January 12, 2026 – Wastewater Management – Video & Transcript
January 12, 2026 - Wastewater Management
So we'll call the January 12th meeting of the Wastewater Management District Commission to order the link.
This is a totally Zoom remote meeting.
The link to the meeting was on the Wayland calendar and in our agenda that was posted prior to this meeting.
So with that, Mike Gitten present, participating remotely.
Darren Bach, participating remotely.
Did I see Ed there for a moment? Can you hear me?
Barely.
But I think I heard you're there, participating remotely.
Okay.
Any public comment? I don't see anyone extra, I don't think.
Yeah, I don't see anybody either. No, there's nobody in the attendees section. Thank you.
Okay. Jared, what's going on at the plant? Or what went on at the plant?
Nothing too crazy this month. The float tree in Anoxic Basin 2 came loose. It's just a PVC pipe that upholds the floats and keeps them in position. So with whitewater, we refixed that and made sure it's not going to come off again. We had JWCE out to replace the nozzles that are on the screens to help better clean them when they are called on. And we also changed the timing on the spray cycles. So that helped us really reduce our water usage. I performed a hypo clean on MBR train 1. And there were a few times where I did find, or whitewater found, the screenings barrel full of water. We're not entirely certain what was causing that. Every time I'd see that, I'd watch multiple cycles and it would run like normal. Working with Ty and Vaughn, they suggested having the second screen in hand, or at least the auger running in hand, just in case there is some sort of backup with the lead screen not being able to handle the flow. At least it will still be processed that way. And we have not had any issues since then. We are still working to figure out what is causing that exactly, but at least we are not having any issues regarding that.
Pack tank number 2 had a plugged discharge line, so that was a little messy and fun to clean up, but nothing too bad. And LCS fully integrated the screens and the Route 20 pump station into our SCADA system, so that is all set.
And that was our month of December. Not bad. Great.
Any uptick in the monthly average flow? Influent? No. Still right around 30. I'm not sure if it's here or later. Any change in the fog issue with Alta or Oxbow, whatever we're calling that?
No. They're still, it's charging just as much. We got a draft lawyer, a draft letter from our town council to send them. We're kind of working through that a little bit. And then the town council will send a letter just telling them, reiterating what we've said already, but hopefully with the more teeth. And I think we've got the commission copied on that letter, so the membership here, we'll get that when it goes out as well. Okay.
Darren, Ed, any questions for Jared? No, I think it's great that we had a calmer month. And, you know, again, we're maintaining the flow. Aging's on, but I'm sure just wintertime, right? And so, fog, I don't have anything else, Mike. Those would have been my questions.
Okay. Then, if nothing else, we'll go to the warrant article, Tom. Yes. So, aside from the operating and capital budget request that we put in, the other article that is pertinent to any of the enterprise funds in town is Article E. So, DPW has got three. We've got a water, a transfer station, and a wastewater enterprise fund. Under each of those headings, we identify what our budget's going to be, and then if we intend on using retained earnings, that value, that amount, needs to be identified in that article as well. So, I mean, I think we're going to provide some information today. If you were comfortable with it, we could get a motion and a vote to include that retained earnings request in Article E. Now, last year, when staff and the membership was going through the rate hearing, the rate discussion for FY26, I know that, you know, there were some rate increases that were floated, that were promoted, that might be, you know, continuing on to FY27, 28. And I recollect that we were considering raising rates by 14% in FY27, which is the fiscal year coming up. What we have today, and I'm going to ask Sarah to go through some of the details, is that we've got a retained earnings level that pays for the small capital, it pays for the evaluation that we want to perform on the plant. But we've also included some other things that we feel is appropriate to fund in FY27, that's going to increase that retained earnings. And Sarah's going to, you know, put that up on the screen. I think she's working on doing that. It's up there right now. So, although there's an increase in retained earnings that we're going to recommend that is asked for, we also have a significant amount of privilege fee revenue that was achieved during this fiscal year that we've spoken about this before. We were unable to use it now, but come fiscal year 27, starting in July 1, we'll have the ability to use that. So, I think what I'll do, I see what I want to reference, but I think Sarah's got a much better handle on some of the details. So, in saying what I've said, Sarah, do you want to talk a little bit about what we intended for retained earnings, the additional amount, and, you know, how we derive that? Yes. Can everyone hear me okay? Yes. Okay, good. All right. So, I went back to the rate study of last year to see what we had planned for FY27, and retained earnings at that time was planned to be about $157,000. What we're proposing here is $320,000. That is because of that $200,000 in privilege fees we have. Now, in this iteration, we didn't have the other check yet, so I know it says $128,000 here, or I should say here. It's actually just about $200,000 now that we have in the bank. And there is more to come because if the property on constituent follows through, we're just waiting to hear from them, then that's more. So, we're going with what we know we have. So, that being said, we felt that we could afford to cover what we always cover, which is the debt underpayment that we have between betterment revenue that comes in and what we owe on debt. And that's the $144,000 you see down here towards the bottom. And then also, we always cover 100% of small capital, but we felt that we could also do 100% of contingency and $35,000 of contracted services, which is going towards that study that we're trying to pay for next year with that privilege fee money that came in. So, it makes sense. That comes to a total of $320,000. That