all right this is the lunenberg water district commissioner meeting meeting is uh February 26th start by say Pleasant Pledge of Allegiance John I'll leave goed Al to the flag of the United States
of America the republ for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and he we have some minutes floating around got them right here I'm just G to get rid of them in a minute oh no not the minutes I
the yeah where are they yeah kind of long on that's why I didn't usually I'll do that right our clerk treasure is very uh very detailed in her in her notes
yeah I know I REO all right Mr chair I make a motion to accept the minutes of February 12th 2015 so all those in favor you jumped to some move too fast no he didn't why he said to Second it
and then blame all you screw me up I started Al you started off with I'll take it easy on I can't keep um okay moving right along uh
you discuss water bill with residents of 11 butterfly late jump right into this here for 11 I am come on up if you like you can roll your chair so we had asked um CL yes to come
in um we I printed off uh everybody has that history report I did um couple years all the way back to 20 8 just so you guys can kind of see um looks like you purchased the home right around May of 2023 um so I did the previous owners
just the history in there so um we had gone through a couple times uh we had the guys go out a couple times um take a look at um there were some high bills your first High one that you got was right away after the summer of of 23 a
couple months after she purchased it so um we had gone out there and started checking reads uh we then um replaced the meter in November to see if there was something going on um none of the guys have been able to find actually friend you went out there
too been quite a while y I couldn't find any leaks me said zero zero flows so I know that we we've kind of talked about this a little bit so we put in a the new L that we've been able to keep an eye on that has there been any
fluctuation it's too new to now and this is the the lowest usage so so where where's the discrep where's the question about high usage from when she purchased the home in in look on 101
2023 on the front yeah 19,000 um cubic feet from 101 okay and that would have been 10 one yeah so if you looked at the and I obviously I know every every homeowner is different I guess what where we couldn't find a leak and we looked back
and I know this was the previous owner but every October bill that they had before was anywhere from 12 to 15,000 cubic feet as well right um so it kind kind of went along with um irrigation and
everything from there so y That's why we weren't sure if um couldn't find anything in the home um so we suggested you know looking into irrigation um and then since have put the new meter in
and you know from when it was put in in end of November to now she's at the 500 cubic feet um yeah see these other ones these like 4,000 so you got to keep in mind this this this is just a three months so it all depends on the year
like where I understand the year so there still could be some higher usage and actually so this was yeah the newest one so keep um just so you guys know this very top number um from the one 1225 read at the very top yeah I made a
mistake because we took the old meter out and I didn't charge her for that I didn't charge you for that usage that was still on that old meter the old meter had um 5,966 cubic feet that I should have
added to the new meter so even though that LE say 68 cubic feet the old meter before we took it out was reading um that you had already used 6,000 cubic feet um for that next quarter and I
didn't add you you just tallied in the whatever it said on the new meter I did I forgot to add in the when you replace the meter it says do you want to add anything and I forgot to put that in there so so that's why we that well that's why we have that low read That's 68 yes exactly
if I mean yeah I don't think that's why I I I think there's a significant problem happening here this is a one member household I cannot be paying 1,700 to to take a shower like that's impractical the usage that I've used I've consistently questioned it because
it doesn't make sense based on my usage I I can't imagine how anybody or how I could be spending this this this water um I don't know where the water is going I've had plumbers coming and look and check um you've come in and looked and checked I've been questioning this consistently because
it's just not adding up now we could say the old meters usage I don't know if there was a problem with the meter or if that meter has been checked to see if it was fully functional but this this usage I find it hard to justify I don't know where this water is going what I
can say is that I'm not utilizing this water so if I can't figure it out I'm being told there's no problem by plumbers that come in and people that check I and and we can say okay it's it's the irrigation the first the very first time I noticed that there was a
spike I did call into the office and I did I did say hey I don't know what's happening because it was a very rainy 2023 2023 I had the irrigation off since July and I did mention that when I have called in so several times I've reported
I don't see why the usage is so high when I am not utilizing this water where is this water going and now I feel I'm being asked to pay for something or account for something that I cannot account for so I don't know I don't know how we can
Rectify this all I do know is that I'm being held liable for charges and I cannot justify where the water usage is going okay the IR I have a question on the irrigation system when you shut that off where did you shut that off so I had
the person who installed it they shut it off first they use the whatever uh computer system they also shut it off at the pipe so and so they shut the it was professionally shut off I did not rely
on my own expertise to shut this thing off and they check to see if there had been any leaks in the system itself did they check to see right well they check they checked I asked him is there a Poss is there a possibility that you know how how can I
explain for this water because it is like this is something I also want to get to the bottom of nothing they they cannot tell well the one guy cuz it is one guy Greg's irrigation cannot tell me that there's any problem happening with my irrigation and also even even times when
I'm not at home or I'm traveling it's like the the usage doesn't really quite go down I'm I'm trying to work the time line out my my head yet so you bought the house in May of2 May of 23
and the next bill I can see usage wise is this 19,000 in October correct so when was the irrigation shut off July July and in any and and that was you
said at first that was was it that point he shut the controller and the feed off so he shut the controller or whatever is the controller feed the main box yes that was shut up in July okay in in either case being that it was such a
