Stand by. Welcome to the June 2nd, 2025 meeting of the Long Meadow Select Board. This is select board chair Veneathy. I'll be confirming that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Dan Zoro here. Andrew Lamb
here. Mark Gold here. Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Lynn Simmons here. Mike Barberry here. Peggy Sheldon here. This open meeting of the Long Meadow Select Board is convened in person and via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda and town's website identifying how the public may join. There is no chat or Q&A
function. All the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda posted on long meadowm.gov. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda unless I note otherwise. This meeting will feature resident comment. For residents attending the meeting in person, please raise your hand when we get to the comment section
of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the microphone. For residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format, please use the raise hand icon at the bottom of the screen. The meeting moderator will promote you to panelist, unmute you, and give you permission to speak. If you join the webinar, oh man, I just lost this. Uh,
if you join the webinar, star nine, star nine to raise your hand. You think I know this down by now. Uh, and star six to mute unmute. Residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses. Each individual is afforded three minutes for comments. Please note that this meeting is being
recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference. Please remember to mute your phone or computer when you're not speaking. If anyone in attendance is recording this meeting, please announce yourself now. All right. Uh we'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, and we'll move into select board announcements. Just a couple of announcements tonight. The annual town election will be held tomorrow, Tuesday,
June 3rd, at the Long Meadow Community House. Polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. For additional information, including the sample ballot and voter resources, please visit long memma.gov/elections. And Long Meadow's annual shredding event will be held on Saturday, June 7th from 9:00 a.m. to
11:00 a.m. at the Long Meadow High School student parking lot. For additional information, please visit long meadowmma.gov/civical alerts. And with that, we will move into resident comments. Um, any any folks
online here for resident comment? No. Okay. All right. Uh, then we will move into select board comments. Um, I just have couple of quick comments. Um, I know that Lynn talks about this in her town manager report, but just wanted to quickly say that the Memorial Day uh
ceremony was uh great this year as it is every year and just want to thank uh Lena Vuro and Earl Godfrey for all the work that they do and putting that event together. And then also uh as mentioned, we have our annual town election tomorrow and wanted to thank our town clerk, assistant town clerk and all of
our volunteers, police officers who do such a great job of making sure everything runs smoothly. And you know, we just did this less than a month ago. Um, and so to be doing it again tomorrow, I know is kind of a strain. And so the town is thankful uh to everyone involved for their efforts. And
uh want to thank all the candidates for running and wish everyone good luck. Okay. Uh any other comments? Andrew. Uh so last week, just to keep everyone informed, I was invited to a session at First Church and they are planning to initiate a capital campaign
in 2026 to help improve and maintain their building. Uh this is obviously a church with its own congregation, but I think everybody would agree that this is a very historically significant uh building and a very visible uh structure in our town. And they asked me to raise help raise awareness of their efforts. And I said I'd be happy to. Uh they're
planning to raise about $3 million ideally to help with projects like painting the entire exterior. You can imagine that's a huge job. Uh upgrading and repairing windows, fixing the ceiling of Bailey Hall, which has had some damage, rehab rehabilitating like an elevator in the building. um
repairing some flat roof membranes. They are enormously grateful to the town, which in the last town meeting gave over $400,000 to help them uh with repairing their um their slate roof using CPC funds. And they also hope to raise hundreds of thousands from grants and
their own congregation, of course. But I know that when the time comes, they will appreciate any donations from our community to help keep the church looking beautiful in our town green. And they also want to raise awareness of the many programs and events that occur in the church like last week's witness stone ceremony which was fantastic. Um
also AA meetings, a monastery school concerts. Um and I think we can all imagine that historic churches like this are very costly to maintain. There's many examples of churches that fall into disrepair and are abandoned. So I just wanted to bring this everyone's attention and I encourage anyone who wants to help support their efforts or
feels moved to do so next year, please do. Thanks. Thank you. Any other comments? Yeah. Yeah. I just uh I just want to make a comment regarding Memorial Day. Uh Venit did an excellent job I think you know recognizing uh the select board the the town of Long Meadow and also uh Lynn I say this every year
but Lynn makes an effort to always uh come up come out and show up uh to the Memorial Day events and she did a great job as well and Lynn thank you very much for for coming. Um Burl Godfrey um he always does a great job and Lena as
well. Um, so it was very well attended. I feel like every year we add a little twist to it. It gets better and better. Um, so just a good event. Uh, the other the other event that Andrew mentioned, the witness stone uh event at the first church. This is the second year um that
the community put on this event and it was very very moving. I know I saw Andrew there as well. Um, and this year they recognized two uh enslaved individuals and we that the community uh celebrated their contributions to to our
community and I felt like uh more than ever especially with recent events that have occurred, you know, in our community. I just thought it was a very special time to have everybody um rally around and and recognize um the contributions of these two individuals.
So, um, currently there's four, um, witness stones present and I urge everybody, um, you know, if you're with your kids or walking down, um, in front of the church, uh, to take a look and just admire, um, the stones and and
contributions that all these individuals, uh, made for our community. Um, I think that I think that was that was it, but uh, thank you. Great. Thanks, uh, Mark. Yeah, I have a couple of things. First of all, uh for people
who don't know, today and tomorrow represent the Jewish holidays of Jewish holiday of Shivot. It's commemorates the giving of the ten commandments on Mount Si, which is interesting. And I mention this only because Orthodox Jews will not ride, will not write on on the on the
holiday. Uh those people who live in Long Meadow, and there's quite a number, uh had made provisions to vote early and apparently there was a miscommunication. So, I got some notes and calls from people and and emails. And I want to
thank Mike and Lynn and I guess Tim also in the clerk's office because apparently whatever the miscommunication was was taken care of and everybody felt that they did have a chance to vote and and vote at the proper time. And I'm not sure whether it was like Mike and I talked whether it was using the wrong
terms absentee versus early voting or whatever it was, but they've all been it was all addressed and and it took a lot of coordination. I appreciate that and they appreciate it particularly as well. Uh I was at the math you know the Pioneer Valley
Planning Commission's meeting on on uh traffic study and the Long Meadow L project is continues to fall slip a little bit. Lynn mentioned in her monthly report that uh that the advertisement date is June. It's not
going to happen in June. Hopefully it'll happen in July or August or maybe September. They're still hoping to get it to advertised in the current fiscal year. Uh, and it all has to do with other projects and re changes to the
federal funding, but nevertheless, the the project is going to happen. Uh, and I think it's just going to be a little continues to be a little later than they want it to be, but it will go out to advertisement before the October 1st fiscal year is what they're they're
telling us. Okay. So that's best I can tell you. However, the south half of Route 5, which is project 612257, it's now 2028 kind of and into 2029. And part of the reason is because
the Department of Transportation is pushing all their funds into bridges. Sean, if we can put a couple of bridges in that project, we might get a little bit of of work. And and there's actually I shouldn't speak badly, but the town of Chesterfield had a project and all of a sudden it now took some coverts and
turned them into bridges and boom, they got funded and got funded with priority. So I don't know what the what the going is, but it's uh that's that one's going to be a tough tough go. Uh uh the the but just to look at this whole project,
there's a whole scenario. There is a capital investment plan meeting for the planning commission, department of transportation tomorrow by Zoom. I don't know if Sean if you got got that notice at the DPW. It's tomorrow at 4:00 by Zoom. And I think somebody might want to
listen in because it it might tell us what's going on. I don't know that it will, but it's the Department of Transport, Mass Department of Transportation. Uh the the Pioner Valley Transit Authority, I also went to that meeting. They they did set a budget for the
fiscal year 2026. Uh their budget is highly dependent upon state aid uh what they call regional trans transit authorities which is the bus transportation programs. There's one tape in the islands, there's you know Worcester, there's Springfield, there's
Birkshire kind of thing. They were level funded. All the money increase for transportation went to the MBTA in Boston. And so the PBTA is kind of short a little bit on their their funds. They're going to be using some money from their federal funds to balance the
budget, but the free fair that they are now is not guaranteed much past October, November. Uh if people are interested or concerned, please write uh the PVTA, write your Congress people, whoever it is to make sure that the PVTA will
continue to be fair free fair free. It has been extraordinarily uh popular. It has increased writership tremendously and it's in danger because of a lack of a lack of funding. That's my report. Thank you. Um and now we'll
move into the town managers report. Thank you. Um so tonight um I have an update on the middle school project. The preferred schematic design was submitted to MSBA on May 1st. The MSBA board of directors is scheduled to vote on the town's submission on June 18th. From the
date of that vote, the town then has 120 days to secure funding for the project. The 120day deadline uh brings us to October 16th. And just as a reminder, the special town meeting on the borrowing authorization is scheduled for September 8th. And the ballot question on the debt exclusion is scheduled for
September 30th. Uh, an update on the commercial vehicle bylaw change that took place at our annual town meeting. On the advice of town council, code enforcement will not enforce commercial vehicles that fall within the allowance of the by the citizen petition until the attorney
general's office weighs in on the bylaw amendment. Uh, the code enforcement will continue to enforce vehicles that are wrapped or specialized commercial vehicles. the municipal aggregation plan. Um, an update on that. We Good Energy, our
consultant assisting on our aggregation plan, uh, solicited bids on May 20th on the town's behalf for an energy supplier with the criteria that had been previously voted on by the select board. The contract was awarded to Direct Energy. Informationational material is
being prepared to be mailed out to households in early June. The information will show uh the different options of plans and cost savings from what uh residents currently have with Eversource. We were only able to lock in for 15 months to still show a cost
savings, but even that short amount of time we still felt was worth it. A public hearing will be announced um in theformational material and that is scheduled for July 8th at 6:30 p.m. at Greenwood Center. And there will also be a virtual component. Again, um, as was mentioned
during select board comments, we had a great Memorial Day ceremony on the green on May 26th. This was the town's 150th Memorial Day, uh, ceremony on the green. I think it was 155th, if I I think that was a typo. Uh, thank you to um, US Air
Force Veteran and Commander of American Legion Post 175, Earl Godfrey, and our veteran services director, Lena Velur, for putting this ceremony together. An update on road resurfacing. As reported at the May 19th select board
meeting, Karacus Construction has begun drainage work on Shaker Road as part of this resurfacing project. Drainage work on Shaker should be completed by the midJune and then additional crews will begin work on other streets as part of the contract. All the drainage work is anticipated to be completed by the end
of July, early August. Karakas plans to begin the mill and overlay section of the project the first week in August. Obviously, this schedule is subject to change uh based on weather and additional information and updates, including a list of the streets that are going to be paved, can be found on the
DPW's website. And lastly, we have launched a survey seeking public input on the future use of town hall, community house, and old town hall. The town is evaluating these buildings to determine necessary improvements and explore future uses. The buildings are
currently vacant or underutilized and would require renovation to make them ADA compliant. We want the public's feedback to help guide our planning efforts and ensure that the spaces meet the community's needs. The survey is intended forformational purposes only and makes no assumptions about future
use or whether the zoning districts where the properties are located would allow such uses. So, we ask everyone to please take a few minutes to share your thoughts and complete the survey. It's linked on the town website and also here in my report. And that concludes my report tonight. Great. Thank you. I just
want to quickly say that I really like the uh road resurfacing page that's out there. I think I mentioned to Mike maybe a few months ago, like another town I'd seen had done it and was great and um and it's awesome to see that we're doing it. I think it's really helpful to have this to point residents to uh throughout
the summer. Um but that's that's all I had. Anything else from the select board? Dan, um thank you, Lyn. I think you said September 8th, isn't it? September 9th. T it would be a Tuesday. It's a Tuesday. Do I have the wrong date? September 9th. It's fine. Thank you. September 9th.