being said, we then have to back into our user charges number when we know what we're going to, of course, have. We know what our expenses are. We know what we're going to take out of retained earnings. And the remainder, to balance that, would be a 9.85% increase for, you know, getting us to $585,000. Now, last year, we planned to go up 14% to make $650,000. So, this is better. Because if you remember the study of last year, it was the, you know, I think we're at nine and a quarter for this year and we're in now. And then it was 14% each year afterward. So, this is a better picture. And it could get better should we decide that we want to spend even more for retained earnings. Maybe we get another check in here soon. You know, it's better. It's actually 9.85%. I think on, it was rounding up to 10. I thought it would be better to see the real digits out to the hundredths place. So, yeah, this is the picture. It would be less of a rate increase, hopefully, if everything stays the same. And it would be, you know, obviously, we're spending some of that money that we're taking in from privilege fees for what they're for. The one thing that I wanted to point out, too, is that when we establish a proposed use of retained earnings for Article E, that $320,539 will be printed in the warrant book. We are not committed to use it. It gives us the ability to use that. So, you know, come April, May, and finally in July, with the assistance of Matt Abrahams, you will all, you know, go through a rate-setting process, and you'll be able to fine-tune some of these things. What we're recommending today is, you know, the highest level of retained earnings that we might use, just so that we have it there in print, so we're able to use it. But, again, we're not committed to use that. If we make some changes between now and the rate-setting process in June, you know, we can always recommend using less. But that $320 is, I guess, you can almost consider the worst-case scenario or the most conservative figure that we're recommending at this point. You're not obligated. It's just really a placeholder. Okay, that's good, Tom. Because I was going to start questioning, like, do we, you know, just because we have it doesn't mean we need to spend it and invest it, right? But we knew, we absolutely knew we wanted to use some of the privilege fee to do the study because we needed to test how good our motorcycle, in your analogy, right, is. And now that we've sold or we've allocated out what we reserved a year and a half ago, two years ago, that extra $10,000, approximately, and we pretty much consumed it, we now need a new test. So that's what the privilege fee should be used for. So, but, okay, so that, as we get to Matt Abrams, we can then re-look at this. And then anything, you know, unused of that $320,000, if it's decided to use less than that, then it just, it just, you know, stays in the retained earnings account. Right. Instead of each year pulling the amount that we're pulling from retained earnings, we just pull less. Correct. Yeah, to your point. And therefore, it helps with our long-term, when we, you know, when we modeled it with Matt Abrams, our declining line on retained earnings, hopefully, is better now, right? Right. Go ahead, Sarah, sorry. No, that's okay. To your point, the contingency, which we're wrapping into that retained earnings, we don't plan to spend that. So if we don't, hopefully, then that's $35,000 that we don't actually even need to use out of retained earnings. And, you know, our revenue right now, we'll get to a monthly financial, but it's looking okay. It was looking good last time. We could come in with a little bit of extra of that, which just moves that line of where we want to be with retained earnings that we don't spend, you know, a little higher in the end. If we get there at the end of the year with our user charges now. So what are the new budget items that are increased? Can you just go over those again? Sure. This is what you voted on last time. So we made that adjustment, which is actually important to point out, because this is what the vote had that we would adjust and add in those two things that we needed in contractual services that we did not have in here before. We had this number at $110,000, but we needed to put in that $35,000 rate study. I'm sorry, treatment facility study. Yeah. And then $15,000 for SCADA support. So that was an extra $50,000. So that is now in here. So that all of this that you're seeing is including that $50,000 that we had to add in there. Nothing else has changed. However, the places that we did go up, I mean, obviously that's one, the largest of them. So we're up a little bit in professional services labor, just based on actuals. We are up a little bit here in testing. That goes up every year. We did just get the bill on that, and it was supposed to be, you know, it was predicted to be $16,371. I think it came in a little under $16,000, but it's pretty predictable. And they've given us a quote anyway, so we expect it to be upwards of $19,000. And then other than that, we did a little decrease here in disposal trash removal. It's not as significant. And then we have the water, which is obviously, you know, more because we know now that the screens are going to require some water use. We've dialed it down, but they will always need some where they didn't, we weren't using any really. So we have a budget line for that now. And that is, oh, gasoline, sorry. And then some of the stuff here, so. And then our debt service increased significantly, right? So that, I know there was $144,000 in debt. Oh, yes. That's a good point. The most important. That went up significantly as well from the borrow that we did for the screen replacement. Right. That was the $500,000 borrow. And we had planned for this, and that was all part correct. And as far as revenue, this doesn't, this assumes a similar influence, a flow into the facility as we're seeing now. Mm-hmm. Yes. So that makes it conservative as far as the need to needle that. But you said flow, but will the base, the base should go up because we have the new connections, right? That paid the privilege fee now. So therefore they have their design flow and their- Oh, right. It will go up, right. We, right. But it's a double positive that we, that will, will pan out when we do this for the rate setting. Right. Yes. It is. It is interesting. I really thought that senior center gets a lot of, or council of agents, whatever the proper name of that building, gets a lot of use.