rainy year the irrigation doesn't run when it rains it just doesn't but if there was a leak in the main line in the irrigation and that water is continually trickling into the ground and we don't see that or don't find it then that
could that could be one of the reasons that you had such high usage so I'm trying to determine when he physically shut the water off in July he physic Bas Ally shut the the feed off to the water in July or just the
controller the controller and the whatever feed goes out to the and he didn't look any further to see if you had any leaks in your main line at that point in time no he did not look at anything like that and he shut it off because you said you had high usage yes
so at that point in time and I don't believe so I I received a bill I believe in June did did I not uh July uh will you your first bill was July 1st for a one month partial right because the
previous owners and that was for 3,000 cubic feet just a one month partial so the irrigation if that was on so if you look at 71 2023 on the second page so that was but your first full
quarterly bill the 3month bill was the 10 no it's okay was the 1012 23 um for the 19,000 so I think what what so did you turn the irrigation on at all last summer last summer I had it on
partially in the spring but not in the fall cuz if you look at 101 2023 that's that would have been your so let's see your that's our bill April May June sorry no July August September bill
was the 19,000 so it's the three months prior is what your bill is so then um as you can see in April that's like your January February March usage you went down to the 559 so then if the irrigation was turned
back on you can see that you know it went down from 559 which is pretty much what your your April bill is going to be is going to be right around 500 600 cubic feet why is that because because you don't you because you're it's just that's just water that you're using in
your home so that's that's where um I was trying to explain a little bit of that pattern of like you can see now your April 2024 bill was 559 cubic feet your April 2025 Bill I'm going to be doing the reads next week but we just
read yesterday you're at 467 cubic feet which is consistent with last April's bill so you can see you go you generally use around 500 cubic feet in 3 months so that's what's kind of weird and that's what made me look at it and say well I
don't think anything is wrong with the meter because it's reading correct in the in the winter months telling you that you only used 500 cubic feet but then when irrigation gets turned back on if you look back at the July of 24 Bill
your bill immediately went up from 559 to 4,000 to 8,000 do you do you see the numbers there like I see the numbers what I am saying is you're you're basing it on a presumption like it must be no I'm I'm not I'm just saying that this is
just all I was looking at that that you are cons you're very consistent with last April you were at H cubic feet this April you're at 500 cubic feet so that's that's just where I was saying I didn't think that there was anything wrong with the meter CU you're you're consistent with
those you're saying before before we replac before we put the new meter in the old meter was consistent well if you look at the April 2024 that's the old meter 559 cubic feet right then come summertime again when irrigation get
turn on bumps up to the four and then eight sorry just okay let let her talk okay it seemed like I didn't want to I didn't want to overow you here a lot kind of you know MTH Wizards going on here you said you lived in the house by
yourself correct and when you go away there's nobody there no no one um what I can tell you from a a physical meter perspective is you see there's your old meter literally right there so water goes into the meter it
spins A Little Wheel and it's picked up by a magnet and it you know it it measures it click click click that's how it works so it's impossible for the meter pretty much to fail against you you know what I'm saying um if anything
if that wheel stops spinning it stops adding water up it's impossible for it to do the other way now I understand that your your the position you're in you're looking at your billb like I I didn't use this I don't know even know where this is why is this on here from
our end you know I I have to look at the meter and as the water department here like you know it costs us money to send this water out to to the residents and the water went into your residents as it from where it went there that is the
mystery I don't know but I I know that the meter and we can we can there we can have the meter check for you you know that is an option uh if it comes back is the meter's fine you need to cover the cost of that if it comes back as the meter was faulty then we cover it um
we've done this many times we're just letting you know generally don't come back qualy um that's just kind of what I that's the position we're sitting at here believe me I I understand I I want a house in town too you know having a water Billet spiked to ridiculous amount
you're like where did it go and and we want to try to help you find that but at the end of the day the water went through that meter into your property I understand that this is not a water meter that I provided I cannot
take account accountability a responsibility all I can do is make sure that I'm monitoring the usage I'm also being you know all I can do is make if I'm not utilizing the water I can't explain for it either so while you can
say you know this went into your house it's like me going to a store and saying I never got something from the store but I'm expected to pay for it so we're trying to reconcile that now aren't we um but cuz now I I guess the only
possible cause maybe the water maybe something with the irrigation because as far as leaks go within the household as far as um unsuspected expenditure of water I don't think I Happ in the house I've had a check multiple times
everything is pretty darn new in that house do develop um I cannot account for it but again I cannot be paying what it it's just unconscionable for me to be having to pay this amount of money when I'm not utilized I'm not seeing that I'm I don't
know where this water is going I'm not drinking it I'm not using it it's like scary to even turn on the tap practically this is like what I'm going to have to deal with once again I understand like your analogy to the store like you went to the store and you left with nothing in
this case you're left with water I mean the water went through the meter that's that that's a known you know I mean and like I said we can have the meter tested but and we gladly will but it it's going to it's if it comes back as the meter is
functioning properly then the water went through there and like I said from our end as a water district as a company here water went in now if there's a leak so I and I understand if you can't find the leak it's it's a mystery but the water still went through so how do I know that
it wasn't something with the system that was providing the water where there's a leak cuz how do I identify where there's a leak because now it's my responsibility from when I'm here to have to cover this cost for something I cannot ACC so when the water enters your house you know you have a main and
