Water Sewer Rate data presented at Select Board meeting

Sept. 7, 2017 | Payton North
payton@thereminder.com



LONGMEADOW – The Longmeadow Select Board met on Sept. 5 and updated the community on the latest happenings around town including new position openings, the gas leak legislation letter of recommendation as well as a presentation on the water sewer rates.

Article 42

A town resident voiced his disappointment with town meeting as he believes there is a “lack of action” regarding article 42 which had been passed by majority vote.  The article was in regard to Bliss and Laurel parks in Longmeadow.  The article was put in place to require the town to file legal paperwork to affirm the status of Bliss and Laurel parks as parklands.

“It’s interesting, because the majority of people at town meeting voted for this article they said yay, and yet here we sit and no action has been taken.  I would really like the town governance to really consider the purpose of Town Meeting and how that’s supposed to be run and really follow that a little more,” resident Patrick Carnihan said.

Though there isn’t normally discussion during the resident comments section of the Select Board meeting, Town Manager Steve Crane offered a response to Carnihan’s concerns.

“For past purposes, the disappointment on the lack of action should be directed at me.  It wasn’t an attempt to block or prevent or somehow undermine the will of town meeting.  The reason why we’re in August talking about it is simply because the town government had 36 articles on that warrant and then there was a bunch of petitions after that, we had two nights of town meeting, and it just hadn’t had its turn yet in the queue to address, and that’s 100 percent on me,” Crane said.

Crane continued to say that the letter regarding Article 42 had been sent to the Attorney General’s office and he has confirmed that he has received it and is working on it.

Library Executive Director Opening
Sixteen applications were received for the Library Executive Director position in the wake of Karen Kappenman’s retirement.  Currently, the applications are being reviewed.  A representative from the Library Board of Trustees is working with the Town Manager to narrow down applicants to interview.  They’re hopeful that they will be able to make an announcement as to who the new Executive Director will be in early October.  

Outreach Coordinator Opening
Michael Squindo has resigned his position as the Adult Center Outreach Coordinator as he’s going to be Agawam’s Council on Aging director.  Crane said they’re in the process of posting that position.
    
Longmeadow Country Club Renovations
The Planning Board is considering a site plan for Longmeadow Country Club.  Crane said it’s a “significant renovation” but that the club will end up with the same amount of space they have currently.  He noted it’s a “modernization of their facilities.”

Bay Path Contributions
Bay Path University has made their third out of five donation installments of $10,000 to the town.  This decision to gift the town was in response to the Quint fire truck.  The funds are being put into the town’s general fund.

Gas Leak Legislation
The Select Board accepted the letter of recommendation that was formulated in regard to the gas leak legislation.  Crane said he did additional research through Senator Lesser’s office with a bill summary and further information.  The letter discusses how the gas leak  bill protects the town’s ratepayers and assures that unaccounted for gas through leaks does not get passed to the town residents’ bills.
    
Water Sewer Rate Presentation
    Dave Prickett and James Rivers from Dave Prickett Consulting (DPC) offered a presentation on the water and sewer rates in Longmeadow.  Prickett confirmed that the town uses an Enterprise Fund with fixed rates, which is a set unit cost based on usage.  According to Prickett’s data, the town has a total of 5,746 water and sewer customers, with 96 percent residential and only four percent commercial users.  Prickett included that the water costs $3.22 per cubic foot (HCF), and sewer costs $2.50 per HCF with a 220 HCF annual cap.

When looking at how Longmeadow compares with other towns in Massachusetts, Prickett said Longmeadow is “well on the low side of state median averages.”  Prickett’s data suggests that the annual residential water usage is 113 HCF, the annual residential sewer cost is $317 and the annual residential water cost is $364.  In comparison, the statewide median annual residential cost is about $550 and the annual sewer cost is $775, according to Prickett.

Prickett presented to the Select Board the options that they have moving forward in regard to alternative sewer rate concepts. First, he suggested the “no action” alternative, which suggests keeping the current rate system with no changes to the meter charge per billing period or the annual usage cap.  From his data, Prickett found that only 17 percent of customers exceeded their annual cap of 220 HCF and seven percent was exceeded during the pro-rated sewer cap during the winter period.  Prickett established that less than one percent of customers appear to be “snow birds,” or individuals who move south for the winter months.

Prickett’s second option moving forward is in regard to secondary meters without a cap.  This suggests a fixed rate system with no sewer cap where customers with a second meter are billed only for sewer usage excluding irrigation and customers without a second meter is billed for sewer based on all water usage.  He noted high water users are most impacted by this alternative, and that the sewer rate could stay at $2.50 per HCF if the top six percent of sewer users installed the second meter.

Winter averaging was brought up as the third alternative, which proposes a system based on non-peak seasonal water usage using a three month or six month averaging period.  Prickett observed that the three month concept would require quarterly billing, and the distribution of rates would mean high users would have significantly higher bills.

At the close of the presentation Prickett gave his recommendation going forward, which was to move forward with no-action and to keep the current system in place.

The Select Board  voted to  keep the current fixed sewer rate system.

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