewer main cleaning on Elm Street East, wet well cleanouts, fleet rustproofing, and fencing repairs to deter illegal dumping near a pump station—each a small move that prevents bigger bills later.

We round out with development updates—restaurant shifts, a new tractor supply, and auto facility renovations—that influence connections, inspections, and system load. Then we get into the FY27 budget: past increases that set the path, stabilization funds that soften shocks, and a planned user fee change of about $2 per month to align revenue with fiscal needs. No fluff, just the math, the maintenance, and the milestones that keep the system safe, compliant, and affordable.

If this kind of transparent infrastructure talk helps you plan your own budgets—or simply understand where your bill goes—follow the show, share it with a neighbor, and leave a review telling us which debt approach you’d choose and why.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

I call the meeting to order of the monthly meeting for the Board of Sewer Commissioners. And as usual, our first item of work is to approve the minutes of the last meeting. I'll make a motion. We accept the minutes as written. Okay. I will second that motion. I saw everything in there being fair and equitable and inaccurate. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. The vote is two to zero. As you note that Commissioner Mr. Bickle is not with us tonight. So everything's going to be handled by two. Excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

So there's some new music from the submission. It's our correspondence.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

It could be spam. I get an awful lot of that. On a run of a getting a lot of that recently as well. But I had I've been trying to contact somebody in Connecticut, and every time I dial it, they say, hello, welcome to Verizon. Wireless, you cannot, uh, your call can't go through. So I use a one before the number. Hello, you can't use it. But that's their number that was referenced to send text messages, which is their phone. So I sent a text message telling them I've been trying to talk to them and so on and so forth, and they haven't called back. Okay, there are no correspondence. No superintendent's report. Yeah. Thank you, huh? A slow month for you. It has been similar. Just a two pages? Two pages. No pictures. Oh, do you mean we have to read this? Yeah. Oh. Six new connections.

Superintendent’s Monthly Report

Pump Station Troubleshooting And Fix

Maintenance, Vehicles, And Fencing

Project Timelines And Delays

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah, yeah. So superintendent's report for December 11, 2025, under the Department of Operations. Since our last meeting, we've had six new connections, five of which being on the Pine Street subdivision, known as West Pine Estates. Brenda has started on the next billing cycle with updating properties for the new customers, usually house sales, and also first quarter readings from the water districts for commercial properties. She has a spreadsheet that she uses to put the first quarter weights on the second quarter. She should be getting them sooner than puts totals them up for the for our six-month billing cycle. The problems we were having at the market basket pumping station, I uh I'm happy to uh to say that Peter had been resolved with no trouble calls coming in this past month, so I think we're all sitting there out. Uh recently we had encountered an issue over the old Center Street pumping station. Um we got some T6 pumps there, they're good size. And the pumps uh which typically put out 650 gallons per minute had uh started dropping to at one point as low as 400 gallons per minute. Um, so we're having some some sort of a problem going on there. And the guys had tried multiple things relating to cleaning of the bulk pumps, check valves, uh, adjusting color wearing clearances, all the things that we typically do when you start losing efficiency. Uh, pumps, suction, and discharge gauges and run times are all normal, uh, so it's kind of puzzling. But uh, so what we ended up doing is having uh the quads of controls come in and um check the flow meter. It turned out that the flow meter was not recording properly. So they made the adjustment on the flow meter, uh, recalibrated it, and the pump's back up to the running again. So we had some worries that we may actually have a problem with the uh with the force main either being partially plugged up or airbound, and luckily it wasn't that. So false reading? It was a false reading from the floor meter. And I actually that's a failing with flow meter there with the past three, four years, maybe we put that in. Um, and if we didn't have that floor meter, we wouldn't have suspected anything wrong because everything was running normal, other than that. Again, the the gauge readings are hours, nothing had changed on it, but the float meter was indicating something different, which was uh kind of puzzling. Um the sour main cleaning on Elm Street East that had continued this past month with the use of a vector truck. Uh, the wet well at Elm Street East Bumping Station was then cleaned out after that work was done. Um, due to the uh debris, some of the debris getting by as the vector truck was flushing the line. That's an 18-inch main over there, it runs about half full. So uh it's hard to capture all the water and everything as you're jetting and vectoring the line. So it get it get by us, and uh they had to pump out that weapon. Uh Sean's been busy with uh restproofing of the sewed apartment vehicles for the winter, utilizing a product called Ford Film. I'm not sure if you're familiar with a company that does New Hampshire oil here on some of the motor trend uh channels, uh similar to that. So that really helps out the vehicles, keep keep them from rusting up on us. It's something we started doing probably three years ago. That's what's getting all the vehicles now. Yeah, yeah. Rust up and they're not protected underneath. Yeah. I mean the four drive and the F-150, they all rust underneath. The truck's only got 70,000 miles on it. Recycled steel to build on them, you know, so there's no really new steel, it's all recycled. Um so the Patman's vehicles all passed state inspection uh past month as well for the stickers, so that was good. Uh the delivery on the new truck, which we ordered back in May, uh, we had expected that to be delivered um late November, early December. That was what was projected uh from the dealer back in October, but that's been delayed now until January. Um this week the guys have been repairing and replacing fencing around some of the pumping stations. Uh the rear portion of a of uh fencing was replaced over at the First Street pumping station. Um had a small section of uh fencing missing. Um so someone's someone was accessing and dumping guideways behind the station, and we had a uh complaint from a neighbor there regarding this. Um so we replaced the fence, clear um closed up that section that was missing. And I'm also gonna be uh posting some no dumping signs. I spoke to conservation because it's wetlands behind there, so um Dave McCray suggested I put an environmentally sensitive area on the side as well. So uh we're hoping that that stops that from happening over there now. When time allows, our electrician Chris, he's uh been helping out in installing LED lighting over at the senior center. Uh though he hasn't had any time this week, he's been pretty busy doing other things. Uh Route 44 pump control project. Uh nothing really to um say there other than the contract that is still on schedule for for the first week of January, January 5th.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

