May 11, 2026 – Wastewater Management – Video & Transcript
May 11, 2026 - Wastewater Management
We'll get going, and we'll call the May 11th, 2026 meeting of the Wastewater Management District Commission to order the meeting and the link to get in on the Zoom was posted with the agenda last week.
And this meeting is being done 100% remote, and this is Mike Gitten present, participating remotely.
Darren Bach, participating remotely. Hey, Ed, you there?
Okay.
I see that as a yes with my lip reading, but we can't hear you.
It does look like you have your speaker on. Well, we'll start slowly, and there's Abby, and I don't see, is there anyone in the waiting room for a public comment?
No public comment. Okay.
Then we can get back to the agenda. The first thing we have here is the wastewater rate study, and is the goal? At the end of this meeting, we need to come up with a number. Is that correct? So we can publish it and do all that we need to do before the next meeting? Yes, that's all right. That is correct. Okay. All right. Can I just ask for one bit of fact that would come up next? More as much out of curiosity, what was our monthly flow last month, Jared? I know that's the next agenda item. But I'm curious as well, Mike. I was going to ask as well. Yeah. The average monthly flow? Yeah.
I can get you on that real quick. Just give me a second. Sure.
It hasn't been going up like we've been expecting. Yeah. Okay. Well, there you go. You answered it. That's what I was going to say. Is it Duncan and Jimmy John's and the Council of Aging? We keep assuming, but I don't think we've seen that yet. Yeah. Well, that's good. They're using low flow. They're being energy. They're saving water. It's not going down, though. Yeah. No. I have average is 20, 25. Wow. Wow. That is low. Okay. So not the 30. 31 we were at. Oh, no. I'm sorry. That was just for the outfall. It's 31 and a half. Okay. I have an exact number, but we've roughly been just as consistent. Yep. Okay. All right. That's better. Thank you. I don't feel bad. I'm sorry about that. 25. Okay. No worries. I know we get copied on this stuff from Whitewater, but you've got to kind of piece together. You do. I was like, I'm going to just ask. Thank you. Yep. Okay. So bottom line. Yeah. It's not going down. Not going. Kind of the backdrop. Stay the course. Yep. So, but, but Jimmy, but, but that's Darren, that's for, uh, the, the restaurants hadn't, hadn't really opened. And, um, yeah, uh, but, but the council of aging library are on both what you would think would be more noticeable users than a lot of the others. And, um, has, has the condo moved forward with their connection? I drove by that. I see no, no activity. They're, they're working on, on submitting a plan. Um, and, um, so they're moving forward with design and, you know, taking all the steps they need to take. So they're working on it. Um, they, we, we can actually talk about them when we talk about new connections too. Okay. Very good. Okay. Well, then back to the, uh, the, the most important thing for today is where we left off last month.
Um, so we have three, if we turn it over to, to, to Matt, maybe we had three scenarios were sent around in advance.
Yes. Hi, uh, good afternoon. This is Matt Abrahams from the Abrahams group. Um, are you referring to options that were sent around before this meeting or the prior meeting? Yes. Just, uh, Sarah sent around three on Friday, I believe. So I'll quickly, I'll quickly go over, um, just from a very high level. Um, we had options for your review at the prior meeting that I attended, which a few weeks back, I don't have the exact date. Um, we presented some options to you then, um, I believe, you know, what, like we typically do, we kind of went over some of the assumptions that were baked into the analysis at that point. And some of those assumptions, um, we did some tweaking related to that. Um, and since then, since that meeting ended, um, the analysis has been only slightly updated. Um, and I say only slightly because the only thing we focused on changing was just some additional projections for year end FY26. So FY26 is the current fiscal year we're in. Um, we're getting towards the end of it, as you know. Um, Sarah always, uh, updates in an analysis that she maintains, um, where she thinks the year is going to end up. So with the latest information available, we did update our analysis, uh, for year end FY26. Um, there was a little bit of an increase on the revenue side tied to privilege fees above and beyond what we presented to you last time, um, an additional about $47,000 than what we had included in our analysis last time, um, is now in the analysis. Um, there were some additional tweaks that took place as well. Those, um, there were two revenue line items that went down very slightly and there were a few expense line items that changed as well. These, again, these are all projections for year end FY26, um, but ultimately it was a net gain of about $37,000 for FY26 over what we showed you last time. Um, there were no other changes to the analysis from the last meeting, but with that additional 37 ish thousand dollars in play, I did quickly go through the options again and did some updating. Um, I can't actually recall though, if it was adding a different rate plan than what you saw last time, it may not even be a different rate plan than what we were covering at the end of last, last meeting. Um, so overall, not a huge, not a huge change since last time. Um, but I am very willing to go back over the options. If you think that would be useful. Yeah. Just put them back on the screen really quick. Okay.
Should be able to see it now. Yep. Okay, great.
All right. So I'll quickly go through them. Um, you should be, you know, used to this screen by now. Um, this is my Excel workbook, but I provided to you a PDF format of this particular sheet that we're looking at right here. Um, this is option one, what option one is focused on was carrying forward from last year when we did this work, what the rate plan was for FY 27 and subsequent years when the increase last year was approved. And that increase, I believe was 9.75% for FY 26 across the board. Um, these other rates, um, these other rates, 14%, 27, 28, 29, and then a 10% and 30 were the other percentages that were shown in the rate plan when that 9.75% was approved last year. So this was more just to show you what that looked like, not necessarily an option that I thought would be heavily considered.
Option two, the approach here was let's use the same rate increase that was approved last year for FY 26 for FY 27. So you see the 9.75 and then just some tweaking with some of the other outlying years, trying to level it off, um, first to get through the low point, as you know, from working with me for a few years now, we've always kind of been looking at that middle part of this graph where the blue was trending down to the orange until the deck gets paid off. So it's important, as you know, to make sure rate increases are staying strong, get, getting your revenues through that timeframe before, um, a switch to what I'll call more nominal increases. So you got the, in this case, I put 10.5% in those middle years to get you past that, that debt bubble before things, um, can go nominal and then option three, the approach here was, well, maybe let's just do a few years of what we'll call a bit lower rate increase. Um, so instead of the 9.75, for example, a 10.5. Can we do a few years of a level increase? That's a little bit lower before we get to that nominal area. And, um, what is appealing about this in general is, is just, if we think back for the years that we've worked together on this now, um, generally we haven't really seen increases like this, meaning we've generally seen them higher on a consistent basis. So it's nice that over time with additional revenue streams and new flow and all that stuff that we're projecting that the rate plans have, um, shown more favorable as we move forward here.
