December 15, 2025 – Wastewater Management – Video & Transcript
December 15, 2025 - Wastewater Management
Um, I'm calling the, uh, 12-15-2025 meeting of the, uh, Wayland Wastewater Management District
Commission meeting to order. It's being held via, uh, Zoom. Uh, the link was posted with the meeting
notice, uh, as well as the agenda. And this is Mike Gitten participating remotely. Darren Bach
participating remotely. Okay. Um, do we have any one on for public comment? Jack is on. We have a lot
of people here, but any. Okay. Doesn't it, uh, does not appear any public comment. Thank you. Um,
then we'll move on to, uh, the Dudley Pond. Abby. Hey, how are ya? Um, I've been working
on several alternatives associated with the high school treatment facility. One of the, um,
components of looking at the high school treatment facility was looking at the wastewater needs for
the Dudley Pond area and the potential to connect it into the high school. Right now, it doesn't look
like that's going to be an option. Um, but in looking at all of the wastewater alternatives,
uh, we wanted to kind of update the wastewater district commission because in the original town
meeting article that, um, created the wastewater management district, it does say that connecting
in, um, the Dudley Pond area and the wastewater needs of the Dudley Pond area could be under the
purview of the district. So in some of the stakeholder meetings, it's been, um, questioned,
you know, why doesn't that district have a stakeholder involved in this? So I've been representing
the wastewater district, um, in those stakeholder meetings, but wanted to give you a little bit
of an update. I've been working with ECT on that. Um, I'll have Jack introduce himself, um, and maybe
give you a little bit of an update as to what they've been working on. Uh, we are really just still in
the preliminary start to this, but since questions about the district have come up, we thought that we
would, um, just give you a little bit of an update. All right, Jack. Thanks, Abby. Um, Jack Troidel with
ECT, um, the engineering consultant working for the town, um, doing the study for Dudley Pond and the
high school, um, looking at the wastewater needs and, um, potential alternatives. Um, in all transparency,
I, I live in Weyland, so kind of nearby. Um, but we're doing, we're pulling together a report, um,
that summarizes all of our evaluation. Um, so looking at in town, well, on-site alternatives,
in town alternatives, but then also, um, out of town alternatives, which would be through Framingham
or Natick, um, to the MWRA. So we're still in the preliminary stage of some of those, um, discussions
with other entities. So trying to figure out the, the viability of, of that. Um, but looking at the
need, you know, we know the high school has a, um, a need to get that system, um, upgraded and,
and modified, um, or a potential off-site solution. So that's where looking at that in conjunction with
Dudley Pond really makes sense to make it more cost effective. Um, I'm sure you all know, right,
how expensive wastewater treatment and, and or construction can be. Um, so we're, we're trying
to figure out what is the most cost effective way to handle this area. Um, we do see a need,
it's in the drinking water zone two, um, for Dudley Pond, um, sorry, for the Happy Hollow Wells. Um,
so there's, there's a lot of, um, potential risk there. And then you're looking at nutrients and,
and pond water quality. So we're, we're, we're, we have an internal draft of the report,
but we have a lot of details to work out before we can get a draft out to, um, to the DPW, um,
to review. But I think a lot of that information will come out in early 26. Um, in parallel to that,
we're, well, we, as Abby said, we've been doing monthly stakeholder meetings, um, so that we've been
getting good feedback and, and, you know, identifying any concerns or should we look at other areas or
whatever. So we've been adjusting using that information. Um, but we're going to have a bunch
of communications coming out over the next three or four months, um, including a stakeholder meeting
probably sometime in early March is what we're thinking, but that date is, um, kind of TBD.
We'll do a mailer, um, to the Dudley pond area. So hopefully we can get as much involvement into
that meeting as possible. So a lot of, a lot of outreach coming. Um, but as Abby said, we wanted
to coordinate with you, um, since this area could be under your, your purview. Um, you know, it all,
all depends on how it unfolds and what the town really wants to do. Um, any, any project, um,
will have, you know, sizable costs associated with it. Um, so we anticipate that there would be, um,
a sewer betterment, um, to fund it at least in part. Um, so that would, we've been looking at, um,
you know, how the original, uh, district was established using, um, mass general law for issuing
the betterments, trying to, um, follow what that might look like. Um, I think this project area could
be a little bit different or it could be the same. Um, but we're trying to make sure we, we
understand that in getting to our costs and any potential sewer betterments. So it's kind of at
a high level where we're at, but we've been looking at what are any of the, um, alternatives for this
area, which could, you know, could be coming to the town center plant. So we're looking at costs and
capacity on that. And as I said, you know, going out of town potentially, um, to MWRA or even shared
systems, we're doing a cost alternative for that as well. So trying to look at any options. So when
we get to the outreach meeting, we've thought of a lot of stuff and have good, you know, try to get
good feedback from, from folks. Great. I, I do have a question. I, I have a very basic question. Hey,
Jack. Um, so what, what is Dudley pond area on now? Are they all on septic? I get this one. Yeah.
Yep. So we've done a lot of research on that and we pulled a lot of the septic records.
They're all on septic. Um, some of the systems, you know, there's a few that are located on
adjacent properties. Um, there are a couple tight tanks. Um, there are some cesspools out there and
there's a lot of conventional systems, some of which have been upgraded. Um, but a lot of the,
a lot of times when we see a problem with a system, uh, it has a lot of, a bunch of variances,
right? So there's not a lot of properties with like one variance. They're either in it,
you know, for a bunch of variances or they're able to put a system on their property. Um,
another interesting thing we came across where a lot of the, the leaching, uh, like a dry well leaching
pit, you know, instead of a conventional horizontal leaching field where you're getting it, the
distribution over a larger area. So it's really just going down vertically, um, because the soils
are so good, right? It's all sand it's percolating quickly. So we do think there's a lot of, um,
I don't want to say short circuiting, but you know, how much treatment are you getting out of it?
If it's more of a, a vertical injection instead of a horizontal dispersion of the wastewater.
Yeah. And there are a few IA systems as well.
All right. So this is to look at the long time sustainability of Dudley Pond and what is the
best way to go forward treating. And you're going to be proposing a bunch of different solutions
that is not only the high school, which I thought was originally all it was, but also Dudley Pond.
And okay. So what are we going to do? Okay.
Today it's all septic cesspools and variances. Okay.
Sorry. Just to frame it, like Abby had said, like we, we thought, could we send some of Dudley Pond to the high school because that, you know, is, has excess capacity. It kind of dwarfs it when you look at it that way. So a lot more flow over on the Dudley Pond side. And then big picture thinking that you have to keep, we have to keep the happy hollow wells, um, online, right. Trying to protect those and all most of this wastewater appears to be going towards the happy hollow well field because it's in the drinking water zone too. Sorry, Abby. No, no. I was basically just going to say the same thing in the alternatives analysis for the high school. One of the issues with the previous treatment system was that, you know, the summer flows went, you know, down to near zero and was there a way where we could connect in some additional flow so we could keep the flows, you know, at a more steady rate. Um, but we were also started this when we weren't sure what we were going to do with the MWRA connection. There was some thought that we might do a full MWRA drinking water connection, but with keeping the happy hollow wells on and keeping that zone two active, um, I think that maybe adding in additional wastewater flows might not be the best alternative. Um, but again, we're still looking at all those options and that's kind of where the initial project stems from. So, so the link to this, uh, uh, commission is the initial town meeting article from whenever. Yes. Yes. But, but our, our, our operating legislation authority right now is only for the, the town center facility, correct? That's right. That's right. Although the language around the wastewater management district is very broad and could even include something like, um, uh, a management plan for IA systems. So it could be, um, sort of an enhanced on site program as well. When you say it's broad, the enabling legislation or the town meeting article. Um, the enabling legislation. Okay. Cause I know we've, the, the, one of the easier bars to say why we need more is, is failed septic systems. Right. Um, and, and just to box us in what, what, what the, the district or whatever you're calling the Dudley, uh, pond area, what's the, the rough daily, uh, design flow we're talking about? The average, the average water use today for the, for the project area is like 60 some thousand. We did look at, we took that number, um, made some assumptions of what some expansion in the district could be added in II for a system. And we are over a hundred thousand when you factor everything in. Okay. And that's, and that is average daily flow, not, not title five, not max day. Right. Which probably would be double that. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Roughly. Okay. It's like double our facility. Right. So, so, so the, the, the, the purpose of this discussion is pay, stay tuned. We may provide a framework that could help on some administrative and either the town could anoint us with more authority or whatever it, it, the framework is there that we're not starting from scratch. That's true. It's possible. It's also possible. We just create a separate district for them. So we create a town center district in a, you know, Southern Wayland district, and we keep them, you know, separate. So, you know, it's all on the table right now, but just wanted to keep you guys aware of what was happening. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Interesting. Any, Darren, anything else? No, I think you summed it up, Mike, kind of what the role is at this point. Yeah. I'll just. Will we get bored with town center? It'd be, you know. That's right. Something else to do. All right. So that's a good segue to, uh, Jared, what, what, what's exciting that, uh, the plant over the last month and you're on mute. Yeah. Just notice that, uh, it is always exciting over here at the plant. Um, we had the remote IO installed for the screens. So that would help connect them to SCADA. Um, and that did help cut us down on our water bill, uh, Ty and Vaughn, Wilson, uh, controls DIG electric and JWCE were here all for that startup and all signed off on the work done. Um, we increased the RAS rates, our RAS pumps were going at about 84 gallons per minute. Um, that was just the set point. It was at when I started here and I never really questioned it. And then I was talking with whitewater and they did some math and we're like, you know, we should probably really increase this recirculation rate. So we're now at one 30 gallons per minute. And that seems to be doing great. Um, this was all brought on by our nitrate, um, investigation. And, um, while that did help us temporarily in that short run, uh, the main solid solution was new mixers, which is, which we did end up getting installed. Um, we had minor electrical issues regarding that. And we had Wilson controls come in the following day, um, to fix it in the electrical cabinet, but almost immediately, almost overnight, our nitrates went down to, um, within our permanent levels. And it was, uh, uh, amazing to see how fast it works. Um, we also tried to, uh, replace our odor control media. And when we went to start that, um, there's a silencer on the top of the tank of odor control media and that silencer is actually, uh, horribly rusted that to the point where we were told by the contractors and, um, FR Mahoney that while we could try to take the silencer off and replace the media, there's no guarantee we would put the silencer back on, which would then we'd have no odor control. So, um, we are waiting for that, uh, for a new silencer, and then we will go ahead with that. Um, and other than that, our phosphorus numbers have been incredibly low. So I lowered our pack pump speed and, uh, our neighbors, our numbers have not changed. So it's just a less usage of pack and saving us some more money. Right. So then the, the nitrate issue falls under an excursion. It's done. It happened. And we move on. Um, we have not gotten the results yet for this, uh, month's sample, but it did go out in our bench top test in house. We're at a four when our limit is a 10. So, um, you know, there really should be no way that we failed this month. Um, so yeah, but we're doing good. And, and out of the, the, the, the required, uh, maintenance, what, what budget wise, what, what were the rough costs for that? And was that covered or are we dipping into something covered by our budget? Which, which part are you talking? Well, first we did the, um, the, the mixer and the electrical work and we did that out of small capital. We purchased the odor control media, but at this point I'm going to wait to order the silencer until we're sort of through all of our electrical work and we paid all those bills. So, um, work, we might wait on that until July 1st, depending on how things look at the beginning of the year. Is that like a turnkey gizmo? That's a matter of just taking old one off and wiring the new one in. Essentially. Yeah. You cement, you put it all in small capital, right? Small equipment. So far. Yes. I was just trying to look at that. Okay.
