meeting of the water Commissioners is called to order February 20th 2025 at 6: pm and is being recorded chairman Ed Johnson present commissioner Dave mbor present commissioner John Kane present uh Randy Brown DPW director
here John Gard assistant DPW director barl Wagner DPW office manager is there any public comment is there any public comment seeing none okay John David you rud the minister this January 16th
meeting yes the minutes I make a motion to accept the minutes as written have a second second the motion to accept the mendance as written all in favor of Johnson I I John can yes motion carries
okay we have two Ed rate applications 12 Castle Street 12 Gerald Lane uh they both meet all the requirements I have a motion I make a motion to accept the two other gr applications I'll second the motion to accept the two ELD rate applications all
in favor Johnson I Kane yes okay motion carries okay monthly commitments will sign them afterwards Randy just a few things so uh we have John Gard with us today he's about a month ago we started as the assistant
gpw director so he wanted to pop in and say hi introduce himself I think youve seen John around he's been working for DPW for about five years now as storm water coordinator and then dick retired in the summer and so John absorbed a lot of his his responsibilities uh so he'll
be he'll be working with the water department as well all the other departments U moving forward so he's now officially full-time with DPW although his he was is still Town planner he's kind of filling in that role until uh they transition to a new town planner so
do some hours there but so you'll see John around he's sitting at the office next to me um if you ever pop in so um he'll be involved in all of our projects um lot of our planning projects um right now he's working on some our water withraw permit um some numbers some
numbers together for that um and then any other support that you know the water department needs he'll be providing appreci so uh next item is time bond is still working on our basement inspections they did four days of inspections at the end
of January ear early February so we had a total of 122 inspections and then addition there were 52 residents that did a self inspection so we got some good response to that next round um I'm hoping that's the end of the basement inspections we have enough data we can
input that into the model and that'll be sufficient uh we do still need to get some information on the public on sorry the public side so before the meter so we are doing some vacuum excavations in the summer and hopefully that will build that and of that requirement so we're
hoping that this last push for the vacuum excavation will be the last that we need to do for any of these inspections and we can move on from that lead lead service line inventory have they found any lead service lines no no not that we expect any uh we've had two
brass services and a handful galvanized but uh but nothing that requires replacement either so there are service anything that's LED requires a replacement right but we have and but we Haven trigger that requirement at all so that's a good thing y uh we did submit
the f26 budget at the last meeting we talked about that and we did submit that uh let's see the there's always a meeting a joint meeting with a s board and finance committee that has not yet been posted but I believe it's going to
be March 1st or 10 or 10:15 will be our our meeting for the LA Commissioners barl just remind me what you when you found out exactly what it is I because I always attend that abely I'm I'm pretty certain it'll be and this is a week from this weekend right so yeah I'm pretty certain but it has yet to be posted
so and the last thing is Jeff viell is our back inspector he did his inspection for 24 and he'll come back in Spring I would like to be at that budget hearing if you don't mind yeah not ined but with Ed sure absolutely I'll see see you on
the reminder thank you so the the budget's all day all morning you've been in the past not for the whole thing okay okay yeah so we so DPW has I usually have mine and then at 9:30 or so and then we'll transition to water department
so report order summary Berkshire Avenue what meter install meter install and a possible leek inspection okay old business anything under old business new business Randy uh so at the last meeting remember we talked about uh
the f26 budget and going up on a couple line items so what I also mentioned if we go up on some items probably have to revisit the water rates so the last couple years our Revenue has matched our expenses pretty well uh but with this year going up a little bit I do expect
um we should we should we should revisit our rates here um so what I did is I looked at that gave you this summary sheet here with our projected fi 26 expenses on one side and the revenue on the other side at the top of the sheet here and then we're going to be a
shortfall of about $28,000 So based on salary increases for FY 26 we did have uh we did go up on our contractor equipment line item our line item for sprinkle water and sewer went up um and then we also put a money put
money aside for water main improvements on North longard Road that was about $40,000 so so between those items our budget I would expect to go up about maybe 50 to $60,000 over last year um so which will give us a little shortfall
moving forward so I do think it's fair to look at the rates we hav adjusted rates in over two years it was all 2022 last time we had a rate adjustment and I think the next page you have in front of you shows the current rates and I think even has the historical rates behind
that when all adjusted so I gave uh you 10 different scenarios here there areund scenarios we can look at um but I would I would suggest at a minimum we go increase the rates by 3% and that will basically
cover our increase in expanses for acty 26 which is option to your scenario two on the sheet um if you want to go up a little little higher than that I wouldn't be opposed to it what I would do is I would whatever Surplus we have with that rate increase I I'd put that towards the next our next Capital
project we talked about doing some water main work by 27 and Beyond um I would look at whatever that number is say it's 4 ,000 $50,000 maybe more um I'll try to find a project that fits within that within that parameter uh probably at
that point it probably be a a larger project with a with a borrowing borrowing schedule or a payback is it like that that $4 $50,000 a year um so these are for your discussion what I I try to give you a rate increase somewhere between three and 10% so I've
got different scenarios where you know we have three different tiers one two and three um the scenario two was 3% increase 3% increase across all three tiers you know scenario three is a 5% increase across all the tiers number
four is a 10% increase and then I have kind of mix and match um on the other scenarios for you know for your consideration so yeah I don't know where your thoughts are um like I said a minimum I would I would suggest um going