So those were the three options. And as you know, from working with me, you know, we can, we can tweak this as needed. I mean, we can run additional options if you feel there's value in doing so. Um, I mean, really what we're discussing is what do we want that retained earnings buffer? The one option you have is a 20 point, you know, 20 point buffer. And this is like a 10 point buffer. Like I look at that blue line when we get close to the orange or whatever color line that is orange, I guess, um, like a 10 point buffer that's assuming steady state, no additional users. And, you know, we know the town is, is going after the route 20 re-imaginational color corridor, right? How do we get businesses there? We know things are coming into, and I call it whole foods because I don't even know what the address of that is, but I call it whole foods. Um, we restudy our plant, right? So that's in, that's part of our expenditure next year is to do the plant study to see what we can run this motorcycle at. And hopefully that says we can get more on. I mean, I, I, I still look at those future years. Our goal is to get more flow coming in, but the assumption in this is that 28, 29, 30, 31 are at today's flow, right? That's the assumption built in. Uh, I don't think we show increased flow, right? There's a little bit in there. Um, just, I mean, nothing that we haven't already discussed. Right, right. I think we have included, like when you say whole foods, that's included in the base charges and stuff like that. And we found that that's really where the majority of the percentage of that, um, the intake comes from. So we have, um, now accounted for all available flow. Um, okay. But I guess what I meant by flow is actual flow, which I know is not a big revenue source now because we played with that. Right. It's the base charge. Yeah. Right. So, okay. Well, I mean, I'm just, I'm just, what I'm arguing is kind of like, okay, how I would make a decision, right? Right. Is that we know we're being more conservative on our flow from the standpoint of it's what we know, right? We know we're doing the study on the plant, which we, with all the capital investments we made into it, I hope our motorcycle is, can run a little faster now and we want to run it faster, right? To be optimum. So it's, it's running really efficient. And for those people hearing this recording, the motorcycle is the plant that Tom Holder two years ago talked about. Um, so, um, I, you know, I just, I just look at, you know, we're going to be in a good position to take on, I hope new members, right? New client, new, new customers. So I just look at those future out years, like, is that 10%, that 10 point buffer feels comfortable to me versus a 20 point buffer is really what we're talking about between option three and option two is what do we want that buffer to be in retained earnings?
Yep. And then, but just, just a quick comment related to that. And you know, this, it's just a reminder rates are just being set for 27. Yep. Um, so, you know, in theory, if you were to look at this again next year, then you're still not at that bubble area as well, you know, for a few years, but yes. And I get that, I get that, but we need to think about long-term planning here and, you know, not make bad decisions today. That will make something catastrophic tomorrow, right down the road where we're trying to take that into account. And I, like you said, Matt, when we started two years ago, we were looking at like a 14, 14, 14, 14% just to stay at the line, nevermind a 20 point buffer. So right now we're much better off there. I don't know. So I, I, Mike, I don't have any other questions. I was just, again, I was articulating my mind, you know, kind of like how I'm thinking about it, but I mean, we, we deep dive this last time. I don't know. Yeah. Or Ed, do you have any questions or? I, I'm, I'm looking at it also, like you said, that keep, uh, if all things are equal with the flow and whatnot that we anticipate to, to, to, to lean a little towards a lower, um, increase. However, I see that we are carrying a pretty big, um, return, retained earnings usage, which is, I was just looking, we, it looks like we're going to use about a hundred grand this year. It's substantially higher. So I would think that this flow that you and I keep asking for would first go to reducing that, um, number versus, you know, which would help a little. Yep. And I look more at the retained earnings being a very conservative estimate. And that's just another way of looking at it. I guess we're saying the same thing. Um, and I also looked at the difference between our users, between a 9.75 and a, what was the other one? Eight and a half is, is $12 a year.
Um, it's kind of what, what you focus on. It's kind of, yeah. The base rate is really where the money's at. Yeah. We got around that. You got to remind me every year to focus on that. Um, and then from our users, which we want to give them good service at a good price. Um, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of in the noise range. Unfortunately, it's a big, historically the rate increases way back when we're much lower, but it, it put us in a, in a difficult bind. Yeah. Um, so we're, we're not going to go there.
It, it really comes down to the difference between the two things for our typical homeowner. The difference is 12 or $15 a year. If my math is right for next year. Right. Cause that's quarterly. Between option two and option three. Yes. Yeah. I can calculate that for you, right? Yeah.
$4 a quarter. 4.10 a quarter. Yeah. So let's say $15. Let's go crazy.
Um, yeah.
But I, if I hate to even break it up, but like, okay, we had a lot of the privilege fees come in. Our retained earnings is now healthier due to that. Even if we entertained a 5% increase just this year, and then kind of a bigger down the road, um, on that, I'd just be curious, but, but I, but I do think responsible knowing that we took on that additional debt. Right. And we know we have that capital program coming up, I don't know, two years from now, whatever. Um, maybe, uh, you know, I do think it's wise to be in that option three, at least.
Not, not, um, and, and not to split hairs too much for, for our users who are paying attention. And I, I'm leaning towards a 9.75. My only question is, though, could we make it nine and a half or nine and a quarter to show we're, we're moving in the direction, um, of, of keeping the increases smaller versus stable. So if it, and if that's even, if anyone would notice, I would, well, I'm, I'm not going to oppose, but I would meet you in the middle, Mike, cause I was in a favor option three. Okay. But I would meet in the middle and I'd say we go with the 9.25. Yeah. I, or were you at 8.75 on the other one or are we at 8.5, 8.5. So, yeah. So even if we got to 9.1. Yeah, I, I'd be, I'd be for that also, I, I think to, to send the message that we are working hard at a downward trajectory, which is a combination of us doing their job, the growth and the support for the connections, um, that are coming in. The study, the study on the plant to, to, to bring on additional users to support the town. So that water is not a hindrance, right? Or wastewater, sorry. Wastewater is not a hindrance to coming in. Right. Right. Yeah. If we can release additional capacity, it will be phenomenal.
Right. I, I, I'm, I'm good at 9. I do. I do either 9, 9.1. I don't see it as a huge. Yeah. I know. It's not a big difference. It's more just meeting halfway. And then that was the math we used. And here we go.