Some of the electrical work came out of the, uh, contingency. Yeah. And, and that's a good segue on the underlying electrical issue. Is that any progress on that? Or is this, is, is, is we repair things or we're making it better? I mean, I, I hate to give you this answer because, because knock on wood, but we feel like the power issues have been resolved. Um, and we haven't had any issues related to that. We have both SCADA systems up and running. Um, we now have the route 20 pump station up on SCADA. Uh, the SCADA for the screens is now running. So, um, knock on wood. We feel like at this point we have a few minor things to do in terms of correcting as built drawings and things like that. But, um, to date, we think that those issues have been resolved. Right. I'm looking at my personal notes from last time, something about a, a sludge valve fail. Did we fix that or is that? Um, I'm thinking of an actuator and, uh, yeah, that was, that was replaced, um, by pride. So that's all said. Wow. Sounds like a lot repaired and a lot now working, which sounds good. And some quantified minor, large, minor things that you're good at space. Yeah. Which came out of contingency, which looks over, which we'll get the finance part of it, but small equipment under, it almost looks like it's flopped, but yeah, we'll, we'll look at that when we get to finance. Cool. Yeah. Um, and Jared, I like, I did read the minutes from last week. I like that. It was a ground issue. So that's, that's awesome. Yeah. It's kind of like, Hey, look for ground. It's one of the most popular things. So that's good. I thought you were the finance guy, not the electrical guy. I do both. Like, like, remember I'm, uh, 30 years in electrical. I think I kind of know. Um, okay. And still in the low 30,000 gallon per day on average on flows. And yeah. Um, yeah. Still there between 30 and 32 average. Um, and with the new, um, not only the screens IO, but the recent work that like fully integrated it to sky SCADA, um, our water usage is now like so much lower. It is our influent flows were actually equal to our effluent. So the amount of water we're using on our screens has been drastically reduced. So, so the reduction in our use of injection or water is, is being made up by some of the new connections, whatever the, the library, the council aging, et cetera. So the, the, the discharge is similar to what it's been. Hmm. Um, okay. And any news on the fog issue or is that still, uh, with, with, uh, I wasn't able to meet with town council. Uh, they were drafting a letter. They said they hope to get it out by the end of the year. Okay. Jared, anything, I mean, excuse me, Darren, anything else, uh, related to operations. Okay. We'll move over to, uh, Sarah and, uh, um, financial. Okay. I'm going to share my screen. Let me know in a second if this is popping up. Can you see the report? Now I see it. Okay. So I'm sure that there were some noticeable things in our budget this time around. Obviously we are of only about 42% of the way through the year. We do have some expenses that are beyond 42%. Um, you know, some predictions in here as well. Um, contractual who will probably spend at least 95. So for right now, that's the best I would forecast for that one. We still have some things to do. We have our rates that I pay for, we have whitewater monthly, um, payments and whatnot. So that will pretty much be, be gone. Um, we have the, um, we're getting into equipment or repairs a little bit more and due to all the work that's going on at the plant and some potential things that might come in that we haven't been built for yet. I'm predicting that will be gone because we will need some of that. We do not have that project budget anymore. It's been wiped out for a while. We also have sludge, which it's also related to the project in part. Um, you know, again, once he's off of that budget, there is really nowhere else to go but here. So based on the normal monthly and what we've already had to spend, this is 45,000. This is probably where we're going to think about barring any unexpected pumping. I heard about Jared's chemical lowering. So that could go down if we don't have to place too many orders. I know we still have a bit a year to get through but, um, up until hearing that, this is that predicted amount. Um, nothing, you know, insane about the other utilities, but water charges. We already know that we were using a lot of water and I believe the last time, I don't think any of this number was in here, but we have some significantly high water bills right now that we have to get through and that's since been adjusted. But we know that going forward, we will always need to use a little more water. I know you were talking about recycled water, Jared, so forgive me if I'm wrong about that, Barry, but last I knew we would start to need to increase our water, water budget going forward because of the new green. Um, but for right now, it is going to be a pretty big chunk of change, unexpected in water. Um, that will have to come from elsewhere. So some of these little places that are intended to be underspent, hopefully we can cover that. Um, as we get down here, we talked about, I know Abby mentioned the contingency fund a minute ago. Um, again, based on some things coming through, I'm not sure if I've gotten every bill out of LCS and Daigle and other places. So I'm going to say based on RE at 25 and having things outstanding that we quite likely will spend 35. Small capital, small equipment, you know, we've put a lot into that related to the project, not necessarily, you know, everything we intended for it. So I'm expecting that the small capital list will exhaust the rest of it. And on the better news, um, the principal, um, for, sorry, not that the water waste water user charges are up, which is good. Uh, I know that the flow is pretty much the same, but usage at least seems to be a little higher here. And I don't have any explanation yet. I'm going to dig into it a little further, but it's one winter, one summer bill, which is great. Um, so it's a pretty good 50% of the year. You know, if that tracks, and we did predict in the rate study that we would make 570 based on the increase to the rate. So, you know, with this, it's a little higher. Um, if this is the same that we get for the Alaska billing, but it's a good thing. It will help. Um, and we also have the, the check that we already received for privilege fees for 128 down here. And then we also just received a check from the Hastings Way project, which is around 70,000. So, you know, again, this is unplanned for revenue, and it's definitely needed with our expenses the way they are. Interest is down, but there's an, I'm looking at that because there actually is a question as to whether we're getting our apportionment. So finance is looking into that and I have a meeting with them. We'll make sure we're getting our, our share. And other than that, there's nothing exciting on the capital projects because they're really right where they were last time. The first two are totally spent and we haven't started spending on the low pressure sewer placement just yet, or we haven't had a film coming yet. And that is really it for the, you know, the budget this time. So for the small equipment, if you can go back up to that, is some of the things that just happened this past month and the month prior, was that some of the things we were planning to do it anyways, as part of that small equipment or no, those were not, and we need to still go forward. Some of the things that we had to do and we did put in contingency were a lot of the electrical power systems work. That wasn't work that we assumed to be part of the project. So that's why we took it out of there. I don't think that there's anything currently that we're using small equipment for that we thought was going to be project work. Jared, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but going forward, things like the mixer and the actuator and the, even say the, um, odor control, those are all planned small equipment expenses, but they weren't specific to the project. Yeah. Like the mixers, they had failed during this time. It wasn't related. Um, yeah, I would agree. Okay. So, so anything that was not planned, you're putting in contingency, anything that was planned, you're putting in small equipment out of everything going on. Okay. So that puts us at the 24. So the contingency 25,000 of unplanned currently. Okay. Got it. Or the 35. You know, this predicts us at 99.3% spent for the year already. So, yeah, I think even with privilege fees coming in and all that, I think, you know, we got to keep trying to stay at that a hundred percent, right. And manage to that.
Yeah. Oh, it's worth mentioning that the liens officially have gone through and no change to the number I gave, I think at the last meeting, which was about, uh, I think it was $6,125 and we include that includes interest. So nothing crazy. Um, I don't expect that we'll collect on much more than about $1,500 of that only because the sale of a property occurred for about $1,500 worth of that lien. But the other folks are usually on a bankruptcy type situation and they're on here every year. And so at least it's a low figure. Yeah. A lot better than it was years ago when we first started looking at this. Yeah. A lot lower. All right. So operating revenue up, not exactly sure why it's up so much, but because of the flows, but you'll look into that. You said, um, the betterments, I mean, the, uh,
okay. Privilege fees and the, the privilege fees, the operating revenue, we can't, we can't spend that till week next year's budget. That's right. Yeah. July one, we'll have access to that. Okay. Yeah. I'm sure there'll be something or, or it goes to the retained earnings. Yeah. That's precisely what'll happen. Yeah. So that we can manage our rates that we talked about when we were setting budget. So this will be good.
Gives us a lot more buffer than where we were at with Matt Abrams. Right. So. Right. 186,000 we intended to draw for this year. We might not have to do any of that. You know, if we got 200, almost 200 in there. So that changes the game for next year. Yep. And then, and when these, if, when, when they say, when these other businesses connect in and get the flow that, that should greatly stabilize our financial situation.