But, but Sarah, the, the numbers you have here does not include the new connections that paid a privilege fee. So the user charges- That's not a user-based user charge. Right. So the user charges aren't based on any of our consumption patterns right now. That is simply based on balancing the budget after we take out what we need for retained earnings. Okay. So that, that's- All right. So when we get to Matt, when we get to Matt Abrams, then we'll be able to look at it. Yep. Yep. So I don't, I don't think that the 320, as you've already alluded- Worst case. It's really a conservative contingency. Yeah. We, we have a lot of revenue sources that will offset that. And it's not like we're gold plating or spending the money just to spend the money. Right. Right. Okay. Yep. That percentage could go down for rate increases. If we have a base fee, you know, another 10,000 of base fees coming in, then that can mean less rate increase to cover. So, yeah. Okay.
So what do you need, what any, Darren, any other, Ed, any other questions on the, so is the ask, do we need a motion to support a 300 and something, a $320,000? Yes, if you wanted to make a motion for that amount, that that be included in the FY27 retainment usage and be included in Article E, Town Meeting Warrant Article. Which number is it, that 32539? Is that the actual number? Correct. Does the finance guy want to make a motion?
I make a motion to include in the upcoming town article, if I said it correctly, a town article that the Wastewater Management District Committee includes an allocated sum of $320,539.36. Makes sense to be included in the upcoming article, which will then further be discussed and allocated during our budget setting with Matt Abrams, our revenue setting, right? Rate setting. A friendly suggestion is that that amount would be in retained earnings. And that, right, retained from retained, right, in retained earnings.
Mike Ginn, I second that as clarified there. Okay. Darren Bach in favor? Mike Ginn in favor? Hi. Thank you, Ed. Tommy in favor. Okay.
Okay. Anything else, Tom, on the town meeting? No, I appreciate it. Thanks very much for that. We're going to be in, compared to what the water board's asking for, it will be like rounding error, I think, right? That's probably accurate, yes. Okay. Good. You're going first. You're putting that first, right? Water's on top, yes. Good. So, you're a blanche compared to that, yes. Good. You'll wear the meeting down. Okay.
So, then nothing more on that article. We'll go to the monthly financial report. Okay. I have that up. So, this one goes through December 31st, 50% of the year.
You know, there's nothing surprising in expenses outside of the last time we met. You know, we definitely predict to be, you know, still over in sludge because of some of that extra emergency work that we couldn't fund with our remaining capital appropriation. And also, the water charges that we were not anticipating at the time either that were really, honestly, like an emergency anyway. And our contingency fund is now going to be a tiny bit over. So, based on what we needed to put through there. But hopefully nothing further. So, you know, I still have us at a 99 point, actually 100, I guess it's 100.4, which I really hope isn't the number. So, I will work. I think probably, you know, there's some rounding here that we'll adjust that. But, you know, we're definitely, we're far along for 50% of the year. But we're watching it, watching it really closely and making sure.
Nothing surprising with debt. Revenue is probably the next place to go. The user charges for now, we have taken in, at this time, December 31st, we were at 308. But that's probably going to be a lot more as of today. Because it is going to be coming due, I believe, in the next week. So, usually we get quite a bit more in that last week before the bill comes due. It was a December 21st bill. For those that pay the privilege fee, when do their bills start? They immediately, they have a base fee charge. So, that's going to be, it didn't start in, I believe that the terrain project started, definitely started in the December bill, if not the one before. But for the Hastings Way, that started, we'll start on their next billing in February. Because they weren't quite there when we did the billing in December. So, we didn't want to, we didn't want to be too early. That will help revenues to therefore reduce, retain earning pull, even though we got the additional expense up above. But you're, we're managing other costs to keep at 100%, right? To keep there, which is, I think we stay the course, don't, right? But we have this, and it just reduces the amount we have to pull from retained earnings, which then helps that, Abrams, as we look that up. So, this is good. Yeah.