All right. So what are we doing? Um, and you desire it. So we, uh, do you guys freeze? No, no, I'm just looking at something here. Okay. Sorry. Nobody was moving and I didn't hear anything. Yeah.
I guess I, I would, based on what we've heard, I'd make a motion. Um, do we, do we do, I, I'd even go just to keep it a whole number. I'd say 9%. I'd make a motion that we keep the rate increase for, uh, set the rates of fiscal year 2027 at 9% across the board on the current, uh, 26, um, rates. And if I have to say them, I need someone to do the math for me. I'll do it for you.
I'll second that motion. Mike. Darren Buck.
Yeah. Just go for here. I'll create a separate option for you for the next time, but, um, you're looking at the rates down here. So focus on this 27 area. Okay. Um, thank you. So then I, I, I will add, so the motion is the 9% rate increase, which would set the base charge at 9.56 per about a hundred cubic feet. I should know this, right? Um, what's the unit we use? That is, that is cubic feet. Um, correct. Is it a hundred or is it just cubic foot? That would be per hundred cubic feet. Sorry. Took me a second to think. Yeah. Per a hundred cubic feet. Okay. So, so the base charge would be 9.56 per hundred cubic feet. The tier one would be 7.52, uh, per a hundred cubic feet. And the tier two would be, uh, 22.58 per a hundred cubic feet. So I, I amend my earlier motion for that. Do I hear a second? Darren Bach seconds. Okay. Uh, call vote. Mike Gitten in favor. Darren Bach in favor. And did we lose Ed? I don't know. I think I don't see Ed.
Oh, he's there. Can you raise, if you're, you raise your hand, if your mic isn't working or up and down, if you have, there he is.
I didn't, I couldn't see Ed. Do you hear us? Unfortunately, we don't hear you. Can you give a thumb up or down if you're up for the motion that we just made a 9% increase for next year?
Okay. I think that was an up.
Okay, great.
So what do we do next? We, we have to publish something or are we? Um, one of us has, I think you published a sign. I know I have a sign. No, I think we have to advertise, right? We, we advertise for two weeks. Is that?
You're on mute, Sarah, up here. Sorry. Yes. We have to advertise twice in two weeks prior to the meeting. So it'll be two weeks prior and then one week prior. Okay. And, and I was at town meeting when this was voted on, but I must admit, I kind of stopped paying attention after 930 or 10 o'clock. The, the, the electronic did it, did it, or did it not pass? I can't remember.
After all of that, it passed. Okay. And it's in effect. This means you could post it to our website.
I, I, or whatever. You'll figure it out, Sarah.
I am not sure. Um, I honestly don't know much more than what Averja said. Yeah.
Are we one of the first to, to, to, to have to do that? Like, I'm sure the, speak to the concom. I'm sure they've done it already. I'm sure.
Okay. Um, Matt, do you need anything from us? Did we lose them yet? No, I'm here. Okay. No, I'm all set. Okay. So great. It's getting, you've trained us well. Thank you. You're welcome. And I think, you know, next year, you know, when, when I first joined this commission, it was always about how can we change the model to go from a base charge to more of a flow charge. Um, I think that's something, once we know our plant after that study, I think we still should look at that. Yep. Yep. But that was one of the big challenges was how do we get more to a flow, you know, actual versus a base, but. And, and, and especially if the mix of the users changes a little more to the commercial commercial, right. It, it would be, it would be more appropriate. Right. Yeah. But I, I do think, I do think once we get through this year, I think we got to start poking at that again. Again, once we know our plants so that. Yep. It can be more of what you actually contribute to the system versus. What your design flow is. Yep. And before, before Matt goes, I just want to jot down those rates. So give me a minute to, to look at them and, and take notes. Oh, and I'll, what I'll do is I'll, I'll do a, and we'll call it the official option, whatever you want to call it. I'll put together a packet for you. So you'll have that. Okay. Feel free to jot it down if you want. Yeah. I'm just going to jot down the, I I'm keeping my own running total. So, um, while we're doing, and Matt, I'm curious how much revenue actually comes from tier two?
Do we, do you have a, how much? Yeah. So I, I don't have a great feel for that. I do know that we have, when we've done this analysis every year, we just carry a 400, 100, 400 cubic feet for tier two, which is not a lot. Yeah. Okay. But that, that number hasn't been, um, there hasn't been an analysis on what that number truly is. For two or three years now. So that might be worthwhile doing next year too. If we're looking at the model, right.
Okay. Yeah. The quarterly billing spreadsheet, I think I sent it to you after the last meeting. You can, you can see, I believe that highlights red for folks that are using more than their design flow, which would put them into tier two. So it's not the full, you know, numbers crunched for you, but it kind of gives you a sense of how many people are actually hitting tier two. So we could take, I can take that and work with Matt with that and, um, find a way to actually figure out what that really looks like from a revenue standpoint. Yeah. So I didn't realize the ones in red. Okay. I'll look at it. Yeah. But you can see here, but let's just say that that 400 is right. I mean, you're looking at a very small portion of your overall charges. Yeah. Yeah. I know. 1.4% or something like that. If that 400 is right and everything else is right. So I was thinking from three years ago, we were going to jack that up and say, okay, if you really go over, okay, there'll be the penalty kind of like a demand charge on electrical. That's how electrical works in the commercial and industrial world. You get hit really hard, right? As soon as you go over just a blip. Um, but, but we couldn't, it was just, it was too erratic of a revenue stream relying on that. So we never went forward. So again, I think, I think we're good where we are. And then after the study, we start playing with this again. Okay. I keep Matt on his toes.
Always up for a challenge.