Everyone show up on September 8th. Mark. Yeah. I I'd like to just mention a a little a second a little bit more about municipal aggregation. Lynn kind of briefly spoke on it, but it's I think it's very important for the town residents to understand what that is.
This is a town program. the town is purchasing electricity and offering it to to residents for their residential use. As Lynn indicated, we're able only able to lock in for 15 months to still have savings. So that 15-month contract that's going to be sent to folks in the
mail is a lower rate than Eversource. The what we hope that people will see is that Eversource only can lock in rates for six months and we've locked it in for 15. six months from now the winter comes and the next cycle
comes it would be nice to think that Eversource's price are going up. If they do our our deal looks even better if they don't people can opt out u and and take the the better if Eversource is a is a better deal. We don't anticipate
Eversource will ever be a better deal but one never knows and so there is that opt out capability. So when people look at this recognize what they're getting is not only a lower rate but but consistency over a longer period of time than they get with this every six months
ever source up and or down or up and up. So just wanted to make sure people heard that because there will be a lot of stuff coming in the mail. Great. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Thanks a lot. Um we have the our next item is the uh liquor license amend
public hearing but that's scheduled for 7:30. So we will move on to the agenda item after that which is approval of meeting minutes and I will uh you know any discussion on that or motions I'll entertain. Yeah, Mark.
I mean, we can go through these one by one, beneath, and I I'll I'll make a motion to approve and and I I sent comments to to Peggy and Mike. They're almost all I don't know, grammatical or typographical or whatever it is. Uh, and
so I I'll make a motion we approve the April 7th meeting minutes. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor? Great. I'll make a motion we same same goes for
the May May 5th meeting minutes. I'll make a motion we approve the May 5th meeting minutes. Second. Any further discussion? All those in favor. [Music] My watch is talking about beneath. in
terms of May May 19th minutes. Yeah, there was something in there that concerned me and since it's was your comment, I think you ought to take a look at it and you know I'm not I don't want to put words in your mind. Well, I I put in a lot of changes that were again grammatical or typographical,
but there's a section on water rates and what it says in there is Mr. Hmopathy agreed that we keep the same rate as the same as the first three quarters. However, he was not expecting to see the fixed rate for the third quarter rate.
And I thought what you meant to say was Mr. Mr. Amafathy agreed that we keep the same rate as the first two quarters. However, he was not expecting to see the proposed fixed rate for the fourth quarter be the same as the third quarter fixed rate. But before I'm not going to
recommend that change because it puts words in your mouth. I want to make sure that you're okay with that correction. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that seems like just a mistake, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Second quarter. Yeah. First two quarters. Yeah. Okay. We'll clarify it. Okay. I I again I just The others are I
also added a couple I informed Mike about a couple small errors. Easy to fix. With that, I'll make a motion that we accept the minutes of of May 19th. Second. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor? Great. All
right. Um so really cruising through these. The next item is the storm water sewer storm water rates. But I don't think we should start that and talk about for just nine minutes before um so I will entertain a motion to move uh the
town manager annual evaluation uh agenda topic uh to be discussed now. So moved. Second. Okay. Uh any further discussion? All those in favor? All right. Great. Okay. Um so we had a chance to meet in
executive session and uh talk about the job that the town manager has done over the last year and um also just talk about the evaluations that we completed which are attached to the agenda. And I think one thing that we talked about was that there were a lot of the same things
that were kind of mentioned uh throughout the evaluations um and some of the strengths that we that we saw um and also maybe some areas of improvement. But, you know, I think overall, overwhelmingly, you know, we as the select board, we want to let you
know, Lynn, about how much we appreciate the work that you've done. Um, how we really do feel lucky to have you in this position. And I know that some points that were hit on by a few different select board members in the evaluations and in our conversation was just the
recognition of how this past fiscal year presented a lot of different challenges in many different regards. We had a really difficult budget year and I think for me personally, one of the things that I saw you do this year was adapt
the way that we approached the whole budget process and to bring people into the conversation earlier, especially uh talking to the school committee and how much those changes bore fruit and
really made some conversations that could have been difficult later on um really smooth those out and um we ended up even though it had a very difficult budget ended up being able to present a you know a balanced budget and still be able to take care of some priorities
that we wanted to take care of as a town. And I also know that this year there were a lot of different challenges that arose from, you know, from the actions, interactions with elected officials, residents,
staff, everything. And um those are really difficult situations to navigate. And I think you you've just you did such a great job in handling those situations. And it can be, you know, so
easy to, I think, maybe shy away from difficult conversations or difficult decisions, but what you showed throughout all of those different situations was doing the right thing and also
putting the interest of the town uh ahead of ahead of everything else. And I don't, you know, I I don't know a lot of other managers, leaders that could have navigated all those situations so well. So, um, you know, uh, thank you. You know, thank you for all of your work in that regard. And I'll I'll kind of open
it up, um, to other folks to chime in and then we can talk about Yeah. Yeah. Well said, Venith. Um, um, yeah, I mean, like I said, for over the past few years, it's, you know, um, working with you, Lynn, it's, you've been, um, just easy to work with, but
you've also been very detailoriented with, uh, memos. And um I think one of the things I pointed out was your creativity. Um whether it's funding creativity or just other projects that we have going on, I think you always try
to uh you know look at other ways of solving um really difficult problems. And I can always rely on you um to be responsive as well. And sometimes I I feel like maybe I'm being annoying because I'm reaching out on maybe a question that maybe I should know or uh
just a topic that I need to understand a little bit better. And uh you've just been great. And like I said, when I go to all of the MMA events, whether they're regional events or the the annual events every year, like everyone when you're talking to your peers,
everyone speaks so highly of you. and um the relationships that you have with your peers speak volumes and it helps us too with the relationships that you've been able to build I think with board members uh the community leaders um state officials.
So I love what Vene had to say and I mean I just I you know when when we look at we're grading you on all of these different items it's it's difficult for me to find areas where you're lacking. So, I I think we're just so fortunate to
have you and appreciate um staying with us and uh the town is thankful to have you. So, um appreciate everything. I definitely not to belabor the point, but well said, Dan and Beneath. you we've we've had very remarkably
similar praise um and um evaluations and like Dan said like I've always felt you've been very helpful when I've bugged you with questions and also uh like informed me of things that I may not have been aware of and that's very helpful and I really think the budget season was a very difficult one and the
only thing I'd add is that your relationship with the school um leaders the school district leaders was I think invaluable and that just makes everything so much more collegial and cooperative. And when we see like so
many regions and I'm sorry, school district districts in the regions nearby around us having cuts and and not having level services, I think that this is a testament to like the the relationships that you've built in the town and on both sides. So, thanks. Thanks, Mark. I just add that I I've had
the the pleasure luxury or disadvantage of working with three permanent and couple of temporary town managers. And Lyn, I I I know a good town manager now when I work with one and I'm I'm working with one now. I think you're doing a
really good job. Mo most importantly and what I hope you take from this is there are five evaluations that are extraordinarily consistent and that is very meaningful because we've had instances where two
were one way or one was one you know they they they like we're talking about the same person and and so I think it it it's it's important that everybody appears to be on the same page and and they are. So I think you need to walk away from at least tonight but the
year knowing that you're working on the right stuff and the people who you know you report to or who control your fate certainly think that you're doing the right things. Great. Thank you. Can I follow up with a motion? Sure. I'd like to to make a
motion that we adjust Lynn's salary through a percentage raise in an amount consistent with other salaried non-UN employees. That we offer her a $7,500 cash bonus and a $5,000 deferred
compensation bonus, both to be paid from the 2025 fiscal year budget. Further, we will be extending Lynn's contract by two years to expire July 1st, 2028 with an opener on terms and
other benefits to be January 1st, 2028. Second 2026. Oh, sorry. 2020 the extension 2026. 2026. Yeah, the last is 2026. Correct. Thank you, Vinnie. Does that make sense?
Yep. Okay. Glad somebody's listening. One second. Okay. Uh, any further discussion? All those in favor? Great. Thank you. And Venice has to make sure that you email finance. Sorry.
Finance. Um, thank you. Thank you. It means a lot. Um, this job is not an easy one and it doesn't get any easier. there's more familiarity with it, but the issues are more complex. Uh there's more demands on everything as you guys all deal with
yourselves. Um and I would be remiss though if I did not say that none of this is possible without the team that's behind me. They are phenomenal. The best team I've ever worked with. Uh and they show up every single day and give their all and take a beating on some things
and get praise very um minor on other things. Um, but nothing that you've praised me on would be possible without them there with me. But thank you. You're not talking board now. No, I mean, we don't always agree on
everything, but I think we all agree to disagree and have a lot of respect for each other and I think that that shows in the public and that's why we're able to get so much great stuff done. Right. Great. Yeah. and and Lynn, I think um just where our thinking was with the two-year contract extension was this was
just to show a sort of vote of confidence that um in your in your the work that you're doing, especially since you had one year left on your contract. Uh but we also do recognize that it is time to negotiate terms and look at the contract as a whole. So that's why we
wanted to allow that negotiation still, you know, occur next year, but just wanted to extend that to just show. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. Y great. Thank you. Um All right, moving back into the uh liquor license uh
public hearing. Um are the folks online? Yep, they're great. Okay. Um so, entertain a motion to move into a public hearing for the liquor license amendment change of ownership. They're good. Second. Okay. Any further discussion?