Okay. And the sludge, yeah, no, I'm not, no, but yeah, the sludge is way over too, but like you said, you're managing through it. So, okay. Sludge and water. And the sludge is due to volume and maintenance, not that they've increased their rates significantly. Right. No, the rates are what we expected. Okay. I, I expect those rates are going to continue to creep up as they have less options of what to do with it. Um, I could be wrong, but I feel like we're working on contract pricing and that category, but Abby, if I'm incorrect on that, let me know. I know we've talked about it, so hopefully. Yep. Yep. Okay. Darren, any, any, anything? No, I'm good. I'm good. Capital project looks like it's pretty much wrapped up. Um, hopefully, uh, no more contingency stuff and it's all planned, small equipment from here on out. Yep. Great. Hey, could we move the greens need assessment next since it kind of plays into the operating budget on one level for next year? The, you know, things that we're going to spend money on. Um, is that, are we, can we do that? Can we, can we move it up, uh, 15 minutes and 20 minutes in our agenda? Yes, you have the ability to do that. Yep. Okay. Darren, you have any issue moving the, just a quick, uh, checking on the green needs. Um, yeah, I added this. Thank you. I, I was reading our local RAG and, and, and I saw that this, this was being discussed in other areas. Thank you for sharing it. Um, I, it, it helped understand what I, all I saw on the paper was a big number. Um, and now I understand. Um, so, uh, I guess my, my, not my question to the team, did they identify anything that wasn't already on our list of things that needed to be done, um, for, for operation,
regardless of green? I'm, I was glad to see the report did not just talk about green thing. It was basically a property condition assessment of everything. And the question is, did it identify things that weren't on our radar? And I, I will be, I'll be quite honest with you. I wasn't tuned in directly. Um, you know, with this report, our first glance at it was really when you requested it and noticed that it was out there. So I, if you don't mind, I'll be better prepared to, to remark on that question, uh, perhaps at the January meeting. Fair. I, I gave it a quick scan and I don't know, Abby, have you had a chance to look at it or? I went, I went through it. There wasn't anything that really stood out to me. I mean, a lot of it was some of the facilities things that the facilities department usually takes care of for us. So that's not specifically in our budget. Um, and you know, they hadn't seemed completely tuned into everything we were doing operations wise, but, um, it didn't seem like something. I didn't see anything dramatically impacting our budget, but again, I can look through that again. Yeah. Okay. I, I, I actually, I just did a search to make sure I didn't miss it. I thought it was going to map out how we put solar in, which they did not talk about at all. Um, are, are we, and then here, Darren, you could bring your expertise. When we buy new pumps, do we get variable speed pumps if the old ones were, were single speed, or is that something we do? Um, I think all our pumps are variable speeds. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I saw a few of that. I, it basically, it seems like the, the big ticket items that we could be doing in a green way we, we are. Yeah. And, and it's, you know, if the pumps are running 100%, then you put a soft start on it versus a variable speed drive. But if you are running them at 50%, then you put a variable speed drive on it. But if you're going to run them at a hundred, you ramp them with a soft starter and you'll get, you'll get good efficiencies from that, depending on how often they're turning on and off. But it did work with facilities to, um, apply for a grant. And I don't know if we have that, but a large part of that were grant would have been, um, replacing the boiler. Right. But again, that's, that's wasn't in our budget. That's something in the facilities budget. How, how significant is the boiler for it? I mean, I know it's a big space, but I imagine there's a lot of natural heat that comes from the process, the process. Uh, I can't really speak for how efficient the, uh, all the heat and everything is, but it is, it is, um, one of the new thermostat, it has like a, it knows when no one's in the building. So it reduces the heat. Um, but even in the past, like it's, um, yeah, it stays pretty warm in the main area, which then leads to it being colder in the lab area. Um, so yeah, it, it works pretty well. Okay. Yeah. We'll get Jared thermals.
Yeah. I, um, yeah, I'm looking, I just did a search for heater and basically say, yeah, we got a great heater, but it's going to need to be replaced in the next seven years, probably. And, uh, and that's where they're saying that the heat pumps probably should be on a very, if they're not already variable speed, but that's tiny compared to what we do out there, I imagine. Um, and, uh, and they, they already say, get, get, get the operator shorts. Oh no, they say the air conditioning is fine. Okay. Well that, that's good. Yeah. It's on one hand, it's nice to, you know, it's a little concerning that, that we weren't totally up on what's going on, but on the other hand, it's good to have a totally fresh set eyes. If, you know, if they identified something that we're not thinking of, Darren, any other thoughts on that matter? Nope. Okay. So I'm not as privy to everything in it, but I know what you're talking about. So, but I'm good. Yeah. Okay. Well, if you do, if the team looks at it and, you know, raises something we hadn't thought of, um, this would be the, uh, the time to start talking about it. Right. Cause we're operating budget for next year. So we'll go back to the agenda. Are you able to share that, uh, Sarah? Yeah. Sorry. I was getting a question on my left over here. Um, are we pulling up the budget now? Yeah. The FY27 budget, yes, please. Okay. Got that up. All right. So I just sent you a new revision because I apologize. It was a calculation issue over here, a formula issue in this last budget balance column. Um, but the other columns are fine. So hopefully that's not too much of a pain for you all. But, um, as long as you're sharing, I don't think you are yet. Oh, yeah.
Okay. How about now? There we are. Yep. I shared it with myself. That's not you guys. Uh, all right. So yeah, so this, this column was calculating wrong, so I fixed it. Um, but the percentage increase decrease and all the totals and whatnot in the, from the last budget and the new greater, we're fine. So hopefully it's not too different from what you were looking at. Yeah. That column there is the same. So, you know, staff sat down and took a look at, uh, you know, how things have been going over the last couple of years, primarily in FY25 and year to date in FY26. We try to make some predictions based upon, you know, forecasted needs and you'll see the proposed FY27 budget figure, uh, percentage change from, um, from last year. Did that? We lost it. We lost it. Sorry. It's she, she's got somebody sitting next to her. That's, uh, Sarah, can you hear us? I can hear you. I'm sorry. There was a customer calling anxiously for me and I was just getting the feedback. Sorry. You need to reshare your screen. Reshare. It says I'm sharing. That's weird. Okay. I might try again. There we go. There we go. Yeah. So highlight, you know, some of the, uh, a number of increases, um, one, you know, decrease in particular, you know, so in, uh, contractual services, you can see that we've, uh, uh, we've gone up in FY27 and that's, that's based on, you know, we've got a fair amount of contract services that helped support us there at the plant. Uh, and, and, and knowing that those, those increases, uh, whitewater, you know, Abraham's consulting, they do our rates, uh, a fair amount of SCADA support. So in, in looking at what we spent this current year and what we're going to, uh, to spend, uh, in FY27, we've, uh, we're promoting $110,000. Also in professional services, again, uh, like the team that's on the screen, uh, ECT folks like that, uh, we engage them to a moderate amount, uh, to help us fill in for some particular engineering support. So, uh, we've been increased that, um, to a degree. Also legal services, um, that's been increased. Um, we've unfortunately needed to engage town council on a number of items and, um, difficult to forecast that, but we thought it was prudent to, to increase that as well. Uh, you're also going to see a decrease, although it's, it's moderate in, in the actual trash removal, there's a decrease there. Increase in the water. We were talking a little bit about that, you know, as we, you know, had these screens replaced, uh, we had a very large water demand and trying to get that system figured out. That is managed now. Uh, we do understand that there's likely going to be an increased water consumption, water need to, to keep those screens operating properly. So, uh, we've put in there, um, $2,500 for proposed water bill rather than the 450 that we currently have. And then, um, vehicle gasoline, we've increased that, uh, we have yet to take delivery of the new vehicle, but we know, uh, with increased mileage that, that, that line will increase as well. So in essence, um, you know, current FY 26 budget, a little over, it's about 953 grand. Uh, we're looking at an FY 27 of 1,084,541. Happy to, I pointed out, you know, some of the, the primary differences, but happy to take questions, uh, if you have others. I'm just, the small equipment. Yeah. I saw that too, Mike. Pretty flat. It is what we're, we're thinking. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's based out. You can talk more to that, but we, you know, we've got that, uh, multi-year asset management plan. So I think, um, you know, it does appear that we, you know, we listed things out to kind of keep a steady pace with that, but certainly Abby can, can add to that. Yes. That was the mindset. I kind of even them out. So we had a steady pace over the next probably about seven more years. So overall increase about three, four percent. Is that, am I, am I getting this right? Fiscal year 27 budget versus fiscal year 26 budget, right? So yes. Yep. Right. It's reasonable. Yeah. That falls right in line. You know, we, we've got, uh, the other side of, uh, DPW, the water transfer station, um, where we're seeing similar increases, um, in those areas as well. And on the revenue, where does the, um, the, the, the, the, the clawback or the, the, the fees, the penalty we're charging for the fog and whatnot, are we assuming that's resolved by July of next year? Is that what we're looking at here? Yeah. We were talking about that. Um, you know, if we have our way, they will likely have to do some significant construction to install something. There is the real estate for it. Um, hopefully there's letter that's anticipated from KP law. We'll, uh, we'll prompt, um, all talks boat to, to do the right thing out there. Uh, and it, if they were to do the right thing and not contest it, we would have a, we would have an external grease interceptor in place by July, but, uh, that remains to be seen. Okay. Remind us of the schedule here. So this, for the budget, what, when do we need to, you know, say pens down on the budget? So what I was hoping today was to get, um, a vote, uh, for this. The enterprise budgets get considered by the finance team a little bit later than the general fund side of things. So it's wastewater water transfer station for us. Um, but if we had a, a vote today, that would be helpful. It would, uh, it would demonstrate your support. There's also, um, what the board of public works generally does. And I'm actually presenting the rest of the budgets to them tomorrow night is that they will, um, if they've got, um, some things that they'd like to have included in the budget, you could make the motion today to, to vote the budget, uh, with particular conditions that you, you'd like to see this happened, that happened, this raised, this decreased. If there's something that jumps out at you and then that motion, I deliver that motion with the budget to the finance team and then to FinCom eventually so that they understand what, what the commission's position is on this. Right. And as far as revenues under receipt user charges, this, this, this does not really care about, um, revenue flow per se. It's just enough money needs to be made to, to make the budget to tick and tie out to balance. Correct. Right. Yeah. And you, you will see, I think that that 285, Sarah, you can probably speak better to this. You know, we are anticipating, uh, utilizing, uh, some retained earnings again during the rate setting process. 