Okay. So 2027, we are set. So anything else on fiscal year 27 rates? I'm good. The advertisers will be done. We'll formally vote on it again next week. And then we'll have to, then we come in and sign something. Is that the question that I was asking? That is correct. We'll have something printed out once that meeting has passed. What do we call it? Okay. So now, uh, we'll move on then to, to Jared. We, we, we already heard one important fact. The flow is steady, maybe up a hair. Yep. Um, what else? Um, so I believe last month I mentioned that Skated 2. Uh, computer had, uh, computer had died. Um, and we got that back. Uh, it was covered under warranty. Um, IT wasn't really given an exact reason by the manufacturer for what went wrong. Um, all we know is that it was a faulty, uh, logic, a main logic board. Um, and Skated 1 is on warranty until next April. And Skated 2 is on warranty until January. Um, so should anything go wrong in that time, it's covered. Um, if not, after that time, we will discuss with IT and go forward from there. Um, we had a bit of TMP issues on both MBR trains. They were both, um, tripping out with high TMP, high pressures. Um, there's a brief week or so, you know, less than a week of me doing a lot of clean water backwashes to just loosen up the material and be able to get us to run through the night. Um, we contacted Kubota and, um, Tyon Bond and, um, Aqua Solutions about possible next steps. Um, they actually had Kubota come out to send, they sent a representative out after we had done a chemical cleaning that had decent results. I personally wasn't too thrilled with them. Um, but so the Kubota reference, uh, comes out, we did a tank drawdown, um, and he, you know, got really up close in person. Looked really, you know, intently at everything we had, all the data. And he kind of thought that, yeah, it's not ideal, but it's really not that bad. And we're doing it. We're in a good position we're in. Um, there was a little bit of, uh, one set of diffusers were, um, are slightly plugged on train one, but again, he wasn't concerned. And he, um, said that probably, you know, in a few months, maybe we can drain the tank down. Um, and clean out the, uh, diffuser heads, but he's, he's doesn't see a point to doing it right away. He doesn't, he's not concerned about that. So overall, our memories are actually in a, in a pretty good and healthy position, um, that we just, yeah, we kind of weren't expecting it from what we were seeing. Um, but since doing that cleaning on side one, it's been working amazingly and side two is going to get cleaned soon. Um, and yeah, not too bad. Um, we had Wilson controls came in and, uh, set up the bypass for the screens are like the bypass flow detector for the screens. So now, um, um, should the screen number one or the, the main screen not be able to handle it. It'll go up and over contact the detector and then kick the other screen on. Um, um, we also had LCS add a, uh, trend chart for these screens so that we can see how like the flows and, uh, if, and when, uh, the backup screen is being kicked on. Um, um, and lastly, uh, there's a little bit of a leak in one of the screens. Um, so I opened up a, the seal and saw that the shaft seal was a little, um, like the rubber gasket part was a little loose. So we, uh, contacted IPEC and they will be having someone come out to repair that themselves. Um, and that is, uh, my month of April and overall SCADA system has been working well. Yeah, it's, it's been very good. We haven't had an issue with SCADA. It's really the computers that have crapped out on us.
Do, um, did you have to service the, uh, route 20 pump station since last month? Um, no, no, no sort of servicing like that. Do you mean the Oxbow pump station? Yeah, that's. Yeah, sorry. That's all right. Yeah. Um, we have, haven't, we had, um, Boston O'Neill and BlackRock out to do some sampling last week. Um, they took samples and we took samples. So we're waiting for, um, the results of that. And then, um, Jared's scheduling a clean out, um, this, this week. So working on that. Um, so, so, so that's still operation. That, that process is then on pause while they present this alternate whatever, but. Well, we've told them that there should be a parallel track, that they should be working on their design.
We're still, we're still not quite on board with their O&M plan. Um, so we'll see. And, and we're billing them for the work we're doing. We are, but it's difficult because it comes out from our budget now and then it's not less, doesn't come back in. So, right. Yeah. It's not a long-term, even if they like it, it's not a long-term solution. That's right. Okay.
Um, Darren, uh, Ed, any questions operational oriented? Glad it was a okay month, you know, like routine type stuff.
Okay. Um, Sarah. Yeah. Let me just share my screen. Um, new revenue, 37 K and that's okay. There it is.
Okay. Everyone can see the report. Yep. Okay. For the top here. Okay. So we are at 83% of the year complete as of April 30th. Um, you know, similar to last time, there's not too much to discuss in expenses. The predictions are pretty similar. We've liquidated some POs with some extra in them, but those are really already accounted for in the forecast. Anyway, it's not planning on being completely spent. Um, the general equalizer here is the small equipment, you know, which we have ourselves spending 97 of the 105 so that we land. I actually added a new row in here because the operating expenses include personal services and that's not really part of it that you can't transfer between personal services and goods and services. So I want to make sure we were at like a hundred percent on goods and services itself. So that is why that orange line is now in there, which we have ourselves at 99.9. Um, you know, everything is pretty much in here that is planned for. We, um, are hoping obviously for nothing, no surprises. No surprises. And then we go our way down to revenue and user charges are definitely looking good at 563. We're trying to get to 690 because we do have that May 10th billing that's about to go out in the next day or two. I say May 10th, that's like a loose date. So we usually are within a few days of that. Um, you know, which based on what we had the last time, it should be about the same number of days in the cycle as the last bill is about a 70, 71 day billing cycle. And this one will be as well. Um, and that one was around like 125, I believe thousand that was filled out. So, you know, if we collect the same, we usually do collect about 98% honestly on our revenue. So usually, um, we would land up at 690 as predicted, which is that bubble year we talked about because we do have the May one coming in, in June, as opposed to a June one coming in, in July. Still four quarters filled out, but the collection comes in this year. But Matt, Matt didn't use the 690. He, he was kind of using as a steady state for each year, more of the other number, right? That is correct. Right. That's one time thing. How long does that take to work through? Well, the, the first quarter of next year, then be actual representative, or is it going to take a year to catch up? Yeah, that's kind of funny because what happens is, you know, we'll have, you know, now it's going to be May is like the fourth quarter billing. Um, so next year it will be like, you know, August and then every three months from there. So it's really just kind of like, kind of like, we're, we just jumped ahead or ahead a month in billing. So we only, we bill in arrears. We do bill what people have used up until that point. We're just sending that bill out a little sooner. So we're just, we're, we're doing them, um, the reading earlier by a month. So it kind of, if you look at it perpetually, it really doesn't ever, you know, come back around to be a problem. It just continues. It would be a problem if we pushed things out instead of in. So, but yes, he only put a 690 in for this year and did not carry that forward in future years because that would be wrong. So now, and then you can see our miscellaneous revenue operating, which is where that extra money came in because we did settle on a number with town center, which was just that, just shy of 200 K, which is why we had put in a placeholder of 150 in the last rate study conversation. And then it went up by about 47,000. And then I did lower a couple other revenue lines, which is where we ended up at the 37,000 net revenue increase. Um, I think I pushed down just interest. I'm just not sure on interest. It's so hard to track. It doesn't really get, um, necessarily put into our accounts till the end of the year. There's usually like a, a lump sum that comes in and I just don't know. But that's the, 5,000. Did they buy the 5,000? I think it was around 5,000. They did take it all. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So it is spoken for. And when we get to that topic, we'll have more to talk about, about that and about other interested parties. Okay. I'll hold my question till then. Hopefully we'll get a little more interest in the fact that we will have this retained earning additionally sitting in our bank account, so to speak. Um, you know, maybe we'll have a nicer little bump in interest next year until we spend that, obviously. We won't right away. That 2 million year when we hit that big capital expenditure is when we start to actually hit that stuff harder. But, um, in the next couple of years, not so bad. That's what we're preparing for. Right. Right. Um, yeah. So this is really where we're at. There's nothing to talk about in capital. You know, we're, we only have one project, you know, for the rest of the year that's open, which is that, that design right there. And we have an invoice in for some of that, but we're going to spend the whole 75 when it's all said and done anyway. So we already know that.