Well, not much more to report on here. Okay. And remind us, where does the income, like what we get from the, the Oxbow or Alta project, where does that appear? That's part of user charges. Their regular billing, you mean? Their quarterly bills? The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Fog reimbursement thing. Yeah. That would come in under service order. So, I need to, there's definitely been two that have been billed out, and I'm pretty sure paid. So, it should be at eight at this point. I'm not sure why it's not showing up in here, but I'll make sure that it does. And then we, of course, charge it out in the, that's also part of why Sledge is over, because we have to pay for it first. Yeah. Okay.
So, overall, okay.
And Darren, Ed, anything else on? I'm good. Ever since we put this forecast column in, Mike, from when I first started, I feel a lot better. Me too, then.
Okay.
Okay. Did we give away our last few gallons, or are there people banging at the door? Are we as hot a commodity as we were the last few meetings? I don't have much to report. I don't know if Abby wants to add, but we're waiting to hear from, I think it's the Contituate Road project. They should have closed in December, so they have everything they need. They have paperwork. They have an application. So, it's a matter of time, assuming that project continues forward. Other than that, we have not yet fully, we haven't really kind of reconvened with Town Center. But whatever's room, they're kind of the next in line, I guess, after we solidify the Contituate Road project. Go ahead, Abby. Oh, I'm just going to say the same thing. We're just waiting to get kind of what that final flow number was going to be, so that we can go back to Town Center with exactly how much we have in book. Okay. So, when you say Contituate Road, that's the Cronin's Market Historic, the thing there? Okay. How much did we allocate with the privilege? When you add up all the different privilege that we did, how much do we have left?
You mean, sorry, when you say allocate, you mean how much are we expecting from those other sources? Well, we had said, again, I'm not going to use rough math, but we said like we have 10,000 gallons available to sell or 8,000, 9,000, whatever it was. And so, people recently paid a privilege fee to buy X amount of design flow. How much design flow was bought out of that, and how much design flow do we have available at this time until we do our next study? We have about 5,000. 5,000, okay.
Which Town Center, you know, is looking to purchase the remainder of that, yep. I remember in our meeting, the three of them, if they all first come, first serve, as we told them, right? Yeah. But if those three came in, it would be like kind of the sum of what we had. Okay. Yeah.
That's a good spot. So, how the question is, how patient is Town Center, you know, as we wrap things up with the Kichisuit Road project? They haven't reached out to us, so. That's good.
I'm assuming if they needed ASAP, they'd give us a call. Yep. And they have underutilized stores right now, so they could do their own, if they had a, which I would press them to do, which also, or encourage them, which is good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Anything else on that item? Okay. We'll move on to the minutes that were circulated with the meeting announcements last week. Very detailed this month. Yeah. I read through it. I'm fine with what my comments were. Yeah, I was looking at it. It actually prompts, kind of circling back just earlier. Do we have a feeling that whatever came out of that energy study, it didn't, it didn't like, I don't know if you had more time to look at, it didn't identify anything that was like, oh yeah, we should add that to something. It was either on our radar or not really relevant in the near term. That's right. That's right. I went back after a meeting to check it and that's exactly right.
Then I, yeah, I have nothing. I make a motion to approve the, um, the December 15th, uh, meeting minutes. Darren Bach seconds that motion. Yeah. Mike Gitten. Yes. Darren Bach. Yes. Are you okay with the meeting minutes, even though you weren't there, you still can vote if you want. I've, I've learned, but you don't have to, we have a quorum. Yay. That last time.
Okay. Um, then that, then we'll move on. Uh, we did schedule some meetings, our last meeting, right?
I'm just opening my calendar up here. Yes. We have February on the books and I think we have March. I can't remember if we did March. I'm actually not sure we did. Uh, let's see. February is the 9th at 12 and I don't see a March one yet. So we should at least do March. We could try to do April. If that's something you think you can do now.
What, um, Tom, getting back to the, the, the town meeting agenda and schedules, or is there going to be another milestone that we should plan around or, or what we did today should take care of everything? Um, and you're on mute. Sorry. Sorry. I was coughing here. I didn't want to bother with that. Um, we are in a good place. So we have the operating budget approved, uh, this article E is squared away. So relative to town meeting, I don't foresee any other actions required. Okay.
I I'm, I'm fine throwing a March out then at our, what our normal cadence, which I can't remember what it's, it's, it's Mondays at noon, but I can't remember if it was the second Monday is what. Yeah. Yeah. The ninth.
That, that works for me at this point, Darren, does that. Yep. Me. Yeah. I can do Monday, March 9th at noon. That works.
Did you want to schedule April two or is that too far out? Uh, too far out for me at this point. Can we just do these two? Of course. Okay.
Um, I guess, I guess I, any, anything else that kind of went out of order that we didn't talk about?
I don't think staff has anything now. Okay. While you hear, I just, yeah, no, it's good. Okay. Then, um, I make a motion that we adjourn our meeting at, uh, 1240 here.