149. You'll be, you'll have the ability to, um, to use retained earnings. But on January 15th, um, the warrant closes. And at that point, uh, the warrant articles start getting crafted, uh, including the enterprise article. So we actually have to, at that point in time, identify the intended use of retained earnings. Um, so that, I think that that is correct me if I'm wrong, Sarah, is that the recommended retained earnings that we would include? And if we use it fine, if we don't use it, obviously that's, that's fine as well. Yeah, we have the two bottom lines here. Um, we want to, we want to over ask, not under ask. Right. And, and always great when we were, we don't spend it like this year. Yeah. Um, but debt repayments, you know, the big portion of that now, that's what that's the 32% increase over here on capital. It's huge. So, um, we kind of wanted to isolate that a little bit this year and then small capital and contingency offset is now what this other piece is right here for the 140. So that's that 105 for capital, small capital and then contingency. Um, so depending on what you set the rate to be, 570 is what we predicted to receive this year. So any increase obviously would up that number and then you could lower your retained earnings use. So what we want to start with, we, we think we can at the very least make 570 if we did nothing. Right. So, um, I said, this is a nice safe number to be at 285. Okay. Where do we, where do we discuss using some of the privilege fees we've obtained over the year? You know, like if we get in the privilege fee to look at say the wastewater treatment plant study or, um, any other potential uses of the privilege fee money we've, we've taken in. Is that where we discussed that in this budget or, um, is there another spot to talk about that? So that would be included in this budget, Abby. Um, so if there are, you know, so the, the, the privilege fees that we've gotten in this fiscal year, we've been talking, you know, some of the large ones are 70 grand, uh, you know, the, the money from terrain that all goes in to retained earnings at the close of this fiscal year. So that becomes available for use. Um, so if, if there were some particular, um, tasks, studies, um, things that we wanted to accomplish in FY 27, we would then include those in this budget, perhaps under professional services or, or contracted services. So if that, this would be the time to include that. Yeah. You mean like studying the capacity of the plant, right? Cause we said after all the improvement, we got to put that in here and that's not currently in here. That's right. I don't believe it is in here, but, uh, that is something I think we'd want to do. Yep. I do think, I mean, with all the stuff we've done to this plant, all that, I think we do need to see, uh, what kind of motorcycle we're driving. That's right. And would that study, or is it a separate study as part of that, um, your review of the way we use the title five design flow to, to, you know, when we talk, um, better, you know, when we, the translation from design flow to actual flow as it relates to how we could change that to, to accommodate more users? Is that the same study or is that a separate study? Um, that wasn't specifically what I was thinking about. What I was thinking about was more about the unit processes and the treatment plant. Um, but it certainly could be part of that study. Right. I, I, I would like to see that because we, we have big players we talk to, but you know, we're ready to get to request for services, but you know, we talk about, oh, if we, if this person comes on, that person comes on, we'll be. That capacity. Close. Right. Right. But if, if, if someone has a minor, whatever we define minor, you know, I, I, I got to look at the, the, the, the guidance that we have a 2,000, whatever it is, 2,900 gallon, smaller change in use. You know, are we going to be forced to say no because of the flow through or to get more flexibility possibly on understanding how the design flow compares to what we actually see? We, we can definitely do that. Unfortunately, a lot of what we've done is sort of pre-sell design flow to larger customers. So a lot of it goes to town center, um, where we've already sold them a flow, you know, and additionally to Alta, um, there might be small changes that we could make at, uh, the COA or the library or, you know, some of the, um, other businesses on route 20, but it, it will never give us a large chunk because our larger chunks are consumed. It's certainly something we can look at. I feel comfortable looking at, but, um, I don't think it will ever get us a large boost. Yes. Now that you say that, um, I remember you saying something similar, uh, last time I brought this up, but it would be nice to have it written, written down. So we're not just saying it's our opinion. It's not worth the effort. Um, um, because of things, I mean, as I said, it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's heady times in, in, in, in requests. And, um, you, you, you never know, there could be two or three smaller things that come up after we take care of these big things. And it'd be nice to
have, have a touchstone like that. Certainly. How much does that add? What's the approximate to do a study? I think in the $35,000 range. Uh, I don't have a, that scope will work. That's sort of, I guess, just more range on it. Yeah. Order of magnitude. Yeah. It's just, you know, we're getting hit with all that capital, you know, new principal, new interest. So that's our big thing that now it comes on board. It just, it would have been good if it was in there, but okay, it's gotta be on top. So what we can do in, in looking at the calendar we're due to meet, I believe, January 12th. Um, you know, so what we could do is, you know, we could, we could, you know, just vote, take a poll of the membership that they're supportive of this budget as presented today with the understanding that staff will provide additional information relative to studies that would be included in professional services and contractual services that would be able to make use of the FY 26 privilege fee revenue received.
Yes. Do we need a vote or what do you, what would you like? Yeah. I think just having an acknowledgement and support of this budget and then what I just said, certainly if there's other things that you wanted to add or make remarks on, but, uh, upon hearing that we, uh, we certainly want to identify some of the work that we want to do using the privilege fees received this year, we could identify that get prices for that and include that under those two lines that I just referenced. And that would be the operating budget presented. And then on the meeting on the 12th, we would be able to then decide upon the necessary retained earnings to make all that happen. And then within, you know, by the 15th of the month, just a few days later, we can, um, let that be known for the warrant consideration. If I can just jump in with the same line, the SCADA support is part of this line. And I, I think there's potential for an increase to that amount. So Abby, I'm not sure if it was, I feel like 30K was like a number in my brain for on-call work. I would need to up that because about 87,000 of this number is claimed for other things outside of SCADA and of course the study. So do we have a figure
for SCADA, I guess, so we can do this all in one shot, I guess, when the motion is made. Um, I guess we'll, we'll take another look at that, but without looking at the bigger picture, what we've decided to do is keep the SCADA now underneath the umbrella of the electrical contract. So just planning for the electrical and mechanical contracts that we have, uh, going forward. Um, but I think the motion we're talking about wouldn't be that refined. It's more, we're talking a motion that contractual services. If, if, if Darren and I are supportive of the current budget with the understanding that the contractual and professional services will be reviewed and presented again on the 12th to incorporate, you skate another look at, another look at SCADA and, and, uh, and system, uh, study. Right. That's what I was getting at. I just didn't want you to just motion about the study and not have that, you know, make it too specific. That's perfect. Okay.
Um, my comp comp, I mean, uh, the way it's laid out now with the three, 4%, I get that the, the capitals in there, you know, which were, we knew we had eventually pay for it. Right. And then I do think this would be a wise use of the better of the betterment, the privilege. Right. And how do you use that? Well, that's, we got to study what our new motorcycle is and that's actually what that's for. So it aligns in my view. I, I agree. So how about, I guess I I'll make a motion then that, um, the waste water management district commission supports the proposed fiscal year 27 budget dated, uh, that was presented to us today. Um, with the understanding that, uh, will be another updated version will be presented at our January 12th meeting that will incorporate a, uh, revised contractual and or professional services budget to, uh, include confirm or to include things such as as, uh, uh, facility capacity study and, and SCADA support needs. I wasn't as concise as, uh, Tom. No, you're good. You're good. You nailed it. Uh, Darren Bach, uh, in favor. Okay. Second. So, uh, I think, so we second the motion and then, so now we vote motion, right? Yeah. They're mocking favor. Yeah. Like getting in favor. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Anything else said on the, the budget? That's all we had to present. Okay. Okay. So we can move on to request for services. I, I think we heard a little foreshadowing here. What, what, who, who showed up with a check? That would be the Hastings Way project. So they are official. They have a signed sewer use application and we have a check. And, and how was it? Is it, was it on behalf of the association or how, how, how's that going to work? It was for the, for the privilege fee. Yeah. Okay. And, and how much did they, uh, take and, and what does it leave us roughly? They took, uh, 2,860 and, uh, I'm not sure what that leaves us with now. Is it, what do we have like nine or, sorry, Abby, I forget the number we were at? Eight something. I thought we were.
About nine, but yeah. And then, uh, yeah.
So it leaves us with six, five, seven around there.
Additionally, um, we heard a little bit more from the 21 contituate. We drafted a sewer use application for them. Um, they're looking at an additional flow of 2,400 gallons per day, which would be a privilege fee of, um, 134,000 approximately. Um, they are closing in the next few weeks and, um, they should have a finalized, uh, sewer use application by the end of January. Okay. Okay. And so they were able to work with you and the board of health to get down below one of the thresholds. They were, they have what we called restaurant seats, regular tabled seats. And then what I've called their bistro seats, um, ones that were at the countertop or at a, a couch for instance. Um, and we were able to come up with a design flow associated with that. That gets down to a total of 200, uh, 2,660 gallons per day. They already had, um, an existing design flow of the 257. So that's what gets them to the 2,400. Okay. All, all good for the budget for next year. If Hastings should go rather hastily, right? Cause it's, that's a pretty simple change once the weather breaks, correct? That's right. We think so. Um, additionally, we reviewed the Dunkin' Donuts, uh, just to let you know, but they had enough, um, existing design flow, so they don't need to pay a privilege fee. Um, but we did review that with the board of health or the health department as well.
Had they already come in? I mean, the bank, did the bank already upgrade or the bank had enough to support a restaurant or whatever they are? They had already come in. Okay. They had already come in and it was a little while ago, but they came in and purchased some additional design flow. Um, but they also submitted their, uh, grinder pump and, um, their external grease trap. So we were able to review that with Darren and that was all set. Great. Um, so that, so right now, officially there's around 6,500 gallons available. Very likely that it it'll go down to 4,000 and we'll see what happens. Uh, and, uh, all bodes well that, uh, the flow budget that we just, the revenue from, uh, usage hopefully is, uh, we'll be in a better position when we come to rate setting. Uh, next spring we'll see, we'll see some actual changes or have a better feel for what's real versus, um, mothballed. Um, any, anything else, Darren, any questions on that? Good. Um, and next would be the, the minutes from November 17th. I, uh, I wasn't there, but I read through them. You're allowed. My understanding is you're allowed to, to vote. Um, okay. You want me to, uh, propose it? Uh, yeah. Well, actually I do just, I do have a question though on the, I, I, on the Hastings, uh, when, when they connect, are we billing the properties or the council, the, uh, the condo association? Did we work that out? Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna build the, bill the properties. Um, yeah, we, we, we thought more on this internally and, and trying to think about the billing mechanism. And, um, although, you know, we'll, we'll pay close attention and make sure that, you know, we're getting all 13 units paying, but, um, it, it just, it was not practicable, practical or feasible to build the HOA for that. And, and, and we'll put Sarah on them and she'll keep that. We have a pretty big hammer, but we might have to wait for the money, but we will get it eventually coming after you. Yep. Okay. Um, I, I, I, I, I, yeah, I, I realized I didn't get through all the notes. Uh, yes, go ahead, Darren, make it, make a motion. If you don't mind, make motion to approve the meeting minutes from the last meeting in November. Hold on. Where was the meeting? November 17th, 17th. Uh, second, all those in favor of approval. Darren Bach. Yes. Mike getting remote. Yes. Darren Bach. Yes. Uh, anything else as we are right on time here? Uh, I have nothing. Darren, do you have anything? Nothing else for this. I do have a question to Tom or Abby after, but, uh, but not for, not for official wastewater. Okay. Um, the next week you said January 12th, right? Yep. I just put, did we schedule beyond that? I can't, I don't have it on my calendar. What, what time on January 12th? Same thing like noon. We had said noon. We can, I could be flexible later in the day. If like, uh, I'm, I'm good with the noon noon. Yeah. I, yeah, I fly out that night. Okay. Um, did we schedule a meeting in February yet? And do we need to, to, to reserve, to keep this, uh, zoom? Yeah, we could. Would it be February 9th? Who has kids in the school system? When's the break in, uh, 16th? I think it's the, I think it's the week after. Yeah. Yeah, it's the week after. Yeah. There should be some sent out, some, um, invite sent out. I think we had a, did you just say January 12th on the meeting? So the first one, or did you say the 26th? Sorry. I mean, you guys have been saying the 12th, this whole meeting. Yeah. I, I, I should. It's not, I don't think it's, I think it's the 26th if I have it in my calendar, right? Okay. Then that might impact what we just talked about for time. Yeah. I'm good with that one. Yeah. You do have it in there as the 26th and I am good with that. Do we need to have a quick meeting on the 12th to get Tom a budget that he could present? Yeah. Could we, I know we talked about the, I forgot that we had decided that at the last meeting. Could we, could we do the January meeting on the 12th rather than the 26th?