That's really it. So between the two retained earning pots, it was actually at the end of the year, it looks like it's about 180, 180,000 that we're pulling from, but it's going to be replaced with the, the privilege fees, et cetera. And then some that were collected this year.
Yeah, I took those out of the forecast entirely to retain earnings lines as being needed in the two spots that we have. And then we have it up here and then we have it, sorry, it's a bad highlight and down here. That was what we were planning, but we, I don't have it in here anymore because I know we already know we're not going to actually have to take it out. Right. And, and in addition, we're not taking any out. We're also contributing more to it. Yes. Correct. What's enabling our rate or technically maybe we could have gone lower than that, but, but like we're, we know we need it for future. So I think we're in a good spot.
Yeah. But, but, but it also make the numbers balanced. It was more actually more like $200,000 in, we took out of our savings account, but it was covered with deposits, which we're not going to get the same level next year. Correct. Because we're out of capacity. We're counting on flows to pick up at a reasonable amount that doesn't strain the system that causes problems that we can't even foresee right now. Which is what our study is going to do. Yes. Right. Do we have a vendor lined up to do that or we got to wait until the fiscal year starts? You're working on that right now. We're trying to do something as soon as possible. It's a special type of procurement and it does, would allow us to potentially utilize some of the privilege fees that are coming in of that $200,000, $75,000 of it to get that going, which would kind of, there's a way to use it in this year. I know we've talked about how you cannot use, obviously, revenue that comes in, like you can't just turn around and write a check and use it. But if you do a, the word is escaping me, I know Abby knows it, a certain type of procurement, I think it's a peer review. You can have that money immediately go into that account and then it can be turned around and be used right now. We're trying to get this moving. We do have to work with finance and with the town manager's office to get details on that. So that's in process. So hopefully sooner than later, trying to get it going. Awesome.
I'm good on financials. I don't have anything else. I'm glad Jared has a hybrid now with gas prices.
Just a few questions above on costs. So the sludge disposal going about, is that largely driven by the FOD pumping? The Delta pumping we've been talking about, the Oxbow? The overage is mostly due to that, but not entirely. There was some emergency pumping earlier. Not emergency. Yeah, it was part of the process of, I think, I wouldn't say emergency, but doing the screen replacement. I know we took everything we could out of that replacement line, capital item. Once that was gone, there was nowhere else to take it from. But it's not, I'm just kind of ready for our per gallon, pound, whatever price to go up. It's not due to that. It's mainly due to volume. It's definitely due to volume. It's not a price change. And the water fee is due to all the maintenance and the fine-tuning operation this year. That should go away. That's right. It'll always be a little more than it used to be. We used to barely use anything. I heard that water people aren't as diligent as us as keeping the rates down, is what I hear. Yeah, that's, you'll see some things, I'm sure, out in the world soon with water. That's why Tom needs some time off.
And, okay. Mike.
I don't know. I just saw something come across my desk. I have no idea if it's, there's a big pot of money out there for small pack, for small people like us, if you want to try and do energy recovery from it, heat recovery, is our system even viable for something like that? Not really, no. We looked at that money too. Yeah. And it wasn't going to be enough for us to work in. But we looked at it. Like a co-gen, a mini co-gen? I think it's even simple. Just, yeah. And, you know, maybe it'll be around in two years after we do the study and whatever development that's happening leads to something we can't even think of right now to touch the plan again. We'll keep it in mind. There you go. Okay. Microgrids are huge. Microgrids are huge right now. They are. We're booming on microgrids. Oh, yeah. Um, okay. Anything else on financials? Good. Let's get to this media. Request of services. So we're, we're sold out. Yeah. Are we going to make more? We are sold out. Um, to your question previously about Hastings Way, they're proceeding with their connection, um, submitting the next stage of documents for their, um, wastewater permit. But, but in that they've also requested an initial, an additional 880 gallons per day. Um, and while we are out of capacity, um, I looked at the town buildings that we have on there, including the COA and, and the library. Um, and it looks like, um, those design flows are much, much higher than what we're seeing there. Um, I also looked at the public safety building. Um, their average is in the 350 range and their design flow is 1,100. There might be a little wiggle room there, but it's not as, um, dramatic as the others, but the COA is averaging about a hundred gallons per day. Um, and their design flows 3,000 gallons per day. Um, and Sarah's pulling the numbers on the library, but they're at. I know that's you. So, okay, let me just look at that. Up now. Okay. Yeah. Um, their design flow was 820 and, and the last is about 150 being the highest. So we think that we can parse out 880 gallons from some of these design flows, maybe, uh, let the town pay a little bit lower in, um, uh, base charges and sell that additional 880 gallons per day. As long as you guys are on board.
Does our rules and bylaws allow that or, or do we have to increase the, the, the, the, the, the, by noise? So, um, it allows us to take back the, um, design flow. Yes. Is there a process for that? How would that happen? Um, I think this will be the first time we're doing it. So we'll be making the process. Um, or do we vote to do another thousand released?
Um, I'd feel better before we look at the treatment plant, but, um, taking it from, um, some of the underutilized properties, as opposed to increasing our design flow yet. Uh, I think in these cases, uh, the design flow is significantly higher than what they're seeing. So I think it's, I feel, I feel, I feel more comfortable at this point. I do too. I, I, I agree. I mean, if it's, I, I mean, I don't disagree. I'm just making sure we're arguing all points. That's right. Yeah. I think, I think it puts us in a better position when we're looking for the grants that we're looking at to be able to say that we're out of design flow. I agree.