there's a line that goes to to your house and goes to this meter if there's a leak somewhere in here that's not on you you know well well I say from the curb stop to there but that wouldn't even show up on the meter to be honest with you because you'd see it coming out of the ground or something like that
um what the the thing that measures the water is in in your basement I'm sure you can look through the wall it's right there from there Beyond is your usage you know wherever it may go so if it goes to to your if it's a
leak in a toilet or if it's a leak in the irrigation and the reason why we're sitting here talking about all this is because it is my assumption along with everybody else's here that there's probably a leak in the irrigation and you'd never see it because it could be underground in your backyard on a onein
line that you you'd never ever know and it's just it's it's it's flooding the ground underneath and you just I wouldn't know either use that analogy of flooding but when we talk about we see extremely high water usage when somebody has like a leaky toilet and the amount of water that you would think is going
by on a leaky toilet you wouldn't think it's a lot just something letting a little bit by but it's a it's over time it builds up to be a large amount um so that's and and you could have a leak in
your your si your irrigation system it could have been something with a a toilet or something in your house we we don't know but what we do know and we're fairly confident of is that amount of water went through that meter and was
utilized somewhere on the other side wherever it went it's it's it's unfortunately it's the it's the burden of the the user on that point do you do you know what your plumber actually checked in your house for for uh appliances you know what he
looked at and what he checked for the water usage he checked all the tops all the water Outlets did you do the do the dishwasher the wash machine he's checked I've had it checked more multiple times this is not quite a one time and the reason why we ask is we
don't want you in this position either you know we don't want your bill to be through the roof of of of water that you have no idea that is that's you know sometimes it may seem like a lot coming like hey did you do this did you do this it's our concern too I don't I don't want your Bild to be super high especially I don't want water flowing
out that no one's using it's it's wasteful and I know you don't want that either I know this is a lot of work to go on but not on our end but um you can tell if there's any water leaking through anything in the house by the septic tank taking off the cover and you can
actually see the water level no you'll see I mean that's 100% sure that there if there's water coming out there's a leak in the house is that and it that that was my question on when the irrigation was shut down um number one you was it was it fully shut down and
did can you there are ways to determine if there is a leak in the system itself so just once again just trying to trying to help out here you said at one point you had your irrigation person come out and shut the valve off and the control locks has it ever been turned back on
since then to run the irrigation yes so the irrigation was initially turned off in July as I mentioned and then this 2024 it was turned on again in the spring okay and I I am I'm quite
specific about this because the spring I put put in new grass so I needed to keep watering that but that was only for about a month and a half how long do these irrigation systems usually run they run at night run the
day it it's all when you program it but if there was a leak in the main line and the main line is on or if there is a valve leaking by a zone line leaking by and the and the water is on that water can be trickling out ever so slowly so
if you had a you have a main line with your system and then you go to different zones if one of those zones was leaking by and then it it's slowly filling that that zone up and then probably the lowest head or a couple of the lower heads in the zones would just weep very slowly and you probably wouldn't even
see it in the in the grass so and if it was shut down in July so it shut down in July of 23 I would have a if if everything if because I wasn't there I can't witness it all if it was shut down in July of 23
then and shut down properly then I would have a hard time believing that that usage came from here irrigation that there might be something else but we we are trying so hard to try to help you understand where it may have came from
because it went through the meter we the the the failure on meters is almost on on going with excessive use almost a 0% chance I don't even think well I would say 0% we've never seen
we've never seen it never I guess the bottom line is what would you like us to do I don't want to be responsible for water that I did not use um it it is I didn't lose the water that I really
the long and short of it so now I'm paying these bills for water I didn't use I I cannot make sense out of if there was some sort of where this water was going I would take responsibility for it but I can't cannot
be paying for water I'm just not seeing or utilizing or anything like that it's a lot of money like that's that's being asked for for water water is not a bill that you expect to be spending all this money on so here I'm having to pay all
this money for water and if I don't pay it you my water gets shut off um so I'm in like I'm in a in in in a terrible position I I I empathize with you but like I
said we can't just aate the bill I mean the water went through the meter I can't I mean you could read them we could talk I I mean because I understand what you're saying it went through the meter I didn't I didn't use this water I didn't turn on the top I didn't do anything about for this water
we're just even even with the even with the irrigation that's just I guess some presumption that we're making um I think we got somebody's got to investigate a little further does does the the Shad off on the irrigation in
the cell is that a ball valve or a regular iidea I saw the Val I mean it's under my just and once again we could sit here and we could come up with maybe how this happened but
the reality is it's happened the water has gone somewhere we don't know where but it's it's gone and we just can't we just can't not charge for the water because it went through the meter so we can the options are is we can send the meter off for
testing like we've done before I forget what that fee is it's not expensive I think it was $40 yeah something to that in fact if it comes back as the meter has been working accurately then it's proof that this water flowed through there you know I
mean we've since put the loging either on to try to help out to see to monitor this closely to see you know what happens next time as a is a you know to help you while which I get it but the bottom line is that amount of cubic feet went through the meter to your