Wow. I don't know why we changed it. Yeah. Well, I, I, I changed it only because the warrant closes on the 15th and I want to be able to get a retained earnings figure in by the 15th. So we would, that's why I suggested meeting the 12th. I, I forgot that we had already locked in on the 26th. Yeah. Oh yeah. I know that. I can't remember why we changed it in the first place. Yeah. I can make, I can make the, uh, it's not Martin Luther King day, right? That's the following Monday. Yeah. I can make the 12th. I can make the 12th. How, how, yeah. Are we pretty certain? Yeah. And if the, if the zoom portal isn't available, I could do 11 or later. I don't think, um, I don't think mid days are that competitive. Okay. Nights definitely. But the mid days, I think we can probably, you know, if Sarah wants to check with Jalen or Abby Warren, um, just to affirm, we can get noon on the 12th. Okay. I just resend the meeting too. So you'll see it update. So you see it already. So I'm going to, so we're not going to meet on the 12th. We're going to meet on the 12th, not the 26th. Excuse me. We're not going to meet on the 26th. Thank you. And I see we had scheduled February 23rd. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. We can, I can not make the 23rd.
We could do the night. We want to do the ninth. Um, ninth would be better for me. I could do the ninth. Now that we moved, you know, to the 12th of January. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ninth, ninth would be better. 23rd. I'm in Nashville. Right. Right. Okay.
And that's as far as we went, I believe. Unless I'm missing one. I think that's it.
Okay. Accepting. Beautiful. Yeah. Okay.
All right. Um, I think that's it. Then I move that we adjourn at, uh, one 10. I second that motion. Okay. Mike getting. Yes. They're on lock. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Sorry. Just to frame it, like Abby had said, like we, we thought, could we send some of Dudley Pond to the high school because that, you know, is, has excess capacity. It kind of dwarfs it when you look at it that way. So a lot more flow over on the Dudley Pond side. And then big picture thinking that you have to keep, we have to keep the happy hollow wells, um, online, right. Trying to protect those and all most of this wastewater appears to be going towards the happy hollow well field because it's in the drinking water zone too. Sorry, Abby. No, no. I was basically just going to say the same thing in the alternatives analysis for the high school. One of the issues with the previous treatment system was that, you know, the summer flows went, you know, down to near zero and was there a way where we could connect in some additional flow so we could keep the flows, you know, at a more steady rate. Um, but we were also started this when we weren't sure what we were going to do with the MWRA connection. There was some thought that we might do a full MWRA drinking water connection, but with keeping the happy hollow wells on and keeping that zone two active, um, I think that maybe adding in additional wastewater flows might not be the best alternative. Um, but again, we're still looking at all those options and that's kind of where the initial project stems from. So, so the link to this, uh, uh, commission is the initial town meeting article from whenever. Yes. Yes. But, but our, our, our operating legislation authority right now is only for the, the town center facility, correct? That's right. That's right. Although the language around the wastewater management district is very broad and could even include something like, um, uh, a management plan for IA systems. So it could be, um, sort of an enhanced on site program as well. When you say it's broad, the enabling legislation or the town meeting article. Um, the enabling legislation. Okay. Cause I know we've, the, the, one of the easier bars to say why we need more is, is failed septic systems. Right. Um, and, and just to box us in what, what, what the, the district or whatever you're calling the Dudley, uh, pond area, what's the, the rough daily, uh, design flow we're talking about? The average, the average water use today for the, for the project area is like 60 some thousand. We did look at, we took that number, um, made some assumptions of what some expansion in the district could be added in II for a system. And we are over a hundred thousand when you factor everything in. Okay. And that's, and that is average daily flow, not, not title five, not max day. Right. Which probably would be double that. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Roughly. Okay. It's like double our facility. Right. So, so, so the, the, the, the purpose of this discussion is pay, stay tuned. We may provide a framework that could help on some administrative and either the town could anoint us with more authority or whatever it, it, the framework is there that we're not starting from scratch. That's true. It's possible. It's also possible. We just create a separate district for them. So we create a town center district in a, you know, Southern Wayland district, and we keep them, you know, separate. So, you know, it's all on the table right now, but just wanted to keep you guys aware of what was happening. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Interesting. Any, Darren, anything else? No, I think you summed it up, Mike, kind of what the role is at this point. Yeah. I'll just. Will we get bored with town center? It'd be, you know. That's right. Something else to do. All right. So that's a good segue to, uh, Jared, what, what, what's exciting that, uh, the plant over the last month and you're on mute. Yeah. Just notice that, uh, it is always exciting over here at the plant. Um, we had the remote IO installed for the screens. So that would help connect them to SCADA. Um, and that did help cut us down on our water bill, uh, Ty and Vaughn, Wilson, uh, controls DIG electric and JWCE were here all for that startup and all signed off on the work done. Um, we increased the RAS rates, our RAS pumps were going at about 84 gallons per minute. Um, that was just the set point. It was at when I started here and I never really questioned it. And then I was talking with whitewater and they did some math and we're like, you know, we should probably really increase this recirculation rate. So we're now at one 30 gallons per minute. And that seems to be doing great. Um, this was all brought on by our nitrate, um, investigation. And, um, while that did help us temporarily in that short run, uh, the main solid solution was new mixers, which is, which we did end up getting installed. Um, we had minor electrical issues regarding that. And we had Wilson controls come in the following day, um, to fix it in the electrical cabinet, but almost immediately, almost overnight, our nitrates went down to, um, within our permanent levels. And it was, uh, uh, amazing to see how fast it works. Um, we also tried to, uh, replace our odor control media. And when we went to start that, um, there's a silencer on the top of the tank of odor control media and that silencer is actually, uh, horribly rusted that to the point where we were told by the contractors and, um, FR Mahoney that while we could try to take the silencer off and replace the media, there's no guarantee we would put the silencer back on, which would then we'd have no odor control. So, um, we are waiting for that, uh, for a new silencer, and then we will go ahead with that. Um, and other than that, our phosphorus numbers have been incredibly low. So I lowered our pack pump speed and, uh, our neighbors, our numbers have not changed. So it's just a less usage of pack and saving us some more money. Right. So then the, the nitrate issue falls under an excursion. It's done. It happened. And we move on. Um, we have not gotten the results yet for this, uh, month's sample, but it did go out in our bench top test in house. We're at a four when our limit is a 10. So, um, you know, there really should be no way that we failed this month. Um, so yeah, but we're doing good. And, and out of the, the, the, the required, uh, maintenance, what, what budget wise, what, what were the rough costs for that? And was that covered or are we dipping into something covered by our budget? Which, which part are you talking? Well, first we did the, um, the, the mixer and the electrical work and we did that out of small capital. We purchased the odor control media, but at this point I'm going to wait to order the silencer until we're sort of through all of our electrical work and we paid all those bills. So, um, work, we might wait on that until July 1st, depending on how things look at the beginning of the year. Is that like a turnkey gizmo? That's a matter of just taking old one off and wiring the new one in. Essentially. Yeah. You cement, you put it all in small capital, right? Small equipment. So far. Yes. I was just trying to look at that. Okay.