All right. All those in favor? Great. Thank you. All right. Um, so we're here to discuss um the change of ownership interest and the liquor license for Maxburgger Long Meadow LLC. Um, if the folks that are here to discuss it could just quickly
introduce yourselves, that'd be great. Um, let's see. I Looks like they're talking, right? Yeah. I don't Sorry, Rachel. Sorry, Scott. One sec. We're gonna try to fix Oh, yeah. One second. I'm just going to move them in as
panelists instead. Um, we just gave them a permission to talk, but I'm just going to move them in as panelists instead. So, it's okay. All right. You guys can try to try now, I think. Can you hear us? Okay. Required it, but
the state didn't. If you recall, we adopted a a remote participation. All right. I guess Mike, can you guys hear us? Yes, we can hear. Rachel, we can hear you. You can hear me? Yes. Okay, perfect. Hello. I am attorney Rachel Fancy here on behalf of
the petitioner. Uh, I'm out of Fitzgerald Law out in East Long Meadow. offices at 46 Center Square East Long Meadow. Uh, as mentioned uh by the chair moments before I got on and got access to the mic, we're here for a change of
ownership application. What is actually changing is not the ownership itself of the license. It's just the underlying ownership of the owner of the license. So for a highle view, um, Max Burger Long Long Meadow LLC is owned by Max
Hospitality. Um that is not changing. Just some of the owners of Max Hospitality had two changes over the past two years and due to both changes sort of occurring simultaneously. We thought this was the best time to sort of get both done uh rather than doing one and then coming back again for the
second one. So we waited a little and then that is why we have two before you. One for 2023 and one for 2024. Diving into the 2023 uh transaction. The 2023 transaction was a redemption of some membership. So essentially Max
Hospitality redeemed shares and membership from a few members who are no longer affiliated with the the organization. And so that just got reabsorbed and redistributed throughout Max Hospitality. The 2024 transaction on the other hand was Max Hospitality
elected to give certain employees who had been long-standing well-known employees with their institution shares in their overall corporate structure. So they created a certain subsect of membership and gave those uh individuals ownership as sort of a a sign of
goodwill and uh continued growth with them within the organization. I am joined today if you have any ownership questions with Scott Smith who is the manager of Max Hospitality uh and happy to answer any sort of questions but overall this is just a small in-house
sort of change. It's not going to be a major overhaul of any sort of organizational stuff. There is not going to be any major changes to Max uh hospitality or Max Burger Long Meadow. It's just a small change and these two things just so happen to happen in 2023
and 2024. So, we waited to get this all through. Now, happy to answer any questions that the board might have. I know I talked a little fast, so happy to revisit anything. No, no. Thank you so much. Yeah, I know. I I I looked through the documents. Everything looked good to me. And I know that I have not done this uh since I've been on the select board,
but from what I understand, this is pretty much a wrote procedural paperwork kind of thing that just uh just needs to happen. Um so, I I don't have any particular questions. Um I don't know if anyone else from the board does. Yeah, Mark. Yeah, Rachel, this is Mark Gold. I
just want to to confirm there will be no change to the management at Max Burger in in Long Meadow. Is that what I heard you say? Yes, correct. It's just going to be the underlying ownership of Max Hospitality that's changing, which is the owner of the license itself.
Great. Thank you. Um, anything else from the board? All right, that was easy. Um, let's uh so we will unless uh Mr. Smith, did you have something you wanted to share or No. Uh I did want to recognize that uh James Stone, our general manager
in Long Meadow um is one of our new partners. So uh if any of you stopped by uh Max Burger or Long Meadow, please congratulate him. He's worked very hard and he's a great part of the restaurant, a great part of your community. No, absolutely. I I will second that. Um great. Um, so if nothing further, um, I
will, uh, entertain a motion to close this public hearing. So, move. Okay. Second. All right. Any further discussion? All right. I'll No, no, I was getting ready to vote. Okay. U all those in favor?
All right. Great. And, uh, Mike, do we need to do this? I would vote on I would vote on them separately. Okay. Just to keep it clean. All right. Um um I will um entertain a motion to approve the 2020 2023 ownership interest
um in the uh in Maxburgger Law LLC liquor license. So moved. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? Right. All those in favor? Okay. And I will entertain a motion to approve the 2024 ownership
interest um application for the uh liquor license at the Max Long Meadow LLC. So moved. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor? All right. Thank you so much uh attorney Fancy and uh Mr. Smith for joining us
tonight. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Now we will move into the water, sewer, storm water rate discussion. And uh I know we've got Lisa and Sean here from
the DPW and Ian from our finance director. And um I believe we have some slides to Yep. put up on screen. Yes, we do. And I will, you know, once this all gets set, I'll turn over to you guys to I already
had make the presentation. Yep. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. We do have a a brief PowerPoint or a brief slide presentation for you tonight to just uh kind of kick off the discussion. Um I will we're going to share it. Um we
each have slides to go over with you. Um and I would ask that we have questions at the end so we can keep our flow going. Um so obviously you know we're here tonight for the FY26 water, sewer, and storm water rates. Uh just a brief overview. on the next
slide of what we're um what we're talking about. Is there any way to make it bigger? Yeah, thanks. So, um so these are just some of the goals that um you'll see are unique
to the recent Taiin bond study, but also most of them um are goals that we have of the utility no matter what study exists or not. Um, but we need to fund our current and future capital projects. Uh, and then the Titan bond study
recommended that $1 million in retained earnings. This is not something we're looking to get to in the first year, but we do have a staggered approach over the next four to five years. All of that obviously is dependent on um, you know, revenue, but the goal would be to build
up to a $1 million uh, reserve in retained earnings. Uh we're obviously with our rates looking to cover our operating costs and then any debt service costs that we've already committed to for projects that uh were underway or have wrapped up but
we're still paying for. Um the overall theme always is to minimize the impact to rateayers. We don't want to make it so costly that um we make it a burden on residents, but we need to make sure that we're providing them um the the best uh
water and sewer distribution service that they can have. And then as you know um very well, we have a lot of aging infrastructure and we need to come up with a responsible plan to start chipping away at that. We've made some
great efforts on road resurfacing and we need to match that on the water sewer front. So, you'll see a lot of that as we get down into talking about our capital plan. Um, but that's really just an overview of what went into our presentation this year.
All right, that kicks it off to our financial considerations. So, the biggest piece of this, of course, is the operating budget for each of the enterprise funds. So, this represents the amount that was approved at town meeting for the water, sewer, and storm
water enterprise funds, the 4.2 million, the 2.5, and the 1.3 million, respectively. As Lynn alluded to earlier, um our considerations today include the retained earnings target of a million dollars. The water and sewer
enterprise both have a policy target of 500,000 as a minimum balance and then a maximum of 1.5 million as per the current policy with our goal being to fund this policy over a four to fiveyear period. The presentation today will
represent a 4-year funding of this retained earnings target. uh within the operating budget includes the debt service which is represented below for both water and sewer and as recommended by the time bond study uh it
includes um capital projects for a multi-year funding schedule as Sean will discuss later in the presentation. So given those financial considerations uh we have recommendations in terms of the rates. One second. I'm just going to
try to open this up wider. Sure. Yeah, that's fine. Not sure if that's much better. Sorry. Nope. I like it better than time. If you close the tools, did it go bigger? It it it didn't look like it was on my end before I was sharing it. Sorry about
that. All right. I just shared it with you on Google Slides. Yeah, that might be better. So, while we wait for Mike to pull it up, I guess we'll just talk about the rates as a whole and what they represent. So as you saw to the considerations page before um when we
take when we look at the rate we are looking at our annual operating budget plus anticipated capital outlays as recommended by time bond plus the funding of retained earnings and that gives us our total uses that represents what the enterprises each need to fund
in order to sustain maintain and grow our water and sewer systems. So, as you'll see with the different rates, um, we have a couple of different options for you. Um, thank you, Mike. No problem.