property and it has to be paid for if we if we send the meter out which we will sure and check it and it's there's nothing wrong with the meter right all right that Delta us well
we know the for the for the meter to be moved in here we know the water went through the meter so we send it out there's nothing wrong with the meter we know positively that the water went through the meter into the house somewhere all right now if there's nothing wrong with the meter there's
definitely something wrong in the house I I'm I'm not a big fan of what your plumbus says I mean I don't even know them but I know people that have had their toilets running that have drained their well their Wells gone dry because the toilets you you've got a ton of water so that wouldn't be a problem but the thing is
you got to keep in mind right now whatever she has going right now she's at the 500 cubic feet so there's nothing going on nothing going on right now nothing going on now and so that's why I think I think if you had something going on in the house you your bills would be
high every cor you would see it so the large bills Drew in the summer yes when the irrigation on so that's yes and that's just assume but that's well I'm just trying to narrow down to it's a sum it's a sum of problem the higher numbers
come in I think one of the things like like we can look at for leaks like as Mark saying that maybe the line's leaking and not you know running the irrigation system this where that new meat is going to show us the stuff yeah it's going to say you've been flowing water for five gallons a minutes for for
a month and uh we all we can see that it uh there is no le but the Iration on you can see where ran 4:00 in the morning till 6:00 in the morning Y which is a pretty pretty typical time people usually 4:30 in the morning we can we see wall but the meter check will tell
us that uh the yes it logs by the island the the new meter that's currently installed in our house is a loging meter we can see at all times I mean this is this is like a a rough but it's got to go through a summer cycle to tell us yeah yeah read it weekly my question
is also I know we're saying we're highlighting just the outlandish bill here right but here we even look at so I'm I'm I'm still no yeah I know that's why you're talking about um
talking this versus this versus this yeah so this is even though this is the January bill that's that's what's Weir I'd be very curious like I almost kind of wonder if your irrigation guy can send us something about when did he
actually blow the lines out of your irrigation because that might give you a better timeline you know what I mean cuz if the plumbers don't see anything and and looking at this you definitely have low numbers during the actual winter months so I'd be really curious if your
IR irrigation guy can say all right I went there turned the control panel off this day turn the valve this day or or you know what I mean cuz you do even after that 19,000 even though you're saying it was turned off in July that January bill is your August
septe your October November December that's still 4,000 yeah it is still pretty high yeah so that's why I'm I'm curious like does he does he have a timeline of like when was the actual system blown out lines drained I mean
he's done it for years so it's the same guy no yeah so yeah if it's the same guy I'd be curious and and then I I mean that's the only thing I think we're going to figure out is when when you have the system turned on if you want to have I can have one of
the guys go out the day your irrigation guys coming out you know what I mean and they can look at the meter um see if there's something I'm not that's the that's that's what's very confusing is is yes it looks like cuz
it's the same thing like your July bill and then your October Bill those are two twoo high bills so then it but then it drops right back down you know your January and now your April are going to be very low so see a
difference I guess that's why we all kind of we coming to that conclusion that it's the high bills are within the sixth month of the summertime and your winter bills are are a lot lower how can we how can we um do some kind of an an examination not
us but somebody do some kind of an examination well like I said I mean now with the logging meter in there we're miles ahead of the game here you know we can see that at all time in a live data type of thing um you know but it is you know February right now and there's
still this matter of you know a bill that was high and that's unresolved you know um even if we I mean let's say if let's say ially if you went through the the next you know season of cycle and this happened again I mean like
it's it may show that it is the irrigation or not or whatever but at the end of the day as of today this water went through a meter and it's something that we need to you know figure we need we need to address that you know that's that's why you're here today previous
Bill and what I'm getting at there going to be some way to tell right now if there's water leaking by the valves or the shut off in the irrigation system either by cut cutting the line off well wouldn't meter tell us no no cuz it's off to the irrigation because even if
it's leaking by the irrigation the meter's not going to tell us if you put a meter past her irrigation a personal meter that might tell or something what I'm saying if you get a plum and you get on what's it a 1 inch line 3/4 inch line that a one inch line and cut the line off in the cell and see if it's leaking
I mean if it's leak if you see a leak there then you know it's it's leaking by the shut off but if you don't the meter I mean like right now even that meter cuz when when I was at her house you actually you put your flashlight on it and it reads the flow rate when I was there was zero so there was absolutely
no water flowing into that house so you you don't need to cut any pipes or anything you can go look at the meter and say it's zero a logging meter we're going to say hey it's at zero you know you're going to say hey but that's what but that's what we're confirming right now John she she's there she she's she does not have water leaking I don't
believe because you're only at 400 she's only at 467 cubic feet so we're going to have to wait till summer then to see what's going on to see about the irrigation or well to me it seems like it's under control at this point so whatever whatever caused this
is is contained at this point yeah right now correct yeah but it won't be contained probably in the summer if it's the irrigation but that's what we can figure out with this new and that and that's and you you should be able to because with nothing on in the house
it'll tell you whether it's zero flow so instead of having a little triangle that spins around the meter tells you that there's nothing y so that's one way of having the irrigation system on and looking at the meter if there is