Some of the electrical work came out of the, uh, contingency. Yeah. And, and that's a good segue on the underlying electrical issue. Is that any progress on that? Or is this, is, is, is we repair things or we're making it better? I mean, I, I hate to give you this answer because, because knock on wood, but we feel like the power issues have been resolved. Um, and we haven't had any issues related to that. We have both SCADA systems up and running. Um, we now have the route 20 pump station up on SCADA. Uh, the SCADA for the screens is now running. So, um, knock on wood. We feel like at this point we have a few minor things to do in terms of correcting as built drawings and things like that. But, um, to date, we think that those issues have been resolved. Right. I'm looking at my personal notes from last time, something about a, a sludge valve fail. Did we fix that or is that? Um, I'm thinking of an actuator and, uh, yeah, that was, that was replaced, um, by pride. So that's all said. Wow. Sounds like a lot repaired and a lot now working, which sounds good. And some quantified minor, large, minor things that you're good at space. Yeah. Which came out of contingency, which looks over, which we'll get the finance part of it, but small equipment under, it almost looks like it's flopped, but yeah, we'll, we'll look at that when we get to finance. Cool. Yeah. Um, and Jared, I like, I did read the minutes from last week. I like that. It was a ground issue. So that's, that's awesome. Yeah. It's kind of like, Hey, look for ground. It's one of the most popular things. So that's good. I thought you were the finance guy, not the electrical guy. I do both. Like, like, remember I'm, uh, 30 years in electrical. I think I kind of know. Um, okay. And still in the low 30,000 gallon per day on average on flows. And yeah. Um, yeah. Still there between 30 and 32 average. Um, and with the new, um, not only the screens IO, but the recent work that like fully integrated it to sky SCADA, um, our water usage is now like so much lower. It is our influent flows were actually equal to our effluent. So the amount of water we're using on our screens has been drastically reduced. So, so the reduction in our use of injection or water is, is being made up by some of the new connections, whatever the, the library, the council aging, et cetera. So the, the, the discharge is similar to what it's been. Hmm. Um, okay. And any news on the fog issue or is that still, uh, with, with, uh, I wasn't able to meet with town council. Uh, they were drafting a letter. They said they hope to get it out by the end of the year. Okay. Jared, anything, I mean, excuse me, Darren, anything else, uh, related to operations. Okay. We'll move over to, uh, Sarah and, uh, um, financial. Okay. I'm going to share my screen. Let me know in a second if this is popping up. Can you see the report? Now I see it. Okay. So I'm sure that there were some noticeable things in our budget this time around. Obviously we are of only about 42% of the way through the year. We do have some expenses that are beyond 42%. Um, you know, some predictions in here as well. Um, contractual who will probably spend at least 95. So for right now, that's the best I would forecast for that one. We still have some things to do. We have our rates that I pay for, we have whitewater monthly, um, payments and whatnot. So that will pretty much be, be gone. Um, we have the, um, we're getting into equipment or repairs a little bit more and due to all the work that's going on at the plant and some potential things that might come in that we haven't been built for yet. I'm predicting that will be gone because we will need some of that. We do not have that project budget anymore. It's been wiped out for a while. We also have sludge, which it's also related to the project in part. Um, you know, again, once he's off of that budget, there is really nowhere else to go but here. So based on the normal monthly and what we've already had to spend, this is 45,000. This is probably where we're going to think about barring any unexpected pumping. I heard about Jared's chemical lowering. So that could go down if we don't have to place too many orders. I know we still have a bit a year to get through but, um, up until hearing that, this is that predicted amount. Um, nothing, you know, insane about the other utilities, but water charges. We already know that we were using a lot of water and I believe the last time, I don't think any of this number was in here, but we have some significantly high water bills right now that we have to get through and that's since been adjusted. But we know that going forward, we will always need to use a little more water. I know you were talking about recycled water, Jared, so forgive me if I'm wrong about that, Barry, but last I knew we would start to need to increase our water, water budget going forward because of the new green. Um, but for right now, it is going to be a pretty big chunk of change, unexpected in water. Um, that will have to come from elsewhere. So some of these little places that are intended to be underspent, hopefully we can cover that. Um, as we get down here, we talked about, I know Abby mentioned the contingency fund a minute ago. Um, again, based on some things coming through, I'm not sure if I've gotten every bill out of LCS and Daigle and other places. So I'm going to say based on RE at 25 and having things outstanding that we quite likely will spend 35. Small capital, small equipment, you know, we've put a lot into that related to the project, not necessarily, you know, everything we intended for it. So I'm expecting that the small capital list will exhaust the rest of it. And on the better news, um, the principal, um, for, sorry, not that the water waste water user charges are up, which is good. Uh, I know that the flow is pretty much the same, but usage at least seems to be a little higher here. And I don't have any explanation yet. I'm going to dig into it a little further, but it's one winter, one summer bill, which is great. Um, so it's a pretty good 50% of the year. You know, if that tracks, and we did predict in the rate study that we would make 570 based on the increase to the rate. So, you know, with this, it's a little higher. Um, if this is the same that we get for the Alaska billing, but it's a good thing. It will help. Um, and we also have the, the check that we already received for privilege fees for 128 down here. And then we also just received a check from the Hastings Way project, which is around 70,000. So, you know, again, this is unplanned for revenue, and it's definitely needed with our expenses the way they are. Interest is down, but there's an, I'm looking at that because there actually is a question as to whether we're getting our apportionment. So finance is looking into that and I have a meeting with them. We'll make sure we're getting our, our share. And other than that, there's nothing exciting on the capital projects because they're really right where they were last time. The first two are totally spent and we haven't started spending on the low pressure sewer placement just yet, or we haven't had a film coming yet. And that is really it for the, you know, the budget this time. So for the small equipment, if you can go back up to that, is some of the things that just happened this past month and the month prior, was that some of the things we were planning to do it anyways, as part of that small equipment or no, those were not, and we need to still go forward. Some of the things that we had to do and we did put in contingency were a lot of the electrical power systems work. That wasn't work that we assumed to be part of the project. So that's why we took it out of there. I don't think that there's anything currently that we're using small equipment for that we thought was going to be project work. Jared, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but going forward, things like the mixer and the actuator and the, even say the, um, odor control, those are all planned small equipment expenses, but they weren't specific to the project. Yeah. Like the mixers, they had failed during this time. It wasn't related. Um, yeah, I would agree. Okay. So, so anything that was not planned, you're putting in contingency, anything that was planned, you're putting in small equipment out of everything going on. Okay. So that puts us at the 24. So the contingency 25,000 of unplanned currently. Okay. Got it. Or the 35. You know, this predicts us at 99.3% spent for the year already. So, yeah, I think even with privilege fees coming in and all that, I think, you know, we got to keep trying to stay at that a hundred percent, right. And manage to that.
Yeah. Oh, it's worth mentioning that the liens officially have gone through and no change to the number I gave, I think at the last meeting, which was about, uh, I think it was $6,125 and we include that includes interest. So nothing crazy. Um, I don't expect that we'll collect on much more than about $1,500 of that only because the sale of a property occurred for about $1,500 worth of that lien. But the other folks are usually on a bankruptcy type situation and they're on here every year. And so at least it's a low figure. Yeah. A lot better than it was years ago when we first started looking at this. Yeah. A lot lower. All right. So operating revenue up, not exactly sure why it's up so much, but because of the flows, but you'll look into that. You said, um, the betterments, I mean, the, uh,
okay. Privilege fees and the, the privilege fees, the operating revenue, we can't, we can't spend that till week next year's budget. That's right. Yeah. July one, we'll have access to that. Okay. Yeah. I'm sure there'll be something or, or it goes to the retained earnings. Yeah. That's precisely what'll happen. Yeah. So that we can manage our rates that we talked about when we were setting budget. So this will be good.
Gives us a lot more buffer than where we were at with Matt Abrams. Right. So. Right. 186,000 we intended to draw for this year. We might not have to do any of that. You know, if we got 200, almost 200 in there. So that changes the game for next year. Yep. And then, and when these, if, when, when they say, when these other businesses connect in and get the flow that, that should greatly stabilize our financial situation.
Okay. And the sludge, yeah, no, I'm not, no, but yeah, the sludge is way over too, but like you said, you're managing through it. So, okay. Sludge and water. And the sludge is due to volume and maintenance, not that they've increased their rates significantly. Right. No, the rates are what we expected. Okay. I, I expect those rates are going to continue to creep up as they have less options of what to do with it. Um, I could be wrong, but I feel like we're working on contract pricing and that category, but Abby, if I'm incorrect on that, let me know. I know we've talked about it, so hopefully. Yep. Yep. Okay. Darren, any, any, anything? No, I'm good. I'm good. Capital project looks like it's pretty much wrapped up. Um, hopefully, uh, no more contingency stuff and it's all planned, small equipment from here on out. Yep. Great. Hey, could we move the greens need assessment next since it kind of plays into the operating budget on one level for next year? The, you know, things that we're going to spend money on. Um, is that, are we, can we do that? Can we, can we move it up, uh, 15 minutes and 20 minutes in our agenda? Yes, you have the ability to do that. Yep. Okay. Darren, you have any issue moving the, just a quick, uh, checking on the green needs. Um, yeah, I added this. Thank you. I, I was reading our local RAG and, and, and I saw that this, this was being discussed in other areas. Thank you for sharing it. Um, I, it, it helped understand what I, all I saw on the paper was a big number. Um, and now I understand. Um, so, uh, I guess my, my, not my question to the team, did they identify anything that wasn't already on our list of things that needed to be done, um, for, for operation,
regardless of green? I'm, I was glad to see the report did not just talk about green thing. It was basically a property condition assessment of everything. And the question is, did it identify things that weren't on our radar? And I, I will be, I'll be quite honest with you. I wasn't tuned in directly. Um, you know, with this report, our first glance at it was really when you requested it and noticed that it was out there. So I, if you don't mind, I'll be better prepared to, to remark on that question, uh, perhaps at the January meeting. Fair. I, I gave it a quick scan and I don't know, Abby, have you had a chance to look at it or? I went, I went through it. There wasn't anything that really stood out to me. I mean, a lot of it was some of the facilities things that the facilities department usually takes care of for us. So that's not specifically in our budget. Um, and you know, they hadn't seemed completely tuned into everything we were doing operations wise, but, um, it didn't seem like something. I didn't see anything dramatically impacting our budget, but again, I can look through that again. Yeah. Okay. I, I, I actually, I just did a search to make sure I didn't miss it. I thought it was going to map out how we put solar in, which they did not talk about at all. Um, are, are we, and then here, Darren, you could bring your expertise. When we buy new pumps, do we get variable speed pumps if the old ones were, were single speed, or is that something we do? Um, I think all our pumps are variable speeds. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I saw a few of that. I, it basically, it seems like the, the big ticket items that we could be doing in a green way we, we are. Yeah. And, and it's, you know, if the pumps are running 100%, then you put a soft start on it versus a variable speed drive. But if you are running them at 50%, then you put a variable speed drive on it. But if you're going to run them at a hundred, you ramp them with a soft starter and you'll get, you'll get good efficiencies from that, depending on how often they're turning on and off. But it did work with facilities to, um, apply for a grant. And I don't know if we have that, but a large part of that were grant would have been, um, replacing the boiler. Right. But again, that's, that's wasn't in our budget. That's something in the facilities budget. How, how significant is the boiler for it? I mean, I know it's a big space, but I imagine there's a lot of natural heat that comes from the process, the process. Uh, I can't really speak for how efficient the, uh, all the heat and everything is, but it is, it is, um, one of the new thermostat, it has like a, it knows when no one's in the building. So it reduces the heat. Um, but even in the past, like it's, um, yeah, it stays pretty warm in the main area, which then leads to it being colder in the lab area. Um, so yeah, it, it works pretty well. Okay. Yeah. We'll get Jared thermals.