So, the two that we'll talk about first are the water and sewer as those will have the most discussion. Um, so above you'll see uh tiered rates for the water enterprise fund with a 200% fixed meter
charge and a 300% fixed meter charge. I think it's helpful understand where we came up with the 200 and 300% of the fixed meter charge. I think it's important to note that at prior select board meetings there was both
collaboration and understanding that fixed rates are easier to control. So with a fixed rate, a resident knows what they're going to get going in. It's a set rate and we can bill it on a quarterly basis. Whereas with your variable rates, it's much more dependent
on what your actual usage is. So, it's a lot more different to control. So, with a 200% rate increase, it's helpful to understand what that means for a resident. Every 10% increase in the quarterly rate generates about a
$2.92 increase in a resident's bill. Every 100% increase on the quarterly rate generates about a $29 increase on the water bill. So for a 300% increase in the t in the fixed meter rates, we're talking about
an $87 increase in a resident's water bill just on fixed rates. I think it's important to understand that because it's much easier for us to recommend a change in the fixed rates when a resident can know immediately
what the difference is in their bill on a year-to-year basis. Now that's another point is that 86% and 87% of your residents for water and sewer are 3/4 in and 5/8 inch. So that
increase of about $87 is going to be a large majority of your population. So where that looks to for the tiered rate in terms of the variable rate is a $6.34 per unit for 200% or a $6.7 unit
for 300%. As you'll see with an increasing fixed rate, it drives down the total um fixed rate and the variable rate. In terms of the tiered rate piece, tier
one, which is your under 25 units, would be at $546. Tier two would be at $6.28. And tier three would be at 723. For 200% be $5.70, $6.56, and $7.58
for each of the three tiers. The predominant users of tier one are the largest percentage of your base. And we felt that with a tiered rate, this would capture the largest percentage of your residents who would not see a substantial change in their rates on a
year-to-year basis. Lisa put together a a chart that shows the change in user rates on a year-to-year basis, which is which was sent to you previously. For the sewer piece of this, uh the same thing applies. We would be
recommending a tiered rate which would follow the 203% fixed rate change as well as the um the change in the water and sewer rates for the storm water. This is a
much smaller equation. This would be a change to a $9.74 for a estimated revenue unit which at an annual rate is about 11684. Next slide. Next slide. So I'll go through some of the projects that we've come up with. Um some of
these products are referenced in the time bond study. Some of them come up from Fuss O'Neal and multiple other um firms we worked with. A lot of this stuff come has been um brought forth in house. Tim Keane the town engineer is also the water commissioner in Holio. So we have a pretty good depth of
understanding of the system and how to run one. Um the the the first one you'll see there is redundant water tank analysis that we just um completed which is to look at um what another tank in town looks like in case there is a fire or we have another um issue with um a
water main break in Springfield that we can't provide enough water. Um it gives us some leeway um especially in the high use seasons. I think you remember maybe it was a year or two ago there was a break in Springfield. Our water tanks were drawn down. That put us in a very vulnerable position in terms of putting
out fires. Um it also puts us in a vulnerable position. If we have to rely on Springfield to fix a water leak and it takes a couple days, we will have no water. That's why you'll see the second um priority product is the interconnection study, feasibility study with Enfield, which we just recently
recently completed. Um, so we'll be coming forward with a memo to you guys this summer, hopefully laying out both of these projects, what they mean, and um what the benefits are and costs hopefully rough cost for both of them are. If you decide to move forward with one or both of the projects, we will
have to fund full design. Um, the other project you'll see there is a Western Drive waterline project. That project is fully designed and ready to go. We had hoped to go out to bid now for this project, but unfortunately we're not able to. Um, one thing to consider with that project is when I first started
here and we're trying to merge these capital plans together, it was obvious we we were paving roads that were going to have immediate um, needs to replace the water and sewer lines. So, we're having new roads bust apart because we weren't doing the infrastructure in the linear progression in which they should be done. So, Western Drive was scheduled
to be paved a couple years ago. We pulled that so we could do the water and sewer line project um, first. So, that's why that product stands there. Um, part of that project is to repave that road using the enterprise funds. Um, so there and the and obviously the next project is the sewer line. You're doing the
water, you might as well do the sewer line in Western Drive and the sewer side. Um, you should do everything at once if you can. Obviously, um, the sewer system is is a little bit easier to replace than the water system. Um, because the technology exists to slip line a great deal of the mains, which is
a cost savings. you sort of you run like a snake through the lines and it reh hardens and you get quite a bit of uh life out of um those sewer lines without having to rip them up out of the ground. But it's important to do those sewer lines when you can still slip line before they get to the place where they
disintegrate. So it's again a cost benefit to get in front of these projects before they collapse completely and you're doing um everything from a reactive manner. The other project you'll see up there is the Raspberry B repairs and the storm water that was talked about at um town meeting I
believe. Um, so yeah, we have um I forget that was the uh the Colbert. So it's in the capital plan for this year. I don't want if you want to go through all these. No, I just touch on it. All right. Um, so some of these were already discussed. I do want to mention
that this plan um really started to come together my second year here and it's a living document. There is stuff that's always added. We get together as a team pretty consistently to throw things on there. I think thought of one we're missing already. So, this is not set in stone, but this stuff as it comes up, we
we try to put it in and and you guys have been given this normally, I think, with your with your budgets um annually. So, the last two years, you should had some version of this in in Excel. Um it is a lot. Um there's a lot that goes into it. I think it's important to understand that when these projects come
about, there's sometimes a feasibility study before there's the the engineering, before there's an actual budget number that then goes into construction. It's a three to four year process, which is why you'll see me get a little bit um nervous when we talk about products two or three years out. We need to start getting in front of
that stuff, especially this waterline projects. They need to be designed out to bid with a good period of time for the contractor to do the work and hopefully give that water line a year to settle before we come back into pave. So if any um problems with the water line emerge, we still have the uh warranty
from the previous contractor and then we're that allows things to settle. So there's a lot of moving um moving parts to this. And you might remember me bringing up the project on Shaker Road, the water line project, which you'll see up there. When we go to pave a road, if we know we are going to come back within
10 years to to fix the water system, we're not going to put as much money into the paving because you want to have a road that lasts 20 years. when you repave it, you repave it, right? But if you know you're going to be back doing the water system, you can do a little bit of a more temporary paving and then come back later um and do the water and
sewer system hopefully. So, there's a lot of moving stuff and while all this is going on, we're also looking at grants and trying to figure out how to do preliminary engineering to pull in a grant and coordinate all that. So, there's lots and lots of stuff going on. One project I think the area around
Bliss we don't have up here yet, but it will be. There's going to be some stuff we'll have to do. hopefully stuff we can get a mass works grant to cover, but all that requires a lot of flexibility in terms of the capital budget, a lot of flexibility in terms of our uh ability to pivot this stuff and have stuff shovel ready. Uh we didn't have a lot of
engineering money to start a couple years back. We've gotten to that point through a couple years of funding to get a lot of this stuff started and the ball moving with these projects. So, um you know, we're we're in a decent shape as terms of our plan. There is stuff to do, but we will need direction about what we
can and can't do. Um, and that's really got to come from you guys. You'll see a ton of stuff up here. Um, some of the stuff we t touched upon, we do have another valve in the force main um down in the in the um that goes to sewer main that goes to Springfield that is going to it's invulnerable. We're going to
have to get that fixed. Um, there's some sizable projects up here. Um, sorry, I can't see. I know it's small. I think it'd probably be more pertinent if anything popped up that you guys, you know, afterwards wanted to talk about, I could give you more specificity with them. But, um, you'll see some
reoccurring stuff as well in terms of catch basin repairs, u, repairs, the storm water system, and this various, um, water and sewer line projects that hopefully we're coordinating two or three years in front of our paving. Um, so there's sometimes there's a blank line as this various uh, water line,
various sewer line projects. Um, we're not trying to fix everything. We're really just trying to slip through the stuff that makes the most sense and um, gives us the most sort of bang for the buck. Um, there's a lot of coverts that we have had almost no no real funding for. We've done maybe two in the last
few years that I can think of. Um, those are a major major um, vulnerability and the cost for each of them is like between a half a million and a million dollars. So you do one of those every couple years and it eats up the entire capital budget. Um, so we need to do design for those and hopefully get a
couple grants, but the grants for the culverts are very few and far between. Um, continuing our valve exercising program, which had been let let go. That's another one that we need to keep doing. We don't have the staff to do it in house nor um nor the time. So, we've
had to put that up to bid and we're starting a process of doing that. Uh, if we don't do that, then we will not be able to isolate leaks when we do have them. And it creates a headache and it is a it makes a danger if there is a fire. So, Yeah. Um I just want to add here um one
thing that's really glaring um more so for for you guys to know and because this is something I've seen myself. If you go back and look at our capital plans, our five-year plans, even go back to 21 or 20 and go and look at this current year's 5-year capital plan, they
are vastly different. And that's directly attributed to Sean's work and the DPW's team work to fully capture all of the scope of what's on their plate. It's everything from buildings and roads, but also the the massive impact that they've made in water, sewer, and
storm water. Just making sure they have everything captured so that we know what we're responsible for. Um I I would just encourage you to just to do it just to see the the massive difference between um leadership levels at the DPW over the last couple years. Um it's it's really
impressive and it makes it easier that you know the numbers are staggering but it makes it easier in terms of uh planning and knowing what we have ahead of us. So next steps um as the water com and sewer commissioners uh you will need to set a water rate for both a fixed charge
and the unit rate. Uh that could be the tiered rate or a non-tiered rate. Uh Ununice does have the capability to easily put in a tiered rate system. It would automatically look at every user and correctly bill what units fall into which tier. And then sewer, you'll have
your fixed charge in your sewer rate and we would like to maintain that 55 unit cut off for April through June and July through September quarters. Um for the residential, all the rates were calculated with that in mind um that we were using that type of unit total as
the average. And then storm water is a rate uh that residential users get one unit per month. And then um commercial has a multiplier on that for how big of a property of um impervious service they
have. So other considerations um I know there's been some discussion of having a lowinccome veteran or senior discount. Um we did put that in our memo as well for some options of that. Um right now it was just those who qualify through the assessor's office. Um they
are the same residents who get a storm water discount right now. Um, with that said, if you wanted to expand it further, the rate for people who are not getting the discount may need to increase to compensate. Um, we also would like want to look at the billing
schedule uh to be that rates are instituted April 1st through May 31st of the following year. Um, this would help match the rate with the fiscal year uh revenue and expenses. Uh we did ask a
few other communities around us that are on a quarterly basis do they you know do July 1st or do they do April 1st and we did receive back that they are doing April 1 to help match this. And then lastly would be um maybe down the road to look at the bylaws. Um some of that
has not been updated in many years. One thing that comes to mind is um Sean Lynn and Ian are signing off on abatements where I believe the bylaws say that as commissioners you would be. So, some stuff like that just to update and make sure that it's all what is happening or
what should be happening. Great. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Um I'm sure that there are a lot of questions, comments from the select board. So, I will uh I'll jump right in uh and ask a few questions. So, um, you
all talked about needing the redundant water tank and the, uh, interconnection and I guess if you all could just kind of speak a little bit more about the importance of doing that. Are there is this something that other communities
do? Um, you know, for me, when I'm listening to this presentation and I think about our aging infrastructure, that also makes me think that it there's more of a need for this. Um, and I don't know if that's correct, uh, but if there are any, you know, specific conditions maybe that make it more important for
Long Meadow or whether this is kind of like a normal practice, uh, amongst towns. Sure. So, I've managed a few water systems that had interconnections with their communities. Um, partly because we didn't have enough um, left water in a reservoir, but other times just to make sure there's redundancy in case there's some issue, which could
happen at a pump station any time. So, obviously redundancy is good for insurance. Long middle is specifically vulnerable because of the amount of flow that comes in the summer with the amount of irrigation and our tanks could get drawn down during high use usage periods to a level that we don't have fire
protection. It hits that very very often in a regular summer. We do have the ability to go in and turn the pumps on to add more flow, but we're still pushing it, which is why when we had that drought a little while ago, we had some some nervousness about the the um the flow. or if we had an electrical
issue at our pump station, we could have something happen in in Springfield during their upgrade, which very recently there was a warning about that they expected there to be some hiccups um and that communities locally should prepare for that, that there could be a loss of water. I believe a report was
drafted 15 or 20 years ago, uh stating that we probably should look at interconnection that at that time um it wasn't follow through upon for whatever reason. beyond both of those. Um I think well so fire protection number one increased head pressure and the the high
probability that the distribution system in Springfield beyond their mechanical pumping is going to have a a catastrophic failure at some point and at some point the communities that pull from Springfield are likely going to have um a loss of water for several days in which case the tanks will not be
enough and we will have no water. Um that is a major major vulnerability and it's something that you guys should to think about um addressing um and some I mean you could do the tank, you could do interconnection, you could do both, you could do neither, but you should know what the risks are going forward. Okay. And then the interconnection is with
would be with Enfield. Yes. Correct. Okay. Um and then Okay. Um so um kind of I'm going to be kind of just jumping around a little bit. Um right now there's work being done on Shaker Road. Um it's also on capital
plan for TW FY2027. So could you kind of just um walk through what this what the kind of overall plan for Shaker Road is because I know this a road that we hear about all the time and everything. I think that there had been before I arrived some hesitency to go to Shaker Road because of some pipeline thing which is nothing to do with me or and I
said well the road's in catastrophic failure. We hear about it all the time. So we are right now doing the drainage, not the full drainage system, but the the catch basins and a mill and overlay of that road to put in a decent course to to last for for 10 years or so. Um it
is not a full depth sort of rebuild in the way that you really would like to with the base being ripped out. Um knowing full well we're going to have to come back to redo the sewer and water at some point. Um so that that's just considerations. If you're going to come in and build Route Rout route five over
like we're going to next year, it's a it's a bigger pro. Well, not necessarily all, but it's a big process when you're doing a full road reclamation reconstruction versus a mill overlay, which is what we're doing in some of these roads, knowing that we're going to be coming back to do the water and sewer later. Okay.