How long is that project estimated to take?

Commercial Development Updates

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Once they get in there, I can't imagine it being more than a month, if that long. Okay. Yeah. Hopefully. Hopefully. Uh Broadway Crossing project, again, nothing to report here. Um, I I assume that we're not going to hear anything from this until at least April 3rd, April 15th, when the state opens the road back up for um Trenton. Unless they start something within the subdivision, but I think they need to get the stubs off the road first so they know what what pitch they can uh lay that pipe out. Um commercial properties update. Um raising cane chicken. I'm not sure if they ever mentioned this to you, but they were originally um expected to go on at the Party City over on South Street West, corner of South Street West of Route 44. Um, latest I heard on that is they backed out, so that building's gonna remain vacant for the time being. Popeye's chicken, which I have mentioned here, they did some work back in uh back in last spring related to the sewer. We had them inspect the uh sewer service over there because it hadn't been used in a while. We were expecting them to actually get it right on it after that, after that was proved to be okay, that line, but it's been quiet. They haven't done anything, so we're still waiting for that project to get started. And that is um Papay's chickens going in with the old Shallet Jewelers ones on Route 24th. Across the street from that next and McDonald's, there's a Wingstark chicken restaurant going in. Um, what they did there is there was a mattress store in that plaza, they they downsized the mattress store, basically cut it in half to make room for this new restaurant, and that is currently being worked on. Tractor supply, um, that's going in at the big the old big lot store over 44. Um, they were recently in front of the planning board um for project review and approval. So that's uh that's moving along pretty quickly. I think we'll see some some action there. And Greco Ford, I may have told you this one already, but Greco Ford is remodeling the old uh stopping shop. Uh they'll be moving in there with a truck division and Citizens Bank, which was originally inside that stopping shop, is looking, possibly looking to put a building on site. They right well have a trailer they're working on of some sort.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Uh I also heard that they were going to go across the street in that building that um the autoglass used to be in, and they moved next to Benny's. Yep. Uh I've heard that they were going over there. Okay, I haven't heard that one yet. Yeah. Well, and uh, but it makes more sense to have uh a pad with the stoplight for the bank. Yeah. We won't need it for a truck division, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yeah you know, yeah. Uh I also heard that IVOT restaurant, the breakfast place. I heard that might possibly be closing. Um I'm not sure if it happened yet, but my department had meeting last week, they mentioned that iHock might possibly be closing. So that's all I get for you.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Well, are you going to open that up as uh a fried chicken joint too? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Yeah, I heard town fair wanted it back. They have almost no power. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, whether it comes to fruition or not, or whether they can afford it just for parking or they'd like to. That's a busy town fair time. Yeah, look in so they got for you on that.

Meeting Schedule And Budget Setup

FY27 Budget Context And Constraints

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Okay, thank you. Yes. Um, your meeting schedule that you have listed here uh is just basically the second Thursday of each month in uh 2026. And uh we can post that on the uh website so they know this is what's scheduled, and of course, we have the ability to change if need be. All right, old business FY27 budget and so we use right with you.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

I I put that on the on the agenda. Um hoping that Mr. Bippu uh would be here and we'd be able to discuss it with him, but not sure if you guys wanted to discuss it anymore. Um, I did provide some more reports for if you need it.