Yeah. I, um, yeah, I'm looking, I just did a search for heater and basically say, yeah, we got a great heater, but it's going to need to be replaced in the next seven years, probably. And, uh, and that's where they're saying that the heat pumps probably should be on a very, if they're not already variable speed, but that's tiny compared to what we do out there, I imagine. Um, and, uh, and they, they already say, get, get, get the operator shorts. Oh no, they say the air conditioning is fine. Okay. Well that, that's good. Yeah. It's on one hand, it's nice to, you know, it's a little concerning that, that we weren't totally up on what's going on, but on the other hand, it's good to have a totally fresh set eyes. If, you know, if they identified something that we're not thinking of, Darren, any other thoughts on that matter? Nope. Okay. So I'm not as privy to everything in it, but I know what you're talking about. So, but I'm good. Yeah. Okay. Well, if you do, if the team looks at it and, you know, raises something we hadn't thought of, um, this would be the, uh, the time to start talking about it. Right. Cause we're operating budget for next year. So we'll go back to the agenda. Are you able to share that, uh, Sarah? Yeah. Sorry. I was getting a question on my left over here. Um, are we pulling up the budget now? Yeah. The FY27 budget, yes, please. Okay. Got that up. All right. So I just sent you a new revision because I apologize. It was a calculation issue over here, a formula issue in this last budget balance column. Um, but the other columns are fine. So hopefully that's not too much of a pain for you all. But, um, as long as you're sharing, I don't think you are yet. Oh, yeah.
Okay. How about now? There we are. Yep. I shared it with myself. That's not you guys. Uh, all right. So yeah, so this, this column was calculating wrong, so I fixed it. Um, but the percentage increase decrease and all the totals and whatnot in the, from the last budget and the new greater, we're fine. So hopefully it's not too different from what you were looking at. Yeah. That column there is the same. So, you know, staff sat down and took a look at, uh, you know, how things have been going over the last couple of years, primarily in FY25 and year to date in FY26. We try to make some predictions based upon, you know, forecasted needs and you'll see the proposed FY27 budget figure, uh, percentage change from, um, from last year. Did that? We lost it. We lost it. Sorry. It's she, she's got somebody sitting next to her. That's, uh, Sarah, can you hear us? I can hear you. I'm sorry. There was a customer calling anxiously for me and I was just getting the feedback. Sorry. You need to reshare your screen. Reshare. It says I'm sharing. That's weird. Okay. I might try again. There we go. There we go. Yeah. So highlight, you know, some of the, uh, a number of increases, um, one, you know, decrease in particular, you know, so in, uh, contractual services, you can see that we've, uh, uh, we've gone up in FY27 and that's, that's based on, you know, we've got a fair amount of contract services that helped support us there at the plant. Uh, and, and, and knowing that those, those increases, uh, whitewater, you know, Abraham's consulting, they do our rates, uh, a fair amount of SCADA support. So in, in looking at what we spent this current year and what we're going to, uh, to spend, uh, in FY27, we've, uh, we're promoting $110,000. Also in professional services, again, uh, like the team that's on the screen, uh, ECT folks like that, uh, we engage them to a moderate amount, uh, to help us fill in for some particular engineering support. So, uh, we've been increased that, um, to a degree. Also legal services, um, that's been increased. Um, we've unfortunately needed to engage town council on a number of items and, um, difficult to forecast that, but we thought it was prudent to, to increase that as well. Uh, you're also going to see a decrease, although it's, it's moderate in, in the actual trash removal, there's a decrease there. Increase in the water. We were talking a little bit about that, you know, as we, you know, had these screens replaced, uh, we had a very large water demand and trying to get that system figured out. That is managed now. Uh, we do understand that there's likely going to be an increased water consumption, water need to, to keep those screens operating properly. So, uh, we've put in there, um, $2,500 for proposed water bill rather than the 450 that we currently have. And then, um, vehicle gasoline, we've increased that, uh, we have yet to take delivery of the new vehicle, but we know, uh, with increased mileage that, that, that line will increase as well. So in essence, um, you know, current FY 26 budget, a little over, it's about 953 grand. Uh, we're looking at an FY 27 of 1,084,541. Happy to, I pointed out, you know, some of the, the primary differences, but happy to take questions, uh, if you have others. I'm just, the small equipment. Yeah. I saw that too, Mike. Pretty flat. It is what we're, we're thinking. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's based out. You can talk more to that, but we, you know, we've got that, uh, multi-year asset management plan. So I think, um, you know, it does appear that we, you know, we listed things out to kind of keep a steady pace with that, but certainly Abby can, can add to that. Yes. That was the mindset. I kind of even them out. So we had a steady pace over the next probably about seven more years. So overall increase about three, four percent. Is that, am I, am I getting this right? Fiscal year 27 budget versus fiscal year 26 budget, right? So yes. Yep. Right. It's reasonable. Yeah. That falls right in line. You know, we, we've got, uh, the other side of, uh, DPW, the water transfer station, um, where we're seeing similar increases, um, in those areas as well. And on the revenue, where does the, um, the, the, the, the, the clawback or the, the, the fees, the penalty we're charging for the fog and whatnot, are we assuming that's resolved by July of next year? Is that what we're looking at here? Yeah. We were talking about that. Um, you know, if we have our way, they will likely have to do some significant construction to install something. There is the real estate for it. Um, hopefully there's letter that's anticipated from KP law. We'll, uh, we'll prompt, um, all talks boat to, to do the right thing out there. Uh, and it, if they were to do the right thing and not contest it, we would have a, we would have an external grease interceptor in place by July, but, uh, that remains to be seen. Okay. Remind us of the schedule here. So this, for the budget, what, when do we need to, you know, say pens down on the budget? So what I was hoping today was to get, um, a vote, uh, for this. The enterprise budgets get considered by the finance team a little bit later than the general fund side of things. So it's wastewater water transfer station for us. Um, but if we had a, a vote today, that would be helpful. It would, uh, it would demonstrate your support. There's also, um, what the board of public works generally does. And I'm actually presenting the rest of the budgets to them tomorrow night is that they will, um, if they've got, um, some things that they'd like to have included in the budget, you could make the motion today to, to vote the budget, uh, with particular conditions that you, you'd like to see this happened, that happened, this raised, this decreased. If there's something that jumps out at you and then that motion, I deliver that motion with the budget to the finance team and then to FinCom eventually so that they understand what, what the commission's position is on this. Right. And as far as revenues under receipt user charges, this, this, this does not really care about, um, revenue flow per se. It's just enough money needs to be made to, to make the budget to tick and tie out to balance. Correct. Right. Yeah. And you, you will see, I think that that 285, Sarah, you can probably speak better to this. You know, we are anticipating, uh, utilizing, uh, some retained earnings again during the rate setting process. 149. You'll be, you'll have the ability to, um, to use retained earnings. But on January 15th, um, the warrant closes. And at that point, uh, the warrant articles start getting crafted, uh, including the enterprise article. So we actually have to, at that point in time, identify the intended use of retained earnings. Um, so that, I think that that is correct me if I'm wrong, Sarah, is that the recommended retained earnings that we would include? And if we use it fine, if we don't use it, obviously that's, that's fine as well. Yeah, we have the two bottom lines here. Um, we want to, we want to over ask, not under ask. Right. And, and always great when we were, we don't spend it like this year. Yeah. Um, but debt repayments, you know, the big portion of that now, that's what that's the 32% increase over here on capital. It's huge. So, um, we kind of wanted to isolate that a little bit this year and then small capital and contingency offset is now what this other piece is right here for the 140. So that's that 105 for capital, small capital and then contingency. Um, so depending on what you set the rate to be, 570 is what we predicted to receive this year. So any increase obviously would up that number and then you could lower your retained earnings use. So what we want to start with, we, we think we can at the very least make 570 if we did nothing. Right. So, um, I said, this is a nice safe number to be at 285. Okay. Where do we, where do we discuss using some of the privilege fees we've obtained over the year? You know, like if we get in the privilege fee to look at say the wastewater treatment plant study or, um, any other potential uses of the privilege fee money we've, we've taken in. Is that where we discussed that in this budget or, um, is there another spot to talk about that? So that would be included in this budget, Abby. Um, so if there are, you know, so the, the, the privilege fees that we've gotten in this fiscal year, we've been talking, you know, some of the large ones are 70 grand, uh, you know, the, the money from terrain that all goes in to retained earnings at the close of this fiscal year. So that becomes available for use. Um, so if, if there were some particular, um, tasks, studies, um, things that we wanted to accomplish in FY 27, we would then include those in this budget, perhaps under professional services or, or contracted services. So if that, this would be the time to include that. Yeah. You mean like studying the capacity of the plant, right? Cause we said after all the improvement, we got to put that in here and that's not currently in here. That's right. I don't believe it is in here, but, uh, that is something I think we'd want to do. Yep. I do think, I mean, with all the stuff we've done to this plant, all that, I think we do need to see, uh, what kind of motorcycle we're driving. That's right. And would that study, or is it a separate study as part of that, um, your review of the way we use the title five design flow to, to, you know, when we talk, um, better, you know, when we, the translation from design flow to actual flow as it relates to how we could change that to, to accommodate more users? Is that the same study or is that a separate study? Um, that wasn't specifically what I was thinking about. What I was thinking about was more about the unit processes and the treatment plant. Um, but it certainly could be part of that study. Right. I, I, I would like to see that because we, we have big players we talk to, but you know, we're ready to get to request for services, but you know, we talk about, oh, if we, if this person comes on, that person comes on, we'll be. That capacity. Close. Right. Right. But if, if, if someone has a minor, whatever we define minor, you know, I, I, I got to look at the, the, the, the guidance that we have a 2,000, whatever it is, 2,900 gallon, smaller change in use. You know, are we going to be forced to say no because of the flow through or to get more flexibility possibly on understanding how the design flow compares to what we actually see? We, we can definitely do that. Unfortunately, a lot of what we've done is sort of pre-sell design flow to larger customers. So a lot of it goes to town center, um, where we've already sold them a flow, you know, and additionally to Alta, um, there might be small changes that we could make at, uh, the COA or the library or, you know, some of the, um, other businesses on route 20, but it, it will never give us a large chunk because our larger chunks are consumed. It's certainly something we can look at. I feel comfortable looking at, but, um, I don't think it will ever get us a large boost. Yes. Now that you say that, um, I remember you saying something similar, uh, last time I brought this up, but it would be nice to have it written, written down. So we're not just saying it's our opinion. It's not worth the effort. Um, um, because of things, I mean, as I said, it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's heady times in, in, in, in requests. And, um, you, you, you never know, there could be two or three smaller things that come up after we take care of these big things. And it'd be nice to
have, have a touchstone like that. Certainly. How much does that add? What's the approximate to do a study? I think in the $35,000 range. Uh, I don't have a, that scope will work. That's sort of, I guess, just more range on it. Yeah. Order of magnitude. Yeah. It's just, you know, we're getting hit with all that capital, you know, new principal, new interest. So that's our big thing that now it comes on board. It just, it would have been good if it was in there, but okay, it's gotta be on top. So what we can do in, in looking at the calendar we're due to meet, I believe, January 12th. Um, you know, so what we could do is, you know, we could, we could, you know, just vote, take a poll of the membership that they're supportive of this budget as presented today with the understanding that staff will provide additional information relative to studies that would be included in professional services and contractual services that would be able to make use of the FY 26 privilege fee revenue received.