Sorry, I was just going to add um I I um in these five-year plans, they are a best guess estimate. So, the only thing we know for c for certain is that upcoming fiscal year. everything in the outy years is really just like we're placing it there. We know it's it needs
to get done, but it shifts a lot. And so I think looking at this thinking, well FY27's not that far off. We haven't even paved Shaker yet. That doesn't make sense. So it's just a no it's coming. Okay. I will 100% certain say Shaker Road is not getting water lines in FY27.
But there's if if if some manner, let's just say, not saying it will happen, the gas company was to come through and they would want to rip up that new road, we would want to make sure to say, "Well, no, and if you do, if it happened, we're doing our water and sewer, by the way, and then maybe you guys rebuild our road
for us if something like that was to happen." Yeah. Okay. Got it. Uh, that makes sense. Um, yeah, I think thank you for that clarification. Um, I think that's that's important. Um, also, uh, I I emailed you all, um, a question about the south end of Long
Meadow Street and and Mark mentioned that, you know, that there's talks about this maybe starting beginning in 2028. And for me, in my time on the select board, I've seen that delays can come from, you know, all sorts of different places. So, this makes me nervous even though we're three years three years
out, like I I feel like from what I've seen, it's important to get the design and engineering going on this. Um and so uh could you maybe speak to that? Sure. So I think a good example would be what we're going through right now with the L project. Although that project's been
delayed. Um we're 3 months from having a we would have been three months from having a problem with our current schedule. There was a chance that the state could have gone out to bid and started right now and we wouldn't be done with our water project. So, we want to make sure the design is done and we would like ideally a year for that water
and sewer line work to settle for everything to be done before the state comes in and does their work. You don't want to be doing them concurrently or even close to each other. It's just a bad idea, especially if someone was to fall off the tip, which does happen, and we were to be move forward on it, which
has happened. I've had products go forward. Doesn't happen that often now, but it does happen. We would want to be ready. So I I think and and it it makes perfect sense to make sure your design is done and to give the contractor as much time as possible to do the project because you get the best deal from them.
Okay, great. And then um so you all are also recommending tiered rates uh which is different than what has been done in Long Meadow historically. And so um you know this kind of seems like a philosophical difference perhaps. Um,
and so if you could kind of maybe speak a little bit more about why you are recommending tiered rates and why that might be a better approach or why you all think that might be a better approach. Sure. Um, so I I'll start and then I can let Sean jump in. Um so we we
spent a lot of time looking at this and um regardless of the prior studies that had also recommended tiered rates. Um the need in this system primarily right now is that a redundant water tank and that is primarily due to volutric water
use. and um as we looked at different rate options um and realized that that tank is going to cost a lot um the uh rationale for tiered rates is that the
higher water users would be the ones paying for that tank. Um the um currently what's happening now is if we kept the non-tiered rates, the lower users are subsidizing the rates
for the higher users because everybody's paying the same rate. Um I I get that the higher users would be paying a a higher bill, but the delivery of that water to them um is is the the need for that bigger system is due to the higher
users. Sean probably has more to add to that. Um, but it is a um more progressive model that um is is looked at by a lot of cities and towns uh for water distribution. I'm not talking about the pipes and the the meters. I'm
talking about um building out the capacity in the system to meet the demands of those higher users. Um it is very frequent that when you have something like that, you would tear your rate. That's fine. Great. Okay. I I have more questions, but I'll let someone else
jump in. Um yeah. Um on the topic of interconnection. So, um I and I feel like this was something that I talked to you about Sean maybe a couple years ago. And could you just touch on like if if we're going to do an interconnection,
isn't there there's got to be more science involved to this where you're essentially mixing other water into pipes that have been familiar with the water from Springfield, for example. I don't know how else to put it, but does that create other issues? And that's I think
that the common um thing that when people talk of this, it gets brought up as Flint because those are two different waters going in the same line. So that's why you run the feasibility study and there's an immense amount of permitting to do anything of that nature. Um, so you need to know what the water pH is. You need to know how it's going to interact with your pipes and you need to
test it to make sure it's not if you have lots of lead or areas with high lead. You need to test to see if that new water from another system is causing a chemical change in the lines that could create lead. Um, we do not have uh much lead in the system as we can and but there is always a risk and you
that's why you must go through the permitting and show that it's going to work before you do. Um, I don't think it would be if you guys moved forward with it, it would be something we'd be relying upon all the time. We were not looking to have Enfield be the our sole supplier of drinking water. It would be there in case of emergency when you really needed it or a fire or something
in that that side of town. Okay. Um cuz my my biggest concern is all of a sudden we have this interconnection then it just opens up a can of worms and and we have some serious issues that we have to address. So, as you know, it' be part of a study, this would all be okay because
all right, that that really scared me a couple years ago when we had the conversation. Um, the other um the other question I had and Lisa brought it up was um I think there's 129 just looking at the report uh folks who could receive assistance. Um one of my questions um to
Lynn when we all submitted questions was how could we, you know, because our the rates are going up, right? So, how can we how can we potentially expand uh you know a discount to uh more seniors or folks that that need it like
veterans or um folks that could use the help. So, I just would like to understand a little bit more. Sure. Um I think it just we're first would have to figure out how much of that population is there to then determine how many would be getting the
discount to realize what impact does it have on the other users. Um because if you just said everyone over 65, we'd have to run and figure out how many over 65 households are there to then figure out that impact. So for tonight's proposal, um
all we did was mirror what's currently in place for the storm water utility. So it's a there's a 30% reduction for those that qualify. Um and that's that's again that's already in place when the storm water um policy was
adopted. that discount was put in place. There's about 129 uh households that qualify. Wouldn't that be done on just a fixed rate for these individuals as well as a potential option? And I'm not suggesting we have to do this tonight, but I just
think it'd be helpful if the the water commissioners being us, the select board could maybe come up with some sort of equation in the future that we could identify additional users. Um, and that's a longer conversation than tonight, but I just think it's something
worth investigating. Y, just to follow on to that, um, for those who qualify, is it something they apply for or is it something that some demographic thing is identified and they automatically have it happens? Yeah, it would be automatic those that already apply for and receive the blind, elderly, and veteran
exemption through the assessor's office. So, the list would then just go directly from the assessor's office like it does for storm water. Lisa would just then input it in for water sewer. And we meet on this annually to determine if there are residents who were supposed to
qualify but didn't or who fall off. So to make sure that that house isn't still getting it if they moved out. Mark, thanks. I have a whole series of questions and I sent some inland and I appreciate you folks answering them.