up 3% over last year to cover this year's well we definitely got to do that we definitely got to go at least 3% yeah I think raising rates in a regular interval and not having you know to have to raise rates to cover something you know down the road is probably the smart
move um I think the lowest tier I would like to keep that as low of a rate increase because I think that's where a lot of people are are are at you know everybody uses that first tier and a lot of people don't reach that initial 15,000 gallons right um and then so I
like this three 5 and 10 because once you're over 30,000 I mean you're a pretty big water user and I mean realistically your water your water bill isn't going to be a huge impact to your your daily financials that's number nine you're talking at John
yeah and I think it gives us you know that 75,000 Surplus and then next year it's not you know you're probably going to be 60,000 Surplus and whatnot and we'll be able to cover some type of project or some type of major incident that happens
um I know other towns when they have a watermain break you know you exhaust all your money and then you're looking to to borrow money to fix that and I think if we could keep a surplus to take care of those things before they become a problem Dave yeah what's the uh what did
you say the price tag is on that North longard 40,000 40,000 Y and that's already covered that's that no well that will be in the budget f budget Oh I thought that was in the budget so yeah
it so it's it's shown in in the um yeah f26 Budget on this item here yeah would that be would would we be able to get enough to do that water line to the tanks that we were talking about
I think that would be one of the next big projects to talk about yeah that's got so with this you know Surplus here so we're not going to see that full Surplus until the end of the year so I I would I would I would use this and then use that as the next spring Ro for the
next project in FY 27 likely yeah that's got to get done yeah that's got to get done yeah there's definitely some improvements that need to be made throughout the system that are going to take a quite a bit of money out of it so
to to not be ready for it would be would be silly on our end is there is there capacity for the water department or DPW themselves to do some of these projects you know bring them inh house to some extent rather
than we can we I mean we we're limited by the size of our equipment too so we don't have a b excavator where we can do you know a lot of you know digging and and and trenching in one day so we are limited in that sense we we do we do smaller projects in house right but if we were doing a larger like water main
replacement i' I'd probably bring in someone who can you know do a little more more quickly than we can in house in the long term would it be beneficial for us to look at trying to
expand like the in-house capabilities to do stuff like that or I mean some some towns are strict you don't we just we hire it out and then other towns are you know trying to bring it inside I just don't know if the town of South has that kind of ability to
expand the capacity it's worthwhile we could look into it I think the so the equipment is is one of the big things we have you know an excavator um but not a large excavator Min X and BHO loader right right um so
we can do so if we had the right equipment absolutely yeah so I'm thinking like with the the lineup to the water tanks right I mean that's pretty much cross country if you will it's up a sem dirt road if we could bring that's something
I feel like if we brought that in house you're going to you could buy that excavator just for the savings you know on prevailing wage and whatnot if that was a project that the town themselves could could take on I mean because you you triple the labor rate you know and then the the cost of the machine you
know is is negligible at that point so yeah we can we can run some numbers and and see how that that how that plays out um we have a staff of three so we still have other responsib responsibil that have to be done yeah that's the problem then you gotta make sure we have a guy
qualified to run a big excavator like that too be's one thing but big excavator well you know that's a whole different ball game oh you can throw anybody in it they got the license yeah right no comment but I'm just I I think there's going to be maybe more
opportunities to do bigger projects and the the amount of water man you can lay per foot you know per dollar per foot as the Town versus a private contract I think you get a lot more m a lot more length and maybe to some extent a little bit better oversight of the
project sure and more flexibility you know to not have to go out to bid and and go through that whole process right yeah I mean something to look into do that maybe that would be part you know once we have an idea of hey we have these 10 projects we need to lay two miles of water M throughout the town
you know then it becomes a point where maybe we hire hire another guy you know buy a machine and and kind of start doing some of that stuff ourselves and then you know DPW same you know same thing but if they had access to that equipment right yeah and if the
management would want to take on that kind of responsibility to do those projects that's of course another another we look into that too yeah yeah we can look into it definitely we can look into it see what numbers we got is there any more discussion on the the rate increase a motion I just I kind
of like the nine situation n 2 so I make a motion to increase the rates by scenario 9 3% on tier 1 5% on tier two and 10% on tier three got a second I'll second the motion to increase the rates
based on the scenario nine with tier one 3% tier two 5% and tier three 10% all favor R Johnson I I John Kane yes motion carries speci clarify these would be to
April 1 right the next nexts like all these will be I think if we have this you know relatively small increase and it becomes the pattern and the norm then it's it's a smart increase and we don't get ourselves in a in a real Bond yeah like
westfi oh yeah where they and that's the problem right once they exhaust their funds now they can't do those small projects that those little upgrades that if they could do don't become a a huge project in a year or two okay anything else on a new
business you only I got Randy are the water guys when they get time are they still gonna keep digging out the hydrants yeah Kevin's doing that saw saw Kevin Day Hills Road um jumping a loader and whenever he can yeah I saw him the other day y yeah okay yeah that's a good
thing to keep up on you know yeah I don't see any more snow in the future but still that's frozen solid you know no so and minutes count they do absolutely okay anything else on a new
business next meeting date May the 20th is the third Thursday Yeah March 20 you okay Dave March 20th yes I believe so do yeah it should be good okay okay have a motion for adjournment
I'll make a motion tojn motion toj okay John I I John K yes meeting is adjourned