Yes. Do we need a vote or what do you, what would you like? Yeah. I think just having an acknowledgement and support of this budget and then what I just said, certainly if there's other things that you wanted to add or make remarks on, but, uh, upon hearing that we, uh, we certainly want to identify some of the work that we want to do using the privilege fees received this year, we could identify that get prices for that and include that under those two lines that I just referenced. And that would be the operating budget presented. And then on the meeting on the 12th, we would be able to then decide upon the necessary retained earnings to make all that happen. And then within, you know, by the 15th of the month, just a few days later, we can, um, let that be known for the warrant consideration. If I can just jump in with the same line, the SCADA support is part of this line. And I, I think there's potential for an increase to that amount. So Abby, I'm not sure if it was, I feel like 30K was like a number in my brain for on-call work. I would need to up that because about 87,000 of this number is claimed for other things outside of SCADA and of course the study. So do we have a figure
for SCADA, I guess, so we can do this all in one shot, I guess, when the motion is made. Um, I guess we'll, we'll take another look at that, but without looking at the bigger picture, what we've decided to do is keep the SCADA now underneath the umbrella of the electrical contract. So just planning for the electrical and mechanical contracts that we have, uh, going forward. Um, but I think the motion we're talking about wouldn't be that refined. It's more, we're talking a motion that contractual services. If, if, if Darren and I are supportive of the current budget with the understanding that the contractual and professional services will be reviewed and presented again on the 12th to incorporate, you skate another look at, another look at SCADA and, and, uh, and system, uh, study. Right. That's what I was getting at. I just didn't want you to just motion about the study and not have that, you know, make it too specific. That's perfect. Okay.
Um, my comp comp, I mean, uh, the way it's laid out now with the three, 4%, I get that the, the capitals in there, you know, which were, we knew we had eventually pay for it. Right. And then I do think this would be a wise use of the better of the betterment, the privilege. Right. And how do you use that? Well, that's, we got to study what our new motorcycle is and that's actually what that's for. So it aligns in my view. I, I agree. So how about, I guess I I'll make a motion then that, um, the waste water management district commission supports the proposed fiscal year 27 budget dated, uh, that was presented to us today. Um, with the understanding that, uh, will be another updated version will be presented at our January 12th meeting that will incorporate a, uh, revised contractual and or professional services budget to, uh, include confirm or to include things such as as, uh, uh, facility capacity study and, and SCADA support needs. I wasn't as concise as, uh, Tom. No, you're good. You're good. You nailed it. Uh, Darren Bach, uh, in favor. Okay. Second. So, uh, I think, so we second the motion and then, so now we vote motion, right? Yeah. They're mocking favor. Yeah. Like getting in favor. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Anything else said on the, the budget? That's all we had to present. Okay. Okay. So we can move on to request for services. I, I think we heard a little foreshadowing here. What, what, who, who showed up with a check? That would be the Hastings Way project. So they are official. They have a signed sewer use application and we have a check. And, and how was it? Is it, was it on behalf of the association or how, how, how's that going to work? It was for the, for the privilege fee. Yeah. Okay. And, and how much did they, uh, take and, and what does it leave us roughly? They took, uh, 2,860 and, uh, I'm not sure what that leaves us with now. Is it, what do we have like nine or, sorry, Abby, I forget the number we were at? Eight something. I thought we were.
About nine, but yeah. And then, uh, yeah.
So it leaves us with six, five, seven around there.
Additionally, um, we heard a little bit more from the 21 contituate. We drafted a sewer use application for them. Um, they're looking at an additional flow of 2,400 gallons per day, which would be a privilege fee of, um, 134,000 approximately. Um, they are closing in the next few weeks and, um, they should have a finalized, uh, sewer use application by the end of January. Okay. Okay. And so they were able to work with you and the board of health to get down below one of the thresholds. They were, they have what we called restaurant seats, regular tabled seats. And then what I've called their bistro seats, um, ones that were at the countertop or at a, a couch for instance. Um, and we were able to come up with a design flow associated with that. That gets down to a total of 200, uh, 2,660 gallons per day. They already had, um, an existing design flow of the 257. So that's what gets them to the 2,400. Okay. All, all good for the budget for next year. If Hastings should go rather hastily, right? Cause it's, that's a pretty simple change once the weather breaks, correct? That's right. We think so. Um, additionally, we reviewed the Dunkin' Donuts, uh, just to let you know, but they had enough, um, existing design flow, so they don't need to pay a privilege fee. Um, but we did review that with the board of health or the health department as well.
Had they already come in? I mean, the bank, did the bank already upgrade or the bank had enough to support a restaurant or whatever they are? They had already come in. Okay. They had already come in and it was a little while ago, but they came in and purchased some additional design flow. Um, but they also submitted their, uh, grinder pump and, um, their external grease trap. So we were able to review that with Darren and that was all set. Great. Um, so that, so right now, officially there's around 6,500 gallons available. Very likely that it it'll go down to 4,000 and we'll see what happens. Uh, and, uh, all bodes well that, uh, the flow budget that we just, the revenue from, uh, usage hopefully is, uh, we'll be in a better position when we come to rate setting. Uh, next spring we'll see, we'll see some actual changes or have a better feel for what's real versus, um, mothballed. Um, any, anything else, Darren, any questions on that? Good. Um, and next would be the, the minutes from November 17th. I, uh, I wasn't there, but I read through them. You're allowed. My understanding is you're allowed to, to vote. Um, okay. You want me to, uh, propose it? Uh, yeah. Well, actually I do just, I do have a question though on the, I, I, on the Hastings, uh, when, when they connect, are we billing the properties or the council, the, uh, the condo association? Did we work that out? Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna build the, bill the properties. Um, yeah, we, we, we thought more on this internally and, and trying to think about the billing mechanism. And, um, although, you know, we'll, we'll pay close attention and make sure that, you know, we're getting all 13 units paying, but, um, it, it just, it was not practicable, practical or feasible to build the HOA for that. And, and, and we'll put Sarah on them and she'll keep that. We have a pretty big hammer, but we might have to wait for the money, but we will get it eventually coming after you. Yep. Okay. Um, I, I, I, I, I, yeah, I, I realized I didn't get through all the notes. Uh, yes, go ahead, Darren, make it, make a motion. If you don't mind, make motion to approve the meeting minutes from the last meeting in November. Hold on. Where was the meeting? November 17th, 17th. Uh, second, all those in favor of approval. Darren Bach. Yes. Mike getting remote. Yes. Darren Bach. Yes. Uh, anything else as we are right on time here? Uh, I have nothing. Darren, do you have anything? Nothing else for this. I do have a question to Tom or Abby after, but, uh, but not for, not for official wastewater. Okay. Um, the next week you said January 12th, right? Yep. I just put, did we schedule beyond that? I can't, I don't have it on my calendar. What, what time on January 12th? Same thing like noon. We had said noon. We can, I could be flexible later in the day. If like, uh, I'm, I'm good with the noon noon. Yeah. I, yeah, I fly out that night. Okay. Um, did we schedule a meeting in February yet? And do we need to, to, to reserve, to keep this, uh, zoom? Yeah, we could. Would it be February 9th? Who has kids in the school system? When's the break in, uh, 16th? I think it's the, I think it's the week after. Yeah. Yeah, it's the week after. Yeah. There should be some sent out, some, um, invite sent out. I think we had a, did you just say January 12th on the meeting? So the first one, or did you say the 26th? Sorry. I mean, you guys have been saying the 12th, this whole meeting. Yeah. I, I, I should. It's not, I don't think it's, I think it's the 26th if I have it in my calendar, right? Okay. Then that might impact what we just talked about for time. Yeah. I'm good with that one. Yeah. You do have it in there as the 26th and I am good with that. Do we need to have a quick meeting on the 12th to get Tom a budget that he could present? Yeah. Could we, I know we talked about the, I forgot that we had decided that at the last meeting. Could we, could we do the January meeting on the 12th rather than the 26th?
Wow. I don't know why we changed it. Yeah. Well, I, I, I changed it only because the warrant closes on the 15th and I want to be able to get a retained earnings figure in by the 15th. So we would, that's why I suggested meeting the 12th. I, I forgot that we had already locked in on the 26th. Yeah. Oh yeah. I know that. I can't remember why we changed it in the first place. Yeah. I can make, I can make the, uh, it's not Martin Luther King day, right? That's the following Monday. Yeah. I can make the 12th. I can make the 12th. How, how, yeah. Are we pretty certain? Yeah. And if the, if the zoom portal isn't available, I could do 11 or later. I don't think, um, I don't think mid days are that competitive. Okay. Nights definitely. But the mid days, I think we can probably, you know, if Sarah wants to check with Jalen or Abby Warren, um, just to affirm, we can get noon on the 12th. Okay. I just resend the meeting too. So you'll see it update. So you see it already. So I'm going to, so we're not going to meet on the 12th. We're going to meet on the 12th, not the 26th. Excuse me. We're not going to meet on the 26th. Thank you. And I see we had scheduled February 23rd. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. We can, I can not make the 23rd.
We could do the night. We want to do the ninth. Um, ninth would be better for me. I could do the ninth. Now that we moved, you know, to the 12th of January. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ninth, ninth would be better. 23rd. I'm in Nashville. Right. Right. Okay.
And that's as far as we went, I believe. Unless I'm missing one. I think that's it.
Okay. Accepting. Beautiful. Yeah. Okay.
All right. Um, I think that's it. Then I move that we adjourn at, uh, one 10. I second that motion. Okay. Mike getting. Yes. They're on lock. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.