Darren Bach seconds that motion. Mike getting, yes. Darren Bach, yes. Ed, you okay? You dead enough? Very good.
Did I see Ed there for a moment? Can you hear me?
Barely.
But I think I heard you're there, participating remotely.
Okay.
Any public comment? I don't see anyone extra, I don't think.
Yeah, I don't see anybody either. No, there's nobody in the attendees section. Thank you.
Okay. Jared, what's going on at the plant? Or what went on at the plant?
Nothing too crazy this month. The float tree in Anoxic Basin 2 came loose. It's just a PVC pipe that upholds the floats and keeps them in position. So with whitewater, we refixed that and made sure it's not going to come off again. We had JWCE out to replace the nozzles that are on the screens to help better clean them when they are called on. And we also changed the timing on the spray cycles. So that helped us really reduce our water usage. I performed a hypo clean on MBR train 1. And there were a few times where I did find, or whitewater found, the screenings barrel full of water. We're not entirely certain what was causing that. Every time I'd see that, I'd watch multiple cycles and it would run like normal. Working with Ty and Vaughn, they suggested having the second screen in hand, or at least the auger running in hand, just in case there is some sort of backup with the lead screen not being able to handle the flow. At least it will still be processed that way. And we have not had any issues since then. We are still working to figure out what is causing that exactly, but at least we are not having any issues regarding that.
Pack tank number 2 had a plugged discharge line, so that was a little messy and fun to clean up, but nothing too bad. And LCS fully integrated the screens and the Route 20 pump station into our SCADA system, so that is all set.
And that was our month of December. Not bad. Great.
Any uptick in the monthly average flow? Influent? No. Still right around 30. I'm not sure if it's here or later. Any change in the fog issue with Alta or Oxbow, whatever we're calling that?
No. They're still, it's charging just as much. We got a draft lawyer, a draft letter from our town council to send them. We're kind of working through that a little bit. And then the town council will send a letter just telling them, reiterating what we've said already, but hopefully with the more teeth. And I think we've got the commission copied on that letter, so the membership here, we'll get that when it goes out as well. Okay.
Darren, Ed, any questions for Jared? No, I think it's great that we had a calmer month. And, you know, again, we're maintaining the flow. Aging's on, but I'm sure just wintertime, right? And so, fog, I don't have anything else, Mike. Those would have been my questions.
Okay. Then, if nothing else, we'll go to the warrant article, Tom. Yes. So, aside from the operating and capital budget request that we put in, the other article that is pertinent to any of the enterprise funds in town is Article E. So, DPW has got three. We've got a water, a transfer station, and a wastewater enterprise fund. Under each of those headings, we identify what our budget's going to be, and then if we intend on using retained earnings, that value, that amount, needs to be identified in that article as well. So, I mean, I think we're going to provide some information today. If you were comfortable with it, we could get a motion and a vote to include that retained earnings request in Article E. Now, last year, when staff and the membership was going through the rate hearing, the rate discussion for FY26, I know that, you know, there were some rate increases that were floated, that were promoted, that might be, you know, continuing on to FY27, 28. And I recollect that we were considering raising rates by 14% in FY27, which is the fiscal year coming up. What we have today, and I'm going to ask Sarah to go through some of the details, is that we've got a retained earnings level that pays for the small capital, it pays for the evaluation that we want to perform on the plant. But we've also included some other things that we feel is appropriate to fund in FY27, that's going to increase that retained earnings. And Sarah's going to, you know, put that up on the screen. I think she's working on doing that. It's up there right now. So, although there's an increase in retained earnings that we're going to recommend that is asked for, we also have a significant amount of privilege fee revenue that was achieved during this fiscal year that we've spoken about this before. We were unable to use it now, but come fiscal year 27, starting in July 1, we'll have the ability to use that. So, I think what I'll do, I see what I want to reference, but I think Sarah's got a much better handle on some of the details. So, in saying what I've said, Sarah, do you want to talk a little bit about what we intended for retained earnings, the additional amount, and, you know, how we derive that? Yes. Can everyone hear me okay? Yes. Okay, good. All right. So, I went back to the rate study of last year to see what we had planned for FY27, and retained earnings at that time was planned to be about $157,000. What we're proposing here is $320,000. That is because of that $200,000 in privilege fees we have. Now, in this iteration, we didn't have the other check yet, so I know it says $128,000 here, or I should say here. It's actually just about $200,000 now that we have in the bank. And there is more to come because if the property on constituent follows through, we're just waiting to hear from them, then that's more. So, we're going with what we know we have. So, that being said, we felt that we could afford to cover what we always cover, which is the debt underpayment that we have between betterment revenue that comes in and what we owe on debt. And that's the $144,000 you see down here towards the bottom. And then also, we always cover 100% of small capital, but we felt that we could also do 100% of contingency and $35,000 of contracted services, which is going towards that study that we're trying to pay for next year with that privilege fee money that came in. So, it makes sense. That comes to a total of $320,000. That being said, we then have to back into our user charges number when we know what we're going to, of course, have. We know what our expenses are. We know what we're going