And what's the rationale? Do they have the need or they just want to design for that for a future need? Um, and for us to accept it, we need to be able to say, you can use it. They would like to, in the place of where their septic system was, eventually put in a couple more down townhouses there. Okay. Um, so in order to look at building those townhouses, they need the waste water flow. So that, that was on the table initially, but it wasn't in the final, um, proof of whatever we, a permit that we gave them. And now that they realize, yeah, I got it. All right. I, that makes sense. Yeah. I, I, I get my only, once again, if anyone's paying attention to what we, I don't think any big user is going to be able to make a big project based on what we're talking about here. Right. But I imagine we may hear from other little users like this and we can continue to have little discussions like this, but we're not, we're not giving, we're not going to find 10,000 gallons by doing this to a hundred users. No. Okay. I mean, that's my only, just bring that up. Do we have to vote on that, Abby, or are we, you're good? I don't think that we do. Um, but I wanted to. Right. Review it with the district before we went ahead and did it. I, I have everything you said. I think you, what you said at the end was it's better to do this than to say, Oh, it's noise increase the, the flow by a thousand. Because it hurts us with other reasons. I agree. Um, and then you go ahead, Mike. No, that's the Hastings and then town bought five, right. Or like you said, we're sold out. So all that went there. That's right. And is there any others there or that's everything? No one is asking right now that I'm aware of unless you don't have anyone, Abby. I don't. But, um, now that the, um, height restriction was passed for the, uh, development down by Longfallow to do the higher density townhouses. I know that they'll be, uh, working with us to, um, try to increase the flow there. And town center said that they wanted to continue to work with us to try to find a way to increase the design flow available. I, as I said, I was at town meeting for that part and I was surprised that no one brought up septic or sewage. And I just bit my tongue and all, all roads lead to us. Oh, exactly. Well, that's good news. I mean, the 5,000, I mean, that's encouraging for what they're planning and what they're looking for, what that is, but they're preparing themselves for it. So is on that note, is it correct when people send an email to the, whatever the, the, the committee to do, uh, Abby Sauer, do you get Tom, do you get those two? Like the, the people at the, the, I kind of call it the coffee shop had questions. Did I assume, did you see that? Ones that come to the wastewater management district email? I do. I, uh, Tom sees it. I do not believe Abby or Darren do. I think it's just Tom and I. And yeah, you remember seeing that Darren, they were, they had a question about something. And I, it was also an email on the Dudley pot that came in. Yeah. Did somebody reply to that person?
I'm trying to remember the Dudley pot when that was not right. April, April 28th.
I'll check on that. And it's coming to the WWMDC one, not directly to your individual ones. Right. Came in through the, the W that yeah. The members email one. Oh, maybe it's just you. Okay. So maybe that's different. There's one that's just WWMDC and then I think the members one might be specific to you, to just you three. Yeah. This one says WWMDC members at wayland.mass.us. Okay. So I don't, I don't know. We have to reply to that individual.
Well, why don't you forward it to us and we'll look at it. Okay. But you did, you remember seeing the technical one. Someone had a technical question. We were working with the building department. I'm getting back to them.
Okay. Anything else then? So, so even if we wanted to talk about this, we can't talk about anything for a while. Substantive on, on this item, um, going forward. So that gets us to the, um, meeting minutes. I must admit, I did not get a chance to. Neither. Give them a read. I'm getting slammed. What is the email address? I should forward this to, by the way, for some reason, I'm not able to like, I have to type it in here. What's the email address? I need to send it to Abby.
Well, I was going to say, you can do it to the general wastewater at wayland.ma.us if you want. And I, I am in that membership one, but that Dudley one is just not ringing a bell for me. So yours finally came up. So I'm going to forward it to you. That's fine. Okay. It's going to Sarah. Sarah, you can distribute it. I can. Yeah. Cause I get, we get emails from you and I'm, I'm not getting the others. So, okay. Okay. Uh, meetings are definitely long. So, you know, worst case you could, if you wanted to approve to next, next meeting, if you want, it's up to you. So just throwing it out there. I usually just read what mine were just to say, yes, I agree with.
Yeah. I kept a lot in there. There was, um, a lot of discussion with obviously Alta, which is pretty important stuff. And, um, and then the rate study itself, knowing that you might want to know all the details there. And we, I'm just reading my notes. We don't have the agreed upon date yet. Right. Let us get samples. Well, you did the samples. We did the samples on Thursday. Yep. So that you get a agreed upon data set. Okay. You did. Yep. And I'm, I'm glad to see you were consistent. You answered the question I asked last month, the same way, uh, this month.
It takes me a few times to, at least I'm consistent.
Yeah. Yeah. It's one. Cause we had Matt on.
Yeah. That was there. Teared.
Yeah. Um, Jared, that's why I asked about the SCADA. I'm good with, I wrote, I didn't read. I knew I just wrote where my name is, but I'm, I'm good with my notes.
Minutes. I should call it minutes.
I, I look, I have no comments. Ed, did any guests know up, down any comments? I, I'll, I'll, I'll make a motion that we approve the, uh, March 9th, 2026 meeting minutes as circulated. Second that motion. Darren Buck seconds. Yes. Darren Buck. Yes. Okay. Um, and I do think it's, I think it's important to get them out there just to continue to reiterate that if anyone's paying attention, the, um, the town's position on the, the FOD matter.
Those will be posted today. We have a brand new website. If you haven't taken a look yet, they just rolled one out this past week. All shiny and new. A bit of a learning curve on editing it, but I think we'll be fine. We've had some training. I'll go right now. Um, okay, I, I, maybe just circling back a little. So you were saying the privilege fee that we got from town center was more than the simple math because they were in the top tier of, of buying, which meant it was a negotiated. What we felt a peer review or whatever we had to do engineering wise. And you ended up at 200,000. What, what would have been, what, what is our privilege? It's like 20. It would have been around, uh, uh, uh, uh, like 24, 75, it would have been around 125,000. Okay. So, so, so they're paying around 70 grand for us to evaluate and, and it will help what you're saying. It'll help get a jumpstart on the whole study of the system. Exactly. Which they're also interested in, obviously, is we're hearing. That's right. So it's a, a win, win, a public private partnership. Come back if you want. Okay.
Any other topics not reasonably anticipated?