no Zone operating that will tell you that your main line on your irrigation is tight and not leaking all right I'm going to I'm going to make some kind of proposal you two guys decide if you want to go with it or you don't but um what's
the balance on the bill up to date now tell me closley uh 1,142 okay so um and you're paying $200 a month why don't we why don't we go the
way it's been going if you guys want to until summer hav paid her $200 a month like she's been pay see what happens in the summer when the irrigation is turned back on and if the bill go goes back
up I mean of course it's going to go up because she's using the irrigation see there's a there's a problem right there you know what I'm saying I do when you're do the only way to wait for some have them open up the Vault
open up the box and stuff but cut the timer off so it even I mean I think it's I think the situation contained at this point that if if if there is a leak in the irrigation system that would be between CU that's the resident and the irrigation contractor right I know that I'm just I guess kind of my questions
are where we're on a payment plan chrisy I got a question for you do we is there is a compounding interest we do that yeah so when we set up a payment plan we still unless I I that's up it's always
up to you guys to remove to do any of that kind of stuff I it's an automatic give somebody time and not just it's tough when you get you get that bill and you keep working at it keep working at it but yet you still are compounding amounts on top
of it um you know I'm I'm open to suggestions if there's things that we feel we can do from board to I will tell you right now come to some sort of common I'd be just hopefully this this will out but
so this balance of 1142 right I'd be willing to take that balance number and you a basically a 0% interest on that for a year you can spend the next year paying that down and you would still need to be paying your regular water
bill um that is something I would be going to do so I would over the course of the next 12 removing the finance removing the finance almost like like a separate like category like actually this 1142 put that over here and then
that might make it a really hard for you chrisy no no I can just I yeah isn't that way turn off the yeah right well I think we have to do something to help this young lady I don't know what it could be I I don't know if there's anything to do at this point because it
sounds like from where we're at now that the whatever was causing the issue for this spike in the bill right has been resolved correct so yeah we could go out there uh obviously if there was a new concern we would definitely come out and do whatever we could for you
but I don't know if you'd find anything now that's what I'm saying I mean we we're talking a lot of like what is but like let's talk about what we know is is is real is that she has a bill of this and this is that that's my proposal you
know just basically knock the interest off but you still have to I don't see what else we could do I mean we you know the the water went through the meter we are responsible up to the meter and it is you know it's our belief my belief that the water went through the meter so
the after that what happens to it is the responsibility of the resident so so what we're trying to do is trying not to compound that with additional finance charges on the balance that is
duing we this is not the first time this has happened in town people have had problem leaks and stuff and I mean we're not we're not picking on you you know it's it's a thing we have to do if we do it for one if we uh do away with the bill then we have to do it for everybody
that comes in and we just can't do that but we want to work with the customers try to do the best we can for them help them with their problem and and still have the water department get the money for their water but it go through the meter the water went into your house it's just like you said you go to the
grocery store and you buy a bag of groceries and you pay for it and somebody steals it out of your car you're still responsible for it you receive the groceries and you know and it's the same with the water I mean I don't know what else to tell you
I you know I think there's a slight Nuance here you know this it is still I am still a consumer here and I'm being charged for something I'm not utilizing well we don't know that because it went through the meter so you are utilizing
well she didn't she didn't utilize it but it went through the Met well what I'm saying is if it went through the meter it went through the house it went through the irriation somewhere it's being utilized on the property and I don't know what else say yeah once it goes through the matter then that's that's the utilization yeah
unfortunately that's how we've we've like always been I'm sorry for your problems but I I don't know what else to do I feel like we could say that's how we've always done it but it could also be a new way of doing things as well
um it I mean to be honest it doesn't help me in any sense if I'm I'm having this problem that is now apparently uh spontaneously gone away um this is a lot of money the water
company is charging me for I feel that it's grossly unfair to me as a consumer to have we can I mean it's easy for for you from your position to justify and say oh well it went through the meter so it's not our responsibility it's your responsibility from that point in time
I'm still responsible for having to pay this bill now you know so it it's easy from your position to justify see he went through the meter you deal with it I'm trying to think of how how do it get resolved now I mean the leak if
there was a if there was a leak in the toilet or leak in the in the uh in the irrigation the irrigation has been shut off now so the winter isn't a problem but how did it resolve itself leaks don't go away on their own as a you know
as a consumer there is something called good faith I do believe the water company should act in good faith to make things right if there was a problem and if there was something that I could have taken care of that we're we're you know we we're assuming here but it is good faith the duty of good faith is not just
on my end it's on your end providing the service we are working good Fai we we are I know I know your plumber didn't miss misses his water leak somewhere I mean we that's happened before also they've missed I or they turned they turned a valve
that and then it cured whatever whatever problem might have been with the valve we have an obligation to the to the district and all of the users so is is
it if there was another user out there that had a a usage and the water went through their meter do you think it would be fair for us to ask you to pay their bill Bill you're not asking me to pay the bill you're asking me to pay this bill
you're right so you're asking if you're you you want us to Abate the bill the water that went through the me I think it is good if there is a problem but there's we there's no I haven't seen and we're trying we're