to take out of retained earnings. And the remainder, to balance that, would be a 9.85% increase for, you know, getting us to $585,000. Now, last year, we planned to go up 14% to make $650,000. So, this is better. Because if you remember the study of last year, it was the, you know, I think we're at nine and a quarter for this year and we're in now. And then it was 14% each year afterward. So, this is a better picture. And it could get better should we decide that we want to spend even more for retained earnings. Maybe we get another check in here soon. You know, it's better. It's actually 9.85%. I think on, it was rounding up to 10. I thought it would be better to see the real digits out to the hundredths place. So, yeah, this is the picture. It would be less of a rate increase, hopefully, if everything stays the same. And it would be, you know, obviously, we're spending some of that money that we're taking in from privilege fees for what they're for. The one thing that I wanted to point out, too, is that when we establish a proposed use of retained earnings for Article E, that $320,539 will be printed in the warrant book. We are not committed to use it. It gives us the ability to use that. So, you know, come April, May, and finally in July, with the assistance of Matt Abrahams, you will all, you know, go through a rate-setting process, and you'll be able to fine-tune some of these things. What we're recommending today is, you know, the highest level of retained earnings that we might use, just so that we have it there in print, so we're able to use it. But, again, we're not committed to use that. If we make some changes between now and the rate-setting process in June, you know, we can always recommend using less. But that $320 is, I guess, you can almost consider the worst-case scenario or the most conservative figure that we're recommending at this point. You're not obligated. It's just really a placeholder. Okay, that's good, Tom. Because I was going to start questioning, like, do we, you know, just because we have it doesn't mean we need to spend it and invest it, right? But we knew, we absolutely knew we wanted to use some of the privilege fee to do the study because we needed to test how good our motorcycle, in your analogy, right, is. And now that we've sold or we've allocated out what we reserved a year and a half ago, two years ago, that extra $10,000, approximately, and we pretty much consumed it, we now need a new test. So that's what the privilege fee should be used for. So, but, okay, so that, as we get to Matt Abrams, we can then re-look at this. And then anything, you know, unused of that $320,000, if it's decided to use less than that, then it just, it just, you know, stays in the retained earnings account. Right. Instead of each year pulling the amount that we're pulling from retained earnings, we just pull less. Correct. Yeah, to your point. And therefore, it helps with our long-term, when we, you know, when we modeled it with Matt Abrams, our declining line on retained earnings, hopefully, is better now, right? Right. Go ahead, Sarah, sorry. No, that's okay. To your point, the contingency, which we're wrapping into that retained earnings, we don't plan to spend that. So if we don't, hopefully, then that's $35,000 that we don't actually even need to use out of retained earnings. And, you know, our revenue right now, we'll get to a monthly financial, but it's looking okay. It was looking good last time. We could come in with a little bit of extra of that, which just moves that line of where we want to be with retained earnings that we don't spend, you know, a little higher in the end. If we get there at the end of the year with our user charges now. So what are the new budget items that are increased? Can you just go over those again? Sure. This is what you voted on last time. So we made that adjustment, which is actually important to point out, because this is what the vote had that we would adjust and add in those two things that we needed in contractual services that we did not have in here before. We had this number at $110,000, but we needed to put in that $35,000 rate study. I'm sorry, treatment facility study. Yeah. And then $15,000 for SCADA support. So that was an extra $50,000. So that is now in here. So that all of this that you're seeing is including that $50,000 that we had to add in there. Nothing else has changed. However, the places that we did go up, I mean, obviously that's one, the largest of them. So we're up a little bit in professional services labor, just based on actuals. We are up a little bit here in testing. That goes up every year. We did just get the bill on that, and it was supposed to be, you know, it was predicted to be $16,371. I think it came in a little under $16,000, but it's pretty predictable. And they've given us a quote anyway, so we expect it to be upwards of $19,000. And then other than that, we did a little decrease here in disposal trash removal. It's not as significant. And then we have the water, which is obviously, you know, more because we know now that the screens are going to require some water use. We've dialed it down, but they will always need some where they didn't, we weren't using any really. So we have a budget line for that now. And that is, oh, gasoline, sorry. And then some of the stuff here, so. And then our debt service increased significantly, right? So that, I know there was $144,000 in debt. Oh, yes. That's a good point. The most important. That went up significantly as well from the borrow that we did for the screen replacement. Right. That was the $500,000 borrow. And we had planned for this, and that was all part correct. And as far as revenue, this doesn't, this assumes a similar influence, a flow into the facility as we're seeing now. Mm-hmm. Yes. So that makes it conservative as far as the need to needle that. But you said flow, but will the base, the base should go up because we have the new connections, right? That paid the privilege fee now. So therefore they have their design flow and their- Oh, right. It will go up, right. We, right. But it's a double positive that we, that will, will pan out when we do this for the rate setting. Right. Yes. It is. It is interesting. I really thought that senior center gets a lot of, or council of agents, whatever the proper name of that building, gets a lot of use.