Okay. Our next meeting is important. So let's just review when it is. June 8th at noon.
That's what I got. That is correct. And that'll be the rate, the rate hearing and regular meeting. Okay. And, and then we're, at this point, we're assuming a pause for a month, at least a month, if not more, would be appropriate. Yeah. We normally meet again in September. We take July and August off, if that still works for you. Yeah. I, out of everything we talked about, would be if some great deal and solution was worked out with, with Oxbow in the next month that we need to hold hands on. That would be, that'd be ideal.
Okay. With that, then I make a motion at, uh, re-adjourn the meeting at, uh, 107.
Dan Bach in favor? We're getting, so we'll, meeting adjourned.
Darren Bach, participating remotely. Hey, Ed, you there?
Okay.
I see that as a yes with my lip reading, but we can't hear you.
It does look like you have your speaker on. Well, we'll start slowly, and there's Abby, and I don't see, is there anyone in the waiting room for a public comment?
No public comment. Okay.
Then we can get back to the agenda. The first thing we have here is the wastewater rate study, and is the goal? At the end of this meeting, we need to come up with a number. Is that correct? So we can publish it and do all that we need to do before the next meeting? Yes, that's all right. That is correct. Okay. All right. Can I just ask for one bit of fact that would come up next? More as much out of curiosity, what was our monthly flow last month, Jared? I know that's the next agenda item. But I'm curious as well, Mike. I was going to ask as well. Yeah. The average monthly flow? Yeah.
I can get you on that real quick. Just give me a second. Sure.
It hasn't been going up like we've been expecting. Yeah. Okay. Well, there you go. You answered it. That's what I was going to say. Is it Duncan and Jimmy John's and the Council of Aging? We keep assuming, but I don't think we've seen that yet. Yeah. Well, that's good. They're using low flow. They're being energy. They're saving water. It's not going down, though. Yeah. No. I have average is 20, 25. Wow. Wow. That is low. Okay. So not the 30. 31 we were at. Oh, no. I'm sorry. That was just for the outfall. It's 31 and a half. Okay. I have an exact number, but we've roughly been just as consistent. Yep. Okay. All right. That's better. Thank you. I don't feel bad. I'm sorry about that. 25. Okay. No worries. I know we get copied on this stuff from Whitewater, but you've got to kind of piece together. You do. I was like, I'm going to just ask. Thank you. Yep. Okay. So bottom line. Yeah. It's not going down. Not going. Kind of the backdrop. Stay the course. Yep. So, but, but Jimmy, but, but that's Darren, that's for, uh, the, the restaurants hadn't, hadn't really opened. And, um, yeah, uh, but, but the council of aging library are on both what you would think would be more noticeable users than a lot of the others. And, um, has, has the condo moved forward with their connection? I drove by that. I see no, no activity. They're, they're working on, on submitting a plan. Um, and, um, so they're moving forward with design and, you know, taking all the steps they need to take. So they're working on it. Um, they, we, we can actually talk about them when we talk about new connections too. Okay. Very good. Okay. Well, then back to the, uh, the, the most important thing for today is where we left off last month.
Um, so we have three, if we turn it over to, to, to Matt, maybe we had three scenarios were sent around in advance.
Yes. Hi, uh, good afternoon. This is Matt Abrahams from the Abrahams group. Um, are you referring to options that were sent around before this meeting or the prior meeting? Yes. Just, uh, Sarah sent around three on Friday, I believe. So I'll quickly, I'll quickly go over, um, just from a very high level. Um, we had options for your review at the prior meeting that I attended, which a few weeks back, I don't have the exact date. Um, we presented some options to you then, um, I believe, you know, what, like we typically do, we kind of went over some of the assumptions that were baked into the analysis at that point. And some of those assumptions, um, we did some tweaking related to that. Um, and since then, since that meeting ended, um, the analysis has been only slightly updated. Um, and I say only slightly because the only thing we focused on changing was just some additional projections for year end FY26. So FY26 is the current fiscal year we're in. Um, we're getting towards the end of it, as you know. Um, Sarah always, uh, updates in an analysis that she maintains, um, where she thinks the year is going to end up. So with the latest information available, we did update our analysis, uh, for year end FY26. Um, there was a little bit of an increase on the revenue side tied to privilege fees above and beyond what we presented to you last time, um, an additional about $47,000 than what we had included in our analysis last time, um, is now in the analysis. Um, there were some additional tweaks that took place as well. Those, um, there were two revenue line items that went down very slightly and there were a few expense line items that changed as well. These, again, these are all projections for year end FY26, um, but ultimately it was a net gain of about $37,000 for FY26 over what we showed you last time. Um, there were no other changes to the analysis from the last meeting, but with that additional 37 ish thousand dollars in play, I did quickly go through the options again and did some updating. Um, I can't actually recall though, if it was adding a different rate plan than what you saw last time, it may not even be a different rate plan than what we were covering at the end of last, last meeting. Um, so overall, not a huge, not a huge change since last time. Um, but I am very willing to go back over the options. If you think that would be useful. Yeah. Just put them back on the screen really quick. Okay.
Should be able to see it now. Yep. Okay, great.
All right. So I'll quickly go through them. Um, you should be, you know, used to this screen by now. Um, this is my Excel workbook, but I provided to you a PDF format of this particular sheet that we're looking at right here. Um, this is option one, what option one is focused on was carrying forward from last year when we did this work, what the rate plan was for FY 27 and subsequent years when the increase last year was approved. And that increase, I believe was 9.75% for FY 26 across the board. Um, these other rates, um, these other rates, 14%, 27, 28, 29, and then a 10% and 30 were the other percentages that were shown in the rate plan when that 9.75% was approved last year. So this was more just to show you what that looked like, not necessarily an option that I thought would be heavily considered.
Option two, the approach here was let's use the same rate increase that was approved last year for FY 26 for FY 27. So you see the 9.75 and then just some tweaking with some of the other outlying years, trying to level it off, um, first to get through the low point, as you know, from working with me for a few years now, we've always kind of been looking at that middle part of this graph where the blue was trending down to the orange until the deck gets paid off. So it's important, as you know, to make sure rate increases are staying strong, get, getting your revenues through that timeframe before, um, a switch to what I'll call more nominal increases. So you got the, in this case, I put 10.5% in those middle years to get you past that, that debt bubble before things, um, can go nominal and then option three, the approach here was, well, maybe let's just do a few years of what we'll call a bit lower rate increase. Um, so instead of the 9.75, for example, a 10.5. Can we do a few years of a level increase? That's a little bit lower before we get to that nominal area. And, um, what is appealing about this in general is, is just, if we think back for the years that we've worked together on this now, um, generally we haven't really seen increases like this, meaning we've generally seen them higher on a consistent basis. So it's nice that over time with additional revenue streams and new flow and all that stuff that we're projecting that the rate plans have, um, shown more favorable as we move forward here.