trying to find something that would explain it other than the water went through the meter it is the responsibility of the water taker once it goes through the meter and it shouldn't and unfortunately shouldn't be
a burden on the rest of the district to take on the water that went through your meter I'm not trying to be grass I'm just trying to put perspective on I completely understand so you know so you
say it's easy for us it's not easy for us cuz we're trying really hard cuz you know I I think we're trying to empathize and help you figure out out why this could have happened um so that it doesn't happen again um
or how would it went through unfortunately from our perspective it went through the meter it's the same thing with the power company when the power goes through the meter and the meter spins regardless of of of what we've done we have to pay the bill for
that power because it cost money to produce that power so it cost money to produce the water that went through your meter so am I required to utilize that the meter that you provide I assume yes yes we're correct there and we can test
it at any time um with the information I have in front of me I don't think it was the fault of the meter but we you know we'd be more than happy to to have that tested um but when we test it if it comes back that there was nothing wrong with the meter then unfortunately
that becomes the cost of the the consumer that's something that we would have to pass on to you if there was something wrong with the meter then we'd have something to talk about but I I don't think that would be the case I why don't we we could talk about
this and be this dead horse forever why don't we take it under advisement have the secretary send you our decision and what an email or a letter or something or however what you want I have your phone number I don't think we're going to get it resolved right here we've talked
about the same thing over and over well in the meantime are you guys all I don't really think that's a good idea to be honest with you she here she's here right now let's just I mean okay I'm just I'm trying to come up with options that's
all to resolve the problem if new information came out I would love to look at the new information but with the information we have in front of me I'm inclined to uh support the the chair's decision to abate the interest on the amount due and uh for a period of around
a year as long as the the bill stays current and the the it or stop it from stop stop the interest stop the interest stop the interest okay as make a motion on that no think so yeah so I would say
you know what I would say based on the discussion and that the chair had that if we had to make a motion I'd make a motion that we stop the interest as of this point zero interest for a year on the balance due provided that the current bills stay on track and that the payment
schedule stays on track so the current bills that's also another thing I want to talk about I don't intend and I I cannot keep paying $200 a month for the this water bill um whatever the case is it like it's it's a lot to be pain for water it
really quite is you know I get this I get stuck with this bill that I can't justify and it's I mean other than but for you saying hey that's what our metor is that's all we're going by you know and I'm stuck
with this insurmountable charges from a water company and it could be happening underground and I can't see it but I'm not utilizing it and we we can we can go through the semantics of the word utiliz but I'm not utilizing it I haven't made use of it it may be going for all I know
it could be going out to the back fields that seems to be what probably is happening sorry chist what's the balance uh 1,142 22 so can we modify instead of $200
monthly maybe do well that if if we just said a year at no interest that's $95 a month right so we've we've cut the 200 monthly down if we Abate the if we cancel the take the interest off for a year so now
it's under $100 a month and in a year it's it's squared up I think that's very fair I don't know if we can do anything else I mean we we got the rest of the customers a month that's that's I know I know it it it
seems so I had a similar instance water went through my meter I had a water leak underground and I had a size of a bill I and I knew that through past history I've been here and watch the
board for years the water that goes through the meter is a responsibility to taker I had a large Bill similar to yours that I had to also take on and and pay there unfortunately the meter it's a responsibility of the person that takes
the water through the meter at that point so and at the time that I've been here and I don't know John you've been here a lot longer than me we've almost never Abit a water bill I don't think we've ever I don't think we ever have we we we work and do what we can with what we're
trying to do is not have the interest give you a year to to get it squared up um that's really all I I think we can we can do with this time why is your justification we've just never done it even in all
circumstances so I I I shouldn't say the word justification uh why we've never done it the reason why it's never been done is simply to the fact that this is a uh an essential a company you know we
have a responsibility here to the 2500 water users in lunenberg to give them consistent fair pricing billing water quality etc etc you know and that's that's the the the job of us three sitting back here is trying to maintain
that balance so this has this has happened before with there been leaks or whatever like we've said but we just can't we just can't be like ah no problem don't pay that because by us doing that puts that burden on the rest of the people okay it's it's it's not
it's not their fault it's not it's not it's not fair to them to be picking up the slack for for this for this one instant here unfortunately it's your responsibility we'll do what we can to try to to to lessen the blow I understand completely but at the end of the
day you're the homeowner the water went went to your house and that's really all I can tell you do you want me to um send an email kind of going over what we what we discussed are you okay with what the
commissioner suggested you know going from the 200 to the 100 to take care of the the 1100 and then you'll have to do so if you did the 100 a month towards the past due and then you'll just have to make sure like your your quarterly
bill that probably will come out in April you're right now you're just under the um the minimum so you're looking at around 100 for that quarterly so you have to keep up with your quarterly bills your normal ones that come out January April July and October and then
the 100 a month to go towards the past past two I mean I'm not an agreement that this is a solution but and we'll have to keep an eye on that that uh yeah I mean make sure it doesn't go start going back up again
yeah we have the new 360 system so um we're going out to next month but it's our hope that we're going to be sending the guys out a lot more frequently um and then I can start to get patterns of stuff and I'll start to see um high usages and high high reads before it