Some of it became more confusing than not. I guess my my first question is what was wrong with the process by which we used to set water rates which was look at the cost of running our
department you know our our salaries wages you know expenses purchase water we purchase from Springfield capital costs and any changes we want to make to the to the enterprise fund or the retained earnings
fund or whatever you want to call that becomes the total cost we need to raise and divide that by a presumed usage rate. that usage rate then can be uh you know obviously that that usage
rate can be whatever we we think it should be although I think that ought to have some basis whether it's a threeyear running average or a fiveyear running average or whatever it is and the component of that and one of the things I said is one of those components is how
much money we want to raise or we need for capital that we're going to spend for capital and you you know, that ought to be what our current commitments are and what's in the DPW's 2026 project plan. You know, what we've
all agreed that we need to do. Personally, I think an interconnection is a something we really need to do and we ought to keep working on that. I'm not so hot on a second tower tank because it's just so god- aful expensive and I'm not sure if we have the right
process for managing it, but that's my personal opinion. The point is we have to decide you know what the what the capital is and then once we do that you know we know the the amount of money we need to raise and there's only two ways
to raise it fixed rates and variable rates and in fact fixed rates could be anything we want it to be but you know the select board the water and sewer commissioners need to decide you know will fix rates
be all part or some part of the capital costs or or something other than that? And will the the balance of what we need to raise go into variable rates, right? And it seems to me that that's more important because then once we get the
fixed rates, it makes very it it makes it's very easy to then say here's how we're going to distribute that amongst the amongst the meter the rate users. You know, we I I sent I sent you and everybody else they've got the the spreadsheet. It's pretty easy to do. But
what we've got here and I use this term was the is the tail wagging the dog. We're coming up with the fixed rate and the rate for the meters before we've decided how much we want to raise in fixed rates. What percentage of the
capital we're spending we want to raise in fixed rates. And I think that's a decision that that ought to come first. So if if I was looking at a process and ne I think that's what we ought to focus on as a process is you know decide first tiered or non-tiered rates then decide
you know how much are we going to of of the of the amount of money we need to raise you know how much are we going to put into fixed rates and how much into variable rates and once we do those which are seemingly straightforward decisions to make this the solution is there. So, you
know, I mean, I I look at stuff like, you know, and and Ian, you one of the things you said is, you know, the water department debt is 980,333. I wasn't quite certain. Is that our current rate or is that the So, that's what we're paying if we do no new
projects, right? Okay, that that's fine and that that makes sense. you know, in in terms of some of the other things, I guess I'm I'm not quite certain of some of the other decisions like, you know, how we
pay how we decide how much we need to put into capital. So, Sean, you've you've outlined a whole bunch of projects. You know the question is how much do we need to raise now and how much do we not need to raise now but
would be nice to and the other part is how much are we going to increase our retained earnings by and what I heard from Lynn is four to five years and then Ian you said it's within four years so that if it's four years then we're raising $250,000 in retained earnings if it's
within five years it's 200,000 but the one thing I haven't heard here is how do We it's the word is the phrase is true up. How do we true up with the city of Springfield? Because I go back to
believing the water stabilization fund and that's what I've always called it is required because whatever assumption we make, whatever we make for a usage assumption, we're going to assume wrong. We're either going to assume far too low
low a number which is going to be great because we'll have all this additional revenue or we're going to assume far a higher number and we're going to fall short. And the city of Springfield at the end wants wants to be made whole. And so the question is where does that
true up come from? And in my mind, it's the only source is the water stabilization fund or the water rate stabilization fund because there's no other money. I mean, the water department's got to run as a water department. We can't take it out of taxpayer
revenue. So, my my point is we need a process and I don't think we have it. I think we've jumped to say we're going to do a 200% or 300% fixed rate and that's not the right way to do it. the right right way to do it is say here's how much we want to raise from fixed rates and here's what they end up being. It
could be something very different from those and I hope it will be. If I could address um I'll also look to Ian and Lisa for this but um I think it's maybe we're just semantics here. Um but that's exactly what Lisa and Ian do in order to
present rates to you. Um there there's not some different mechanism that they're using. If you want to talk about your process that you will go through. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I kind of alluded this alluded to this earlier in the presentation. What we've presented to you today is very similar to past
years in terms of what we're presenting to the select board. The really the only difference is just the format and how it's presented. We still use the annual operating budget. We still use um our debt service. And really the differences
here is we are recommending uh funding of retained earnings and we are recommending funding of capital projects. Both of those are recommended by the time bond study. So really we're looking for the select board to give us the directive to say one do we want to
go forward with funding the retained earnings at a level of either four years at 250,000 or 5 years at 500,000 or a variation of that. two, do we want the town to have a certain amount of money
allocated towards capital projects? And then three, how do we want to present that? When Lisa and I came up with our fixed rates, we really were trying to minimize the impact that was felt by residents. That's why when I went over earlier the impact that residents would
see, I thought that that was a much better solution than to have these large double-digit increases in the variable rate. I think that that's the better approach that we can take. And on top of that, with tiered rates, you are going to see the largest expense be burdened
by the highest users. That I think is a equitable approach which represents the presentation at the current moment. Mark, in terms of your question about is it different than what we've done in the past, I would say the answer is no. I think the really the only difference is
whether or not we want to go forward with a tiered rate or a fixed rate. But how Ian, how how did we come up with this 200% or 300% increase in in in the fixed rate? Why didn't we say here's how much money we need to raise through fixed rates and therefore the fixed rate
becomes such and such? If the select that's what I meant by the tail wagging the dog, if you come up with the fixed rates first, that's not the way we should be doing we and that's not the way we've done it in the past. We've always said here's how much we want to raise and therefore we calculated the rates. So, you can't convince me you're
doing it the same way. If the select board wants to have our fixed meter revenue cover the retained earnings funding or anticipated capital projects, for example, I would welcome that directive and we could tailor our presentation to fit that. Right now, you have the recommendation by both Lisa and myself as well as Lynn and Sean that
represents what we think the best option is. Okay. I I will go on record as saying I think tiered rates is improper. I think the select board has pretty much said that. You know, I I I'll use an old phrase from my family, Yiddish phrase
called kutzbah. You know what kutzbah is? Means you got a lot of nerve that city of Springfield's charging us a a flat rate and we're going to go out and charge a fixed rate. I can't imagine why we would do that. And I understand, Lynn, your argument that says the people who use the most will pay for something
more. But the fact is, you know, we sat here and we listened to the commissioners of the Springfield Water and Sewer Department saying, "We've got plenty of water. Please use it." And in fact, I will argue very vehemently that a fixed rate becomes a spiral to a
problem in town because if the fixed rates do what people impose fixed rates for, which is to curtail water use, what'll happen is we'll put in a fixed rate and people will use less water and then we're going to have to charge more because we need the revenue. Now, you
say, well, maybe they won't use less water. But that's what fixed rate, that's what a variable rate, not fixed rates, I'm sorry, a tiered rate, I apologize. If a tiered rate does what a tiered rate is supposed to do, the people with higher tiers will use less water. And once we do that, we'll have less revenue. What we want to do is
encourage as much revenue as we can. you know, as the people in the city of Springfield, I'm probably paraphrasing, use, we've got plenty of water, use all you need, you know, or something to that effect because it's good for their revenue and frankly, it's good for our revenue.
Um I and I think u Mark with the tiered rates I believe in the tie and bond study we asked when they came before us we asked them about if this would change behavior and what they had said was that the re research has shown that the highest users even with a higher rate
really it does not change their behavior right they still are using water at the same levels if I'm remembering correctly okay I don't actually well I'll speak about a few things but I'm not sure that was my conclusion But, you know, I thought a lot about the variables,
right? The 200%, the 300%, the tiered rate, the non-tiered rate. I talked to some people and had them look at their like bills and just see what it would look like. Um, I think we're trying to balance, of course, two very valuable things, right? We're trying to balance trying to have a lower rate for the most
amount of people versus making sure we get the revenue we need, right? And when I looked at the bar chart, like this bar chart that you guys put up for us, I I looked at, you know, a high irrigation
user, if you did a tiered rate, you would be doubling their bill. So like in this example that you gave us from $1,600 a year to $3,200 a year, basically. And if you did it for the low
residential user, right, for someone who doesn't irrigate a lawn, theirs is going to go up from like 211 to 359. So basically like $140. And it reminded me of when we are discussing the business the the split tax rate for example. And the reason why
we usually don't contemplate that is because you basically be charging our businesses if you charge them higher tax rate a huge amount versus a very tiny amount of benefit for the average user. And when I think about someone who irrigates a lot and their
bill going doubling from 1,600 to 3200, I am sure there are some people in town who will water no matter if it's a $10,000 bill, they will do it. But I just also believe that this does incentivize people to be much more cautious about their watering, delaying
their watering, reducing their watering, and it will just naturally reduce their usage. And when you look at the huge amount that they're spending to benefit a relatively small amount for the rest
of the users, I just worry that we are going to end up with less revenue in the end. when you have less revenue in the end then the fixed cost which we are also raising everyone agrees on that becomes a higher percentage of the amount and the burden actually falls more I mean this is theoretical and I'm
not wedded to any of the these ideas I'm most interested in making sure we get the revenue we need and in a predictable way I honestly think the greater risk is to use a tier system there's more uncertainty with that and I think that the 80% of users it will get benefit
them a small amount um compared to like the higher users. That's just the way I'm seeing it right now. Again, I'm not wedded to any of this stuff, but I I think that when you do the math, you might be surprised at how it really affects people's usage.
And my my I didn't that wasn't my takeaway from the timeline people. I mean, I think that that was mentioned, but I think there was acknowledgement that like people are people and anything could happen basically. Um there's no study that's going to show exactly what's going to happen in our town
depending on what you did with the rates basically. Yeah. I mean, of course. I mean, but I think I think that they had looked at research and and they had talked to us about what the research has shown. And that's and that's why I was just asking about that just to clarify that I had that correctly because I remember that
that was something that kind of stood out to me about that uh presentation was that they said that they had actually looked at research that shown that really did make a behavioral change. Um and and I'm not making an argument. Yeah, I don't remember exactly that. I think it was mentioned it's fine. Just Yeah. Um anything else? And and again,
we're not voting on anything tonight. Um you know, we're just wanted a chance to discuss this, ask questions um of our staff. Um and then, you know, we can vote on this at our next meeting, but also I know that you all were also kind of looking for direction and you know,
in in some ways. So was hoping also today maybe we could through our conversation could provide some direction as well. Dan, I was just going to make a comment just in terms of the definition of insanity, right? We've all heard that we we've been doing the same
thing over and over and over and over again and we get the same results. I mean, I every every time we bring this up, I I get I get pretty fired up over this just because we're expecting that all of a sudden
something's going to change um one year to the next by doing the same thing over and over again. I mean, we had tie-in bond study. We've had multiple studies done uh over the past 20 years. We never
act on it fully. We do bits and pieces. We just had a great presentation. And I'm not suggesting that I am all in on a on a tiered rate, but at the end of the day, they're the professionals. I mean, you are all you live and die this every
single day. Like, we're the water commissioners because we're on the um select board. But I'm not going to sit here and and and tell everybody that I I know every single thing about water and sewer. I'm still learning. I'm learning a lot and I've learned a lot in the past few
years. But I like to listen to people uh who give direction based on that's their job. and they they do research um and they do a lot of research and they come in front of various towns and and put forward what's the best um solution that
they believe for the town of Long Meadow. And the other good thing about being water and sewer commissioners is that guess what? We can make changes whenever we want. So we haven't done that for 20 years. In
fact, in some cases, we've been taking the rates and and paying down to using the funds to pay down the rates for the rate payers. And now we have a mountain of projects building up. And
the political thing to do would to just say, well, I don't want to vote for an increase. It's like, why do you get in this position if you're not trying to make a difference to do the right thing for our community? our our roads are falling apart. Infrastructure is falling apart. And and some of us are sitting
here tonight saying, "You know what? Let's just keep doing what we've been doing for 20 years." I just I just don't think that's what people elected us to do, to look and and listen to people who actually day in and day out do the research necessary.