But, but Sarah, the, the numbers you have here does not include the new connections that paid a privilege fee. So the user charges- That's not a user-based user charge. Right. So the user charges aren't based on any of our consumption patterns right now. That is simply based on balancing the budget after we take out what we need for retained earnings. Okay. So that, that's- All right. So when we get to Matt, when we get to Matt Abrams, then we'll be able to look at it. Yep. Yep. So I don't, I don't think that the 320, as you've already alluded- Worst case. It's really a conservative contingency. Yeah. We, we have a lot of revenue sources that will offset that. And it's not like we're gold plating or spending the money just to spend the money. Right. Right. Okay. Yep. That percentage could go down for rate increases. If we have a base fee, you know, another 10,000 of base fees coming in, then that can mean less rate increase to cover. So, yeah. Okay.
So what do you need, what any, Darren, any other, Ed, any other questions on the, so is the ask, do we need a motion to support a 300 and something, a $320,000? Yes, if you wanted to make a motion for that amount, that that be included in the FY27 retainment usage and be included in Article E, Town Meeting Warrant Article. Which number is it, that 32539? Is that the actual number? Correct. Does the finance guy want to make a motion?
I make a motion to include in the upcoming town article, if I said it correctly, a town article that the Wastewater Management District Committee includes an allocated sum of $320,539.36. Makes sense to be included in the upcoming article, which will then further be discussed and allocated during our budget setting with Matt Abrams, our revenue setting, right? Rate setting. A friendly suggestion is that that amount would be in retained earnings. And that, right, retained from retained, right, in retained earnings.
Mike Ginn, I second that as clarified there. Okay. Darren Bach in favor? Mike Ginn in favor? Hi. Thank you, Ed. Tommy in favor. Okay.
Okay. Anything else, Tom, on the town meeting? No, I appreciate it. Thanks very much for that. We're going to be in, compared to what the water board's asking for, it will be like rounding error, I think, right? That's probably accurate, yes. Okay. Good. You're going first. You're putting that first, right? Water's on top, yes. Good. So, you're a blanche compared to that, yes. Good. You'll wear the meeting down. Okay.
So, then nothing more on that article. We'll go to the monthly financial report. Okay. I have that up. So, this one goes through December 31st, 50% of the year.
You know, there's nothing surprising in expenses outside of the last time we met. You know, we definitely predict to be, you know, still over in sludge because of some of that extra emergency work that we couldn't fund with our remaining capital appropriation. And also, the water charges that we were not anticipating at the time either that were really, honestly, like an emergency anyway. And our contingency fund is now going to be a tiny bit over. So, based on what we needed to put through there. But hopefully nothing further. So, you know, I still have us at a 99 point, actually 100, I guess it's 100.4, which I really hope isn't the number. So, I will work. I think probably, you know, there's some rounding here that we'll adjust that. But, you know, we're definitely, we're far along for 50% of the year. But we're watching it, watching it really closely and making sure.
Nothing surprising with debt. Revenue is probably the next place to go. The user charges for now, we have taken in, at this time, December 31st, we were at 308. But that's probably going to be a lot more as of today. Because it is going to be coming due, I believe, in the next week. So, usually we get quite a bit more in that last week before the bill comes due. It was a December 21st bill. For those that pay the privilege fee, when do their bills start? They immediately, they have a base fee charge. So, that's going to be, it didn't start in, I believe that the terrain project started, definitely started in the December bill, if not the one before. But for the Hastings Way, that started, we'll start on their next billing in February. Because they weren't quite there when we did the billing in December. So, we didn't want to, we didn't want to be too early. That will help revenues to therefore reduce, retain earning pull, even though we got the additional expense up above. But you're, we're managing other costs to keep at 100%, right? To keep there, which is, I think we stay the course, don't, right? But we have this, and it just reduces the amount we have to pull from retained earnings, which then helps that, Abrams, as we look that up. So, this is good. Yeah.
Well, not much more to report on here. Okay. And remind us, where does the income, like what we get from the, the Oxbow or Alta project, where does that appear? That's part of user charges. Their regular billing, you mean? Their quarterly bills? The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Fog reimbursement thing. Yeah. That would come in under service order. So, I need to, there's definitely been two that have been billed out, and I'm pretty sure paid. So, it should be at eight at this point. I'm not sure why it's not showing up in here, but I'll make sure that it does. And then we, of course, charge it out in the, that's also part of why Sledge is over, because we have to pay for it first. Yeah. Okay.