comes to that full three Monon time frame yeah so that we can prevent I understand that this is not you know a decision you like but it's what we have to offer that's the offer we have to you and that's that's that's where it sits I understand that's what
you're offering me again it's it is just one of those things if it was something that I could say yeah I could see where this water was going I'd be I'd be fine with saying hey it is what it is I I know I be
responsible for that where it is unidentified and making speculations and then I'm still held responsible and suddenly it's been fixed and so I I I need to stop your idea there's no speculations being made we're we're basing this information
on the meter okay right all right so so there's no there's no we didn't write down a number I mean it's what the meter read so that's what we're going on so I think speculation is just kind of a bit bit of vocabulary that I might
comfortable with that it's just like the electric company electric goes through your electric meter you used it somewhere you know and that's the same with the water meter once it goes past the meter it's gone into your residence we don't know where
it went after it went past the meter just like the electricity once it goes into the meter and goes past the meter that's your electricity and that's your water there's there's no other alternative there there's nothing else we can say that to make anything change
or or make any difference it's that's why the meter is there it's to calculate the use of the customer so how I mean there must how how do I if there's a decision made how do I appeal it you don't I don't well
unless you want to go the attorney go to dpu in Boston or whatever you want to do but I think it'd be spending time and money no real we've never had that problem nobody's ever disputed because they
understand what the meter is for so I'm going to wrap this up because we can sit here we do have to kind of move on this is our decision this is our proposal to you if you disagree with it you don't like it you can take it you can hire a lawyer you can come in back and and try to push this further but this is the
proposal to you and by all means let us know what you want to do okay I do thank you for your time thank you all right moving on have review the warrant for the 2025 annual meet so it was pretty basic yep um the
normal articles ballots except reports um has the um maintenance budget in there which includes what you guys approved last meeting cor um normal ones and then you
know every year we allocate um $50,000 from the water service over the MS was can we verify that the the new bylaw did not include okay no it it does it does I'm sorry it does so we just
need 2/3 to pass our annual budget correct so if we don't get 2/3 for our annual budget we don't yeah we don't get the we don't get to operate I mean that that could be a um an article to
amend no yeah then you're opening stuff up but but I'd rather just have six people sh is just get that's what we anything over 2 million right oh
oh as far as everything else uh yeah the rest is majority right believe the only time it's two3 if B yes but that's what I meant these specific all just majority that's right what are we going to do if we don't wind up with a moderator oh let's let's focus on one thing at a time
oh well well this is what we have focusing on S John you know what is our moderator here for this meeting yes I did confirm he will be here a good go we have a moderator for this meeting we have a year to worry about that was good good point joh all right so the only
article I I think we probably should add is one you know we keep talking about upgrading the radio system yeah I think to to secure an actual funding source I think we should do an article uh to appropriate money for that I agree with the portable you have just
Portables now right no Tru but no you're talking about putting the tower up the said yeah the main infrastructure stuff I mean the the Portables I mean if we did that I mean we have mobile radios you you had talked about tying in with what the town's doing and maybe helping out there as well so yeah it was mostly
just to uh cooperate with the installation so instead of them paying 10,000 all for the radio wi we split it threeways water fire police yeah and so that was you know 3300 a piece okay have you talked to the town manager about that do we have an
amount uh I've been fighting like crazy yeah Fran's been trying to do this for a while if you could get if you get in a mountain and I would we now have a town manager I would just run it what it my her I mean it's a no-brainer if you ask me but I feel I'm a little in ingredience
with Fran on this that we've we' we've we've played tennis with this long enough let's just put an article in there yes to do it if we can do it for Less we will let's put that full on the mountain so we can just get this going because we've tried doing this for years now and
and we don't need the town to do this I mean I you give me we trying to be you know team players in this not saying they still can't jump on board but let's let's get this in motion y okay um so they have to vote the
warrant before I can post it yes yes sign off on it okay so how much time do we have that's what that's where I was at I have um so the date is Saturday so we got to post it yeah I got to post it
soon I got to post it before the next meeting so um so we would need an article to appropriate take it from water enhancement well all we get do a S account with the usually with yeah can we just approve an adding article six as
to appropriate from the cellular cellular a sum to be determined we which I think you can do because I think some or some other sum um is the way the KP had it drawn up for some of those so are we okay okay so adding so you make the
motion adding article six make a motion that we add article six to the article would be to appropriate from the seller theer account sum or other sums for the purchase of
materials and equipment for radio communication for the district so moves hi so that's the ad and then now we still need to vote on the warrant yes
I would make a motion that we uh approve the warrant as presented articles 1 2 3 4 five for the annual meeting and six as we just amended for March 8th 2025 uh March well that's just the date I would probably post it it's the meeting is
March 29th for okay let so that so the articles for the meeting March 299th 2025 all those in favor those are beautiful ah commissioner superintendent
clerk additions uh I got a bunch of low things all right fire away so um we had a service leak on Fair View it took took a while for us to actually fix we all were sick was out Terry's been out so it was just
PJ and Ryan so uh anyway so when we all came back on Monday we we got it fixed it up the road was in pretty rough shape I mean because all the water ran on the road ice was nasty and it was a it was a mess but uh if you have any complaints like why it took so long because we were