Can I just answer? I think there might be a little misunderstanding here. Um the thing that we're doing that's different is raising the rates a lot. So I think what's might not be clear is whether we use the 200 and I this is my first question to Ian right he remembers
me the last week the amount of money we do we're raising is the same whether it's the 200 300% whether it's the tiered or non-tiered it's it's all the same amount of money we're raising. So we're not kicking the can down the road because we are all agreeing we need to raise more
money. All we're talking about is how are we going to raise the money? The amount of money we're raising is the exact same whether if we do tiered versus non-tiered 200 300%. It's all the same. It's just we're talking about how to get there basically. So I just want to make sure that's clear. We're talking
about an increase of 200% 300%. That's a big increase. Yeah. These are these are big because we've been doing the same thing over and over. That's what I'm trying to say. So people need to understand that. Yeah. Nobody's say that with all due respect. I'm just saying that's what we we continue to do. I don't think we're disagreeing at all. I
think we all agree we need to raise more money and we're not listening to the professionals that are providing the guidance to us. This is these are professionals that work with communities across we're absolutely listening to them. I think they're telling us we need to raise more money. We could do it tiered or non-tiered. This is what the rate would be. 200 300 this is what the
rate would be. I mean I'm not wedded to any of these. I think as long as we raise the money I'm in favor of it. That your point would be valid if or important or reason if one of us was saying we shouldn't raise the rates. we can't afford it uh because we don't want to raise rates on people. I don't think
anybody's saying that. Just to kind of clarify that I don't think we're argu we're like debating uh in disagreement at all to be honest. It's just a matter of method but I think I do think that the one place where we are raising more money is to do more capital projects. Right. So that is also everyone's agreeing to do
that. I I don't I haven't heard anyone Is that what you mean? I hope so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I mean this has been a point of contention in select board discussions about whether we should how much in capital projects we should be actually taking on and doing in funding. I see. Yeah. I have no issue with that.
I I think we're just debating the method of which we raise raise the money that our experts are telling us that we need to raise. I think we should raise that amount of money. I've got so much I' Mark may not agree but Well, no. I I I essentially agree with you, Andrew. I I think the issue
is, you know, Dan said we're we've been doing the same thing. We can't we have to do something different. And Andrew's response, I think, was appropriate. You know, the way we're doing it, you know, I the presentation, like I said, there was a discussion on 200 300% and and
that just drove me nuts because I thought we should say here's how much we want to raise. The right answer may be 237.5% increase in the fixed rate, but we didn't we're not being given that choice because there was an assumption made by the the the staff that it should
be this or that when in fact maybe it should be something maybe it should be 380%. I don't know what the number should be but we don't know because we haven't agreed how much we want to do and frankly I think listening to the professionals is our obligation. Listening to the staff is our
obligation, but listening to the residents and bringing the voice of the residents to this discussion is also our obligation. And that's not something Tai and Bond necessarily does. And it may not be something our staff does, although I'd like to think that they do certainly because they're going to get the phone calls. So I think they're
going to listen to it as well. But to say that we can do as much as we can do and we're not going to do what we can't do. We're going to pay for the capital that we can execute, but we're not going to go out and raise their rates to raise capital that that we can't spend because we can raise their rates the following
year to pay for that capital. You know, we can say, you know, we can raise the the stabilization fund or whatever you want to call it in four years or five years. You know, my sense is we may we may have a very very dry year this year.
I don't know. I'm not a weather forecaster. And if we do, that water stabilization fund will increase because we're going to guess low on usage. So why would we go out and raise rates to boost that stabilization fund in a shorter period of time when we can say,
let's raise it slower? Let's let the money go up a a couple hundred,000 this year and see what happens. If we have a very wet summer this year, we're going to say, boy, Mark screwed up and we need to raise more money and we can ex accelerate it. But if we have a dry summer and we bring in at the end of the
year we're not at $200,000 higher, we're at $350,000 higher, we'll know we can do things. So what we bring is some experience, some voice of the of of the residents and also a desire to keep the keep our rates controlled. You know,
Sean, last last month, you know, we had a whole long laundry list of of projects we wanted. We want to do them all, but we only want to pay for the ones that we're going to do this year. We We don't have the capacity to engineer them, to execute, you know, 20 that whole list of
of projects that we showed on your wish list. So, let's pick the things we want to do. Let's agree as a water and sewer commissioners. Is our highest priority an interconnection with with Enfield or or to put in a new uh you know, a second water tower? And when can we execute
that? And I haven't heard that timing because I think that certainly would sway me one way or the other if it's if it's that important. I also want to see how often we need a a second water tower. How would we manage the the levels of the water towers so that we
you know it's it's an engineering process, not just to construct it and it's there. So there's there's a lot involved here and to say we're doing the same things we've always done is is not correct. We're making some changes. And I'm going to go off topic a little bit,
but I need to because I've been sitting here for three years hearing that we keep doing the things we've been doing and we need different different results. I think people need to understand what the select board's been doing for the last three year, whether it's streets or trees or whatever. What the select
board's been doing for the last three years, 5 years, and seven years, and even 10 years, is keeping the schools fully funded. keeping the parks and recck department funded for youth sports. Mark, let's let's No, no, let's stick to the topic here. The topic is is
we are on a fiscal cliff. We're on a fiscal cliff and we needed to Mark I I I got I I know I know where No, the issue is I got it. But let's let's stick to this conversation and we kept the state Mark. Please, we're going to stick to the conversation here. What's on the agenda?
Okay. All right. Send out some more letters. send out some more letters. What does that mean? Go ahead. Just do your thing. Okay. Well, I'm sorry to hear that you disagreed with that decision. Um Josh, welcome. Hi.
Um great concept. Yeah. Yeah. Um okay, so let let's get this back on track here. um in terms of the direction that you all are looking for us. I mean, I think that some of these capital projects are um are ones that we need to decide on. And and I know that in the
last couple of conversations, Sean, you've kind of said, you know, I want to know what the intention of the select board is um in how aggressive the select board is going to be with some of these capital projects. And I and I know that I'm just one out of five votes, but for me, I do want to stay aggressive with
our waterline replacements um and how we are doing that. Um, you know, one of the questions that I sent to you all last week, um, was also what is in the plan for Western Drive where we are looking at everything in a holistic manner and
that we are replacing the water man and then also at the same time uh, using that opportunity to repave the roads as well. Um, and I know that with the backlog of road pavings that we need to do, this is just another strategy that we can use to
catch up. And it makes a whole lot of sense to me for us to do that. Um, when I take a look at the capital projects that I think are priorities, I think Western Drive and I know that the um, you know, the design and engineering for that did was not completed in time for
us to have that at our annual town um, meeting in May. uh seems like it's ready now and could potentially we could have that article um in the fall and um you know I would be in favor of of moving forward with that. I also think for the
reasons that um you know I asked you that the Long Meadow Street South End uh design and engineering that that is also a high priority. Um and then you know what else you've identified under FY2026. Um could you um maybe also speak
a little bit to why the Eli Road water man and uh road repair is identified for FY226. So yeah, sorry. When I got here, we had um we thought we'd be able to close that road and sort of dis separate that water man. And when we did, we found a whole
bunch of issues with it, including how the water loops through. So the road has been closed here and there. Um the water line has been off. It's in horrible shape. It blew out I think before I started undermined the whole road. So we've had to repair the road to get it back open specifically while we're doing work in that area for other waterline
projects. We weren't able to to do those projects without detouring through there. So the the the line we we do need um and we we need it for um the loop down there and um when doing that we need to rebuild the road because it's catastrophic shape. I again I wasn't
here when it happened but um the road had undermined from a main blow out there. So, it's just one of those not huge projects, but it's one that needs to get done. Um, I think the other thing that we would need to talk about is is after you have a discussion about the the interconnection and the redundant
tank, which one or both do you want to design? Um, that is a several year project. So, even if you move forward now, it's probably five years away from being built. Okay. And so, you'd mentioned that this summer we would get a presentation on the interconnection and also the redundant. Yeah, we'll be giving a memo. They were just
feasibility studies. I'll see if I can get the consultants to come in to present. Um, it'll be short though. They're not they're not in huge depth, but they're feasibility studies that would lead into a further analysis and full design, which would of course have uh more proper costs associated with it at that time. Okay, great. Thank you.
Um, question about a redundant water tank. Maybe I don't maybe this has been presented before, but is that another water tank? And where would it be? Next to the current one. Next to the one that's there. It's the only spot in town. That's right. Okay. Thanks. Yes, it's um I I missed a lot of
conversation obviously um but the redundant water tank I was it two years ago when we had the bad drought and so I know that there's plenty of water out there but it was if I and Andrew you probably remember this from town meeting the problem is if our tank is too low we
can't fight fires right and so that would be the reason for it or Springfield the middle of a high usage irrigation Springfield has a blow out when their main or their plant goes down, that would quickly be drawn down and we'd have no water. So, an interconnection wouldn't fix that. The
intercon. So, there's two different it would fix the Springfield one, but it would still need to pump it up, right? So, yeah, the inter So, the interconnection would be enough hopefully to to provide the town water in an emergency. The redundant tank would give additional head pressure and do similar to what interconnection would do um but maybe without it turn it. So,
it's it's both. We'll talk about the costs and benefits. There are issues with the interconnection that we'll need to go over at that time, too. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's just from our talk. I I I just want to make sure like fire departments involved in that because that's just that's a nightmare scenario. I don't want that on a decision we made
here. We got to make sure that that never happens. Just a follow for Sean. Um so in your mind when you were thinking about trying to achieve redundancy and a margin of safety, did you do you in your mind think we either do the connection or or we do the tank
or we do both? And if we did both, which is more important as a priority come first. I think that initially we need to get one done which is the interconnection that's the more I think that would be the one done because it has the the tank would be nice and it would be helpful but I think the priority should be the interconnection.