So, overall, okay.
And Darren, Ed, anything else on? I'm good. Ever since we put this forecast column in, Mike, from when I first started, I feel a lot better. Me too, then.
Okay.
Okay. Did we give away our last few gallons, or are there people banging at the door? Are we as hot a commodity as we were the last few meetings? I don't have much to report. I don't know if Abby wants to add, but we're waiting to hear from, I think it's the Contituate Road project. They should have closed in December, so they have everything they need. They have paperwork. They have an application. So, it's a matter of time, assuming that project continues forward. Other than that, we have not yet fully, we haven't really kind of reconvened with Town Center. But whatever's room, they're kind of the next in line, I guess, after we solidify the Contituate Road project. Go ahead, Abby. Oh, I'm just going to say the same thing. We're just waiting to get kind of what that final flow number was going to be, so that we can go back to Town Center with exactly how much we have in book. Okay. So, when you say Contituate Road, that's the Cronin's Market Historic, the thing there? Okay. How much did we allocate with the privilege? When you add up all the different privilege that we did, how much do we have left?
You mean, sorry, when you say allocate, you mean how much are we expecting from those other sources? Well, we had said, again, I'm not going to use rough math, but we said like we have 10,000 gallons available to sell or 8,000, 9,000, whatever it was. And so, people recently paid a privilege fee to buy X amount of design flow. How much design flow was bought out of that, and how much design flow do we have available at this time until we do our next study? We have about 5,000. 5,000, okay.
Which Town Center, you know, is looking to purchase the remainder of that, yep. I remember in our meeting, the three of them, if they all first come, first serve, as we told them, right? Yeah. But if those three came in, it would be like kind of the sum of what we had. Okay. Yeah.
That's a good spot. So, how the question is, how patient is Town Center, you know, as we wrap things up with the Kichisuit Road project? They haven't reached out to us, so. That's good.
I'm assuming if they needed ASAP, they'd give us a call. Yep. And they have underutilized stores right now, so they could do their own, if they had a, which I would press them to do, which also, or encourage them, which is good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Anything else on that item? Okay. We'll move on to the minutes that were circulated with the meeting announcements last week. Very detailed this month. Yeah. I read through it. I'm fine with what my comments were. Yeah, I was looking at it. It actually prompts, kind of circling back just earlier. Do we have a feeling that whatever came out of that energy study, it didn't, it didn't like, I don't know if you had more time to look at, it didn't identify anything that was like, oh yeah, we should add that to something. It was either on our radar or not really relevant in the near term. That's right. That's right. I went back after a meeting to check it and that's exactly right.
Then I, yeah, I have nothing. I make a motion to approve the, um, the December 15th, uh, meeting minutes. Darren Bach seconds that motion. Yeah. Mike Gitten. Yes. Darren Bach. Yes. Are you okay with the meeting minutes, even though you weren't there, you still can vote if you want. I've, I've learned, but you don't have to, we have a quorum. Yay. That last time.
Okay. Um, then that, then we'll move on. Uh, we did schedule some meetings, our last meeting, right?
I'm just opening my calendar up here. Yes. We have February on the books and I think we have March. I can't remember if we did March. I'm actually not sure we did. Uh, let's see. February is the 9th at 12 and I don't see a March one yet. So we should at least do March. We could try to do April. If that's something you think you can do now.
What, um, Tom, getting back to the, the, the town meeting agenda and schedules, or is there going to be another milestone that we should plan around or, or what we did today should take care of everything? Um, and you're on mute. Sorry. Sorry. I was coughing here. I didn't want to bother with that. Um, we are in a good place. So we have the operating budget approved, uh, this article E is squared away. So relative to town meeting, I don't foresee any other actions required. Okay.
I I'm, I'm fine throwing a March out then at our, what our normal cadence, which I can't remember what it's, it's, it's Mondays at noon, but I can't remember if it was the second Monday is what. Yeah. Yeah. The ninth.
That, that works for me at this point, Darren, does that. Yep. Me. Yeah. I can do Monday, March 9th at noon. That works.
Did you want to schedule April two or is that too far out? Uh, too far out for me at this point. Can we just do these two? Of course. Okay.
Um, I guess, I guess I, any, anything else that kind of went out of order that we didn't talk about?
I don't think staff has anything now. Okay. While you hear, I just, yeah, no, it's good. Okay. Then, um, I make a motion that we adjourn our meeting at, uh, 1240 here.
Darren Bach seconds that motion. Mike getting, yes. Darren Bach, yes. Ed, you okay? You dead enough? Very good.