So those were the three options. And as you know, from working with me, you know, we can, we can tweak this as needed. I mean, we can run additional options if you feel there's value in doing so. Um, I mean, really what we're discussing is what do we want that retained earnings buffer? The one option you have is a 20 point, you know, 20 point buffer. And this is like a 10 point buffer. Like I look at that blue line when we get close to the orange or whatever color line that is orange, I guess, um, like a 10 point buffer that's assuming steady state, no additional users. And, you know, we know the town is, is going after the route 20 re-imaginational color corridor, right? How do we get businesses there? We know things are coming into, and I call it whole foods because I don't even know what the address of that is, but I call it whole foods. Um, we restudy our plant, right? So that's in, that's part of our expenditure next year is to do the plant study to see what we can run this motorcycle at. And hopefully that says we can get more on. I mean, I, I, I still look at those future years. Our goal is to get more flow coming in, but the assumption in this is that 28, 29, 30, 31 are at today's flow, right? That's the assumption built in. Uh, I don't think we show increased flow, right? There's a little bit in there. Um, just, I mean, nothing that we haven't already discussed. Right, right. I think we have included, like when you say whole foods, that's included in the base charges and stuff like that. And we found that that's really where the majority of the percentage of that, um, the intake comes from. So we have, um, now accounted for all available flow. Um, okay. But I guess what I meant by flow is actual flow, which I know is not a big revenue source now because we played with that. Right. It's the base charge. Yeah. Right. So, okay. Well, I mean, I'm just, I'm just, what I'm arguing is kind of like, okay, how I would make a decision, right? Right. Is that we know we're being more conservative on our flow from the standpoint of it's what we know, right? We know we're doing the study on the plant, which we, with all the capital investments we made into it, I hope our motorcycle is, can run a little faster now and we want to run it faster, right? To be optimum. So it's, it's running really efficient. And for those people hearing this recording, the motorcycle is the plant that Tom Holder two years ago talked about. Um, so, um, I, you know, I just, I just look at, you know, we're going to be in a good position to take on, I hope new members, right? New client, new, new customers. So I just look at those future out years, like, is that 10%, that 10 point buffer feels comfortable to me versus a 20 point buffer is really what we're talking about between option three and option two is what do we want that buffer to be in retained earnings?
Yep. And then, but just, just a quick comment related to that. And you know, this, it's just a reminder rates are just being set for 27. Yep. Um, so, you know, in theory, if you were to look at this again next year, then you're still not at that bubble area as well, you know, for a few years, but yes. And I get that, I get that, but we need to think about long-term planning here and, you know, not make bad decisions today. That will make something catastrophic tomorrow, right down the road where we're trying to take that into account. And I, like you said, Matt, when we started two years ago, we were looking at like a 14, 14, 14, 14% just to stay at the line, nevermind a 20 point buffer. So right now we're much better off there. I don't know. So I, I, Mike, I don't have any other questions. I was just, again, I was articulating my mind, you know, kind of like how I'm thinking about it, but I mean, we, we deep dive this last time. I don't know. Yeah. Or Ed, do you have any questions or? I, I'm, I'm looking at it also, like you said, that keep, uh, if all things are equal with the flow and whatnot that we anticipate to, to, to, to lean a little towards a lower, um, increase. However, I see that we are carrying a pretty big, um, return, retained earnings usage, which is, I was just looking, we, it looks like we're going to use about a hundred grand this year. It's substantially higher. So I would think that this flow that you and I keep asking for would first go to reducing that, um, number versus, you know, which would help a little. Yep. And I look more at the retained earnings being a very conservative estimate. And that's just another way of looking at it. I guess we're saying the same thing. Um, and I also looked at the difference between our users, between a 9.75 and a, what was the other one? Eight and a half is, is $12 a year.
Um, it's kind of what, what you focus on. It's kind of, yeah. The base rate is really where the money's at. Yeah. We got around that. You got to remind me every year to focus on that. Um, and then from our users, which we want to give them good service at a good price. Um, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of in the noise range. Unfortunately, it's a big, historically the rate increases way back when we're much lower, but it, it put us in a, in a difficult bind. Yeah. Um, so we're, we're not going to go there.
It, it really comes down to the difference between the two things for our typical homeowner. The difference is 12 or $15 a year. If my math is right for next year. Right. Cause that's quarterly. Between option two and option three. Yes. Yeah. I can calculate that for you, right? Yeah.
$4 a quarter. 4.10 a quarter. Yeah. So let's say $15. Let's go crazy.
Um, yeah.
But I, if I hate to even break it up, but like, okay, we had a lot of the privilege fees come in. Our retained earnings is now healthier due to that. Even if we entertained a 5% increase just this year, and then kind of a bigger down the road, um, on that, I'd just be curious, but, but I, but I do think responsible knowing that we took on that additional debt. Right. And we know we have that capital program coming up, I don't know, two years from now, whatever. Um, maybe, uh, you know, I do think it's wise to be in that option three, at least.
Not, not, um, and, and not to split hairs too much for, for our users who are paying attention. And I, I'm leaning towards a 9.75. My only question is, though, could we make it nine and a half or nine and a quarter to show we're, we're moving in the direction, um, of, of keeping the increases smaller versus stable. So if it, and if that's even, if anyone would notice, I would, well, I'm, I'm not going to oppose, but I would meet you in the middle, Mike, cause I was in a favor option three. Okay. But I would meet in the middle and I'd say we go with the 9.25. Yeah. I, or were you at 8.75 on the other one or are we at 8.5, 8.5. So, yeah. So even if we got to 9.1. Yeah, I, I'd be, I'd be for that also, I, I think to, to send the message that we are working hard at a downward trajectory, which is a combination of us doing their job, the growth and the support for the connections, um, that are coming in. The study, the study on the plant to, to, to bring on additional users to support the town. So that water is not a hindrance, right? Or wastewater