all sick well then PJ did they did try their best um one day when very short staffed um and the ground was so Frozen oh God they were having a really our time trying to get through so yeah okay uh yeah so that's all fixed and we still
got to patch the road and clean up and stuff uh I met with mass do today my my goal was to eliminate one of the paving Mill and pave areas and uh so I met on there with the uh the Chad from Mt and
uh we went over the whole area and you know he showed what concerned him so I I kind of understand where they where they're going so we'll leave it as part of the original plan so it's no no increase it's just going to show us as it was and uh the uh State permit
expired the DOT permit expired so I submitted a request to extend it and uh it was $150 fee to extend it so I did we did all that today so now we're good for one more year so we're good we're good with that met with MDR uh today uh there's a couple of the
Cross trenches are Heaven up a little bit so they're going to come out uh Friday it's going to be nice day Friday sweet and uh fix those repave them and uh so we should be good till till they come out we're first on the list for spring so y once the weather breaks we
should be I think everybody knows what talking Frost has been horrible horrible okay so the only other thing I got is uh uh big big communication with uh with blue Leaf of pilot testing people at
keatings and uh and a Time Bond uh there's some issues going on with pressure es through the filters so they they're running a cartridge filter prior to the Past filters the cartridge filter filters are getting plugged up okay so
now even though the cartridge fils are catching some kind of media something uh it's still plugging up the the past filters the GAC and the floral zone so I me I don't if you remember him speaking when he was here the hickler hills in in
Lancaster he was saying the Flor appeared to be the best method for treatment for those Wells and he felt the same for Kings at that time so what they're seeing now is that florb is actually getting much more higher
buildup so they it's going to need a very frequent back wash which is not a very big good thing so he says that well is now leaning to the GAC which is still going to need more back wash and he he can't they can't figure out what's being caught that's causing this so we did we
did water quality samples uh most most time you think it's and magnes those are still very low to a point where that that's not a concern to us uh the hotness is actually lower now because we' running 24 hours a day uh lower than
it has been in the past so uh on the good side is they haven't you they have the columns and they they they read the past results and they have not yet even neither none of the the two types of filters they're running have failed at 25% yet so we they've been running for a
long time and uh we haven't gone through a quarter of the column yet so it seems to be they seem the run time seems to be long for the you know catching of the P pass uh so they did request because they're going to change some some of the media cartridges and the different uh
the microns or whatever it is to catch more stuff so they're going to start changing stuff so they asked if they could run the pilot test till the middle of April and uh I kind of squashed them on that a little bit I gave him to the end of March because we flush HS in April we can't
flush Hy without that how are we doing just not to interrupt you but like with Lancaster L AB well supporting the entire town it's been okay uh you know because the usage the demand is very minimal compared to summer time uh I
mean we do see what we do here have uh complaints you know color green you know drain water and uh little more staining and stuff but uh overall it's it's okay I mean there's no way we could do it
right yeah so there is there is a finite anti keing testing because we need right right so that's why they going to the the last week in March okay so so we're running that we're not utilizing that Source correct it's just
pumping place so if something critical did happen then uh we can open just just pump but when we pump it in the system we we have to shut down because we going thr tank so F so y so they they didn't
like the the on off one time they wanted to constant runtime okay to to to facilitate the the data that they were getting right yeah so it's still pluging along so we got another month of that
so so and then it seemed to be a couple months it took them to kind of yeah I think they're working on it right now they're starting to gather oh hopefully it won't be as long as the other one yes because we got to apply for the the
funding so that's all I got nothing just I good stuff but I get a little something so just
going through in the the expense War here um that open meeting law violation slash that was not really a violation um the complaint I should say that complaint I mean the legal fee on that is about
$2,500 so um it's it's part of how we have to do things but I feel like sometimes stuff like that when those come up they get costly and we definitely would like to I mean we try to run a tight here and I think we do but you know to the public and when
they look at all these you know expenses and everything like that stuff like that adds into adds into the bills for people just thought it was worth noting I I saw that too and I I thought about
it there are so many things that happen when we're here that uh I cannot figure out how they happened how we had a a project on
massav go from 800,000 to 2.4 million and then nobody bats an eye and and why people pick certain subjects and sometimes it's about money sometimes it's not about money yeah I I I was I saw the same
thing and I'm like boy I'd love to say something about it but I just can't I can't quite figure out the Rhyme or Reason I mean I I get it and just saying like you're right sometimes we spend money like and I'm like golly like I don't do we have to I we have to and it's sometimes it's little things like
that that you know I mean last year as we went through the budget you know last year's legal fees was I mean geez higher than it's ever been by a long shot you you know so yeah just just like I said I just as my two
sents of noting wish we could all work it out a lot easier I would be a lot better if if we if people if anybody has any problems questions concerns if you just come to us because it saves so much money yep
way I want to get uh how many million for a new town hall 10 12 I sto I stopped I stopped trying my blood pressure started going up with you get into what bad enough else is going on
we're million I'm not done yet fellas we want to cram it into the center up there and and hook it onto the rich rid which is probably a good idea I I'm I'm amazed that somebody even came up with that idea but uh
they'll pass that through 12 million bucks bang we're at a waterm yeah it sounds like this is a great sounds like you should go to meeting SEL meetings I invite you to go no you're right do you have anything M I do not all right
public com oh John none for me my friend no no that's I make a motion with