Taunton Debt Share And Rate Math

Rate Change Timing And Process

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Okay, nothing much changed from what we made the presentation. Okay. Well, I have an observation for the let's say for the public to understand. Um we have um we've kind of got to the end of the problem with the city of Taunton, and the debt service is going to be substantial, and uh we've reconfigured the entire budget, trimmed as much as we possibly could, and carried what is a doable number at this particular point in time, so that um we could take care of our obligation when they finally decide to get the let out, so to speak. Um that will require a small adjustment, and it's um relatively speaking a very easy, doable adjustment because a big adjustment was made a number of years ago, uh taking care of an obligation that had to be funded, and we're now going into a big obligation with the city of Taunton. Uh I think we can live with that, and uh, and it should be good for three or four years. Uh there's no way we can ever give you a budget and say your rate's never gonna go up because we don't control so many items in our budget. Uh things that uh come up that we don't control. Uh fortunately, we do have uh we retained earnings, which you need to operate on, and uh uh we've been fortunate enough and uh fiscally responsible to put money aside into a stabilization fund, which this uh department never had, but now does have and we have some two million dollars or so put aside for Taunton's uh big number. Uh I'd be more than willing to tell you what the number was if we knew what the number was. Um give you a round number. Uh they had close to a hundred million dollars worth of new construction on the sewer facility in the city of Tottenham, required by the state and the federal government, of which we have a responsibility of 15.48%. So on a hundred million dollars, we owe fifteen million four hundred and eighty thousand dollars. And if they tell us how their bonding is going to be or how they're gonna uh pay it off, uh we will know how much we have to come up with every year. Yeah, there's a variable way of doing it, uh, the way people do their home mortgages, same amount every month, boom, boom, boom, boom. Or take the principal and pay it down in if it's 25 years, one twenty-fifth of the principal each year plus the interest. And the interest goes down from the starting point. And on a 15.480 uh example that I had the treasurer and uh not the treasurer, excuse me, the accountant in our town offices do, there's a difference of about almost two million dollars in expense. One way it's X, another way it's X minus 200. So I don't know which way they're going to do it. If you go the equal payment on principle, it starts off somewhere about 30% higher than the fixed rate for 25 years. But when you go down further, it's lower. But the difference in it is a savings of almost two million dollars in interest alone. So we have to determine that. I asked the superintendent to go back and look as to when we had adjustments made to our user fees. In 2019, we went from$300 a year to$420 a year. Three years later, we went from$420 to$492. And here we are three years later, we're going to adjust the rent, the user fees rather, but not that much. The final number hasn't been determined, but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of$2 a month. So it's$24 a year. Uh we try to keep it to a minimum so that you can kind of plan on what happens and um a budget is a budget, but the cost of everything is crazy as you know. Um we had an operating budget for FY24 of$3,011,455. And we have uh an operating budget for FY26 of$3,106,364. So you can see that that went up somewhere in the neighborhood of$95,000 from 24 to 26. And we're trying to keep it as close as we possibly can as we go forward. Nobody likes to have to raise the rates, but we have to pay our bills and we have to make sure we're responsible and we protect our system and have a little money in case of a rainy day need. So that's my comment. Uh more than happy to explain anytime you might want to come down and talk to us. Uh, you know where you can find me? Uh one of the stories, I think, and you never ever found anybody who said that Joe Bettencourt wouldn't talk. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Jeff, do you have any comments? I would just say that uh Rob did a very thorough job and and several options were entertained, and this was your recommendation that that mild increase at 4.88. Yes. And we followed his recommendation. So it was with due diligence and good homework and and a lot of discussion. So yeah, good job, and I think it is the right way. Those are my comments.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

We are looking for some additional input from Mr. Beckle, I believe, it uh next month.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Well, yes, I would uh uh before we vote the budget, I would like him to be able to give us his uh opinion uh of what he thinks. Uh the budget was created by our superintendent, he knows what the needs are. And uh refinement of the budget was joint between he and I doing certain things with the certain line items.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

And um, we start much earlier in this you generally mid-January you enter, or usually right at the end of December.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

I start trying to work on it, but usually you have to wait for some numbers from the billing. Yeah, uh, we were able to use some of the billing numbers from previous and adjust it that way. It has to be submitted by February one. Usually end of February, February. Yeah, yeah. But we need to change our rates, and our rates are gonna uh next billing cycle starting January 1st will be the new rate. So we need to actually get that decided. Well, that's simple.

Seasonal Closing And Adjournment

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yeah, that's that's the revenue. The revenue when we the rate changes, but you're not paying the rate, the increase, until after July. Right. It's to take the revenue into the fiscal year. As compared to many years, you had a half a year of one budget, half a year of the other budget. And we converted to setting the revenue to the fiscal year. That confused the town of Hall quite a bit when we did it. Because they were still talking about yeah, we do that, but it It it's it has been and when on a cash basis is not December, it's June thirty. So I'm happy. I look forward to Mr. Bickle's thoughts. Yes. Always open to it, and then we will m we will move relatively fast on this. If not uh in January, uh it'd be done easily in February because we have all the homework done, and if we have to refine with anything, and if by chance the city of talk wakes up and says, ooh, we can do what we have to do and make the big hit all at once. Any emergency business? No commission report, no public forum, press time. Press time. That's true. Any questions from our person who was recording this?

SPEAKER_03 23:00

No.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

All we got was that happy smile. Okay, that's good. Well, prior to asking for a motion to adjourn and perform administrative duties only, we're at that time of year. Uh the holidays are here. We've had Thanksgiving. I think maybe we're just getting over the overindulgence with the turkey. People are only sleeping eight hours a day instead of 14 with the turkey. And uh we're about to celebrate Hanukkah and uh sunset on the 14th, and Gwaza is on December 26th, and Christmas is on the 25th. So, whichever holiday you celebrate, I wish you the best, and I offer you the hope of a happy, healthy new year, and we'll see you in 26. I'll second that. Motion to adjourn. Second. Motion made by Mr. Batancourt, seconded by Mr. Kelleher. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We are adjourned at 626. Thank you very much. See you next year.