That makes sense. Yeah. Sean, as you go through this, I think one of the useful numbers will be, you know, how much volume is in the tank? I mean, you can tell them again in terms of time. In other words, if Springfield goes out for eight hours, but if they, you know,
they'd have to go out for something between here and here for the second tank to be paint to be useful because longer than that, even the second bank's not going, right? So, it might be just a day. It might be just a head pressure while we fight a fire to get the internet connection turned on. Um, there's complications. Then we throw all that stuff in. But I think those are the
kinds of numbers that would help understand the value of a second tank because it's not just you got twice the volume. you have twice the volume, but you might only have two more hours. And it might be we just got the numbers from Enfield about what they can provide for us. It might not be that we have enough
water to fight a fire when we connect with them. So, it might be we like to have that second tank there as a reserve just in case we need head pressure during a a severing of the the water from Springfield. There's there's complications. It's a So, we should we'll go through all that hopefully and have it hashed out. Um, we'll have
discussions about it, but there'll probably be additional engineering to look at both. And then ju just a followup the the initial discussion with Enfield and this might have been before you got here was the hydrant to hydrant connection. Sure. Are you talking about something far more than that? Yes. A permanent interconnection likely
underground with a pump. All right. So you just go and turn a valve and then we push through. But there is chemistry stuff to talk about this course and and meters. Oh yes. But it would go both ways. So we would actually if they needed water, we would be able to provide them water and then they would make money off them.
We can sell Springfield's water to Anfield profit. Yes. Because we transited it. We could took it three miles, right? Um Okay. Anything else? Or have we said it all? I think we probably said it all. All right. Um thank you all so much for coming tonight and uh you know, we'll
continue the discussion in our next meeting and and vote on rates. Is in terms of direction. Do you feel all feel like you or is there anything out there any any more clarification? Yes, I would like to add just it would be helpful for us in order to give you um a rate discussion for the next meeting. A
couple of things. One, um as it was brought up about fixed meter charges, I'm happy to have it be whatever the board is looking for options. So, if we want to do it based on retained earnings and capital projects, we can base it on
that. We can base it on the total amount to be raised, which is what we proposed to you tonight. I think that would be helpful first off. Second off, I would like some direction on whether or not we want to pursue giving a tiered rate proposal to you or if we want to give the fixed rate proposal. Those are the
two things that I really need from the board tonight in order for us to continue this discussion fruitfully and the discount because that factors into what we ultimately propose for you. Okay. Well, go ahead, Mark. I I'll offer my
answers, Ian. I I I think fixed rate not tiered. That's personal opinion. I you know I think the fixed rate versus variable rate fixed rates I don't believe the fixed rates can in year one
be 100% of capital and building up the the the the combination of capital plus building up the the stabilization fund. It could be all the stabilization fund, but capital's been around for a long, long time and hasn't been paid out of fixed
rate. That would kill us. So, I think the split between how much we raise from variable and how much we raise from fix ought to be the decision of the select board. Whether it's 50/50 or 6040 or 9010, I don't know. But I think that's
why I'm suggesting you say, "Here's how much we need to raise. Here's what the capital is. here's how much you're going to go up in in the stabilization fund. You you water and sewer commissioners decide what the split should be, how much we should raise from tiered and how much we should raise from fixed. And if
that comes back to the select board, I think then the onus is on us to give you that percentage. Okay. So, right now in the um the way that you were all looking at it, right, is that the capital costs were covered by
the variable rates and everything else by the fixed rate, the new capital cost for the tank andor interconnection. Okay. Yep. Andrew, well, I just want to just bring it all back for a second. So the the the thing that we are giving you
a directive for is we're kind of pretty much in agreement that we're all agreeing to raise rates significantly to prioritize capital projects which presumably hasn't been done so much in the past. So that's pretty much a very important thing that we're I think we're giving you a strong message that we're
all in agreement. The rest of it is kind of just the method. I I I personally don't feel strongly whether it's tiered or non-tiered 200 or 300%. I'm just glad that we're going to raise the right amount of money that we need or that you guys are telling us you think we need
one way or another. I gave my reasons for thinking concerning the concern that if we did tiered that, you know, we might not get as much as we want because of behavioral change, but maybe I'm wrong. So, it's I ask Lyn a question if I could. You you
said fixed rates to cover the capital for the tank or the interconnection. Not fixed rates. variables, right? Because those are volu volume Volutric projects. She's suggesting the opposite of what you've often said. Okay. So, that's what I was
trying to clarif clarify. So maybe if if and more importantly are we is the town in a position to implement any of either of those projects in
FY2026 or what percentage of is it engineer the projects is it pay you know what what's the cost of developing those or doing whatever we can in 2026 that we want to roll into the 2026 six rates.
Yeah, we're at the design point. So, we're still taking So, I mean, and and I I understand the design's not 20 bucks. I mean, it's tens of thousands of dollars probably, if not more. But but we're talking about the design and not the capital per se of of a new tank or the capital of the pipes underground.
The capital would be Western Drive that we're looking for. So it's the capital of western drive engineering for the south at least one of those reli what I'll call reliability studies and the south end sound like south end
the second tip project in the south end which is really the medium of of because we have a different south end project in that why would the interconnection or the tank be from variable rates um so the tank specifically is primarily
needed to keep up with the volume of water that we're in demand for. So, we would tie it to Yep. the volume of water we're buying. Um, well, no, it's t it it's so we're we're planning for the worst case
scenario, which is what we've had happen before. Um, summer uh Springfield can't meet our demand. We cannot meet the residents demand. We have a fire and everyone's irrigating. we lose pressure in the tank and well no I understand.
Yeah. So the the idea is the redundant tank is to meet that high volume need. Okay. Um well I I will have to go back and watch our meeting to catch up on the discussion but just generally coming into it and from the little I've heard
so far uh I am I'm generally opposed to a tiered rate. I think that uh non-tiered is the way to go. And I did have a question. I I saw the number of exemptions we could offer is pretty low. I was just I'm sure you discussed it,
but why why is that? Sure. So, in our um recommendation, we started with just the baseline of um mirroring the um discounts that are already offered for storm water, which is 30%. So, then we upped it in in some scenarios to a 50%
or 100% discount on those fixed charges. um just as a baseline for conversation just to match what storm water is already. If you guys want to expand on that, you want to do a 65 plus discount or um you know whatever else you know you want to discuss. We can run those
scenarios. It just has an impact on Oh, sure. Yeah. But I think it was like 120 people. Why is it that few? That's just the category you have now. It's that so those are the ones that qualify for the blind, elderly, or veteran exemption through the assessor's office. Okay. So
um this is a a common model um in communities so that you're not sharing uh financial information amongst all the departments. So only the assessors gets that information. They just send a list of qualifying households to DPW. Okay.
Yeah. Um and I think that probably Andrew articulated where I'm also at. I I'm I think it seems like the select board is behind moving forward with capital projects. um the ones that we talked about and I am on board with that
and I am I to be honest still undecided about whether to do a single rate or a third rate. Um so I don't know I know for me personally I think at our next meeting I would like to still see um examples of of both options uh because I
would just also still like some more time to think about that and and ask questions. Um, and then in terms of the discounts, it seems like the easiest way for us right now is to pull them over from the same way that we do storm water. Um, I I I don't know about what
all would go into exactly uh expanding that number. But maybe if we could start there um as a way to kind of provide the models or projections for our next meeting would make sense to me. But folks want to speak differently to that.
Yeah, the I was just going to jump ahead to the storm water system. I think that my understanding of storm water system is we've established through long-term policies what percentage of storm water is going to be paid through and what percentage is going to and
so I I hope you know the number of erus that are there and so that was your so take storm water off the topic here. It is what it's going to be. Well, it's on the topic because you still need to vote the rate. We need to vote the rate, but but I don't think it's up for discussion. The the process is pretty
straightforward, right? I mean, the the the storm water fund has sufficient money to pay for what it needs to pay for where we where we bonded anyway out of out of the town. So, ju um just quickly there um so the rate that we
proposed you tonight is following your policy, right? Um, I do not believe that we agree that it's sufficient to run what needs to be run, but that's not what we're looking to discuss with you tonight. But, but the policy isn't sufficient to fund the storm water department anyway. It's only
at I don't know what we're at now, but probably 63%. Yeah. Okay. So, we're only in But that's not with many capital projects. So when the design's done for the coverts that we have started and we have another one fail or another bank fail, it's going to be another discussion about what to do with those
rates. All right. Anything else? Uh just so we're clear on the on the the discount piece because that that that is important. Um, so I think if I guess a directive would be if we could get a couple options outside of just the 129
that Josh had mentioned of of those individuals like how what can we look at what could be proposed for a larger group? Yeah. Do you have an idea on like what group how you'd want us to break out those group? Could be a age. I think
um maybe per household, how many people are in the household if it's just a uh one individual living in the house. [Applause] Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Anything else? All right. Um thank you all for joining
us. Appreciate it. Um All right. And then we're into correspondence. Any comments on correspondence? Okay. Um, go ahead, Josh. Yeah, I there we got one from uh Soal Coffee Roasters.
Um I Mike, I emailed them back today and I said they should talk to you. Perfect. Um but I I asked them just for some locations like we've done for um poor things in the past. That's consistent with what we told them when they came to the office as well. just said the process would be to reach
out to the select board and then we'll be in touch with further Yeah. I mean I I would love to see a lot more applications like this. I um do we is there information out there? Uh do we on the web page on what to do or is it just talk to Mike? Typically, they'll come
through health department first. Um, and they'll be getting their, you know, food permits or their hawk predator's licenses. Um, and then it'll come up from there is like if we want to um serve the public outside of an event setting where we're licensed uh through the vendor, how how do we go about doing
that? And that's usually when they'll refer to us um as the select board under the general bylaw. It has to be a written consent of the select board. So, that's usually the process how it works. they go through um health department. We could add something to the website. I think that's a good idea. Yeah, I think
just uh then because people can just Google it from they may not live in town. They may and just say, "Oh, okay. That makes sense." Yep. Okay, great. Anything else? All right. I will entertain a uh motion to adjurnn. Second move. Oh, sorry. Sure.
Teamwork with the dream. All right, Dan. Uh the second. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor. All right. Thank you everyone. Thanks for coming, Josh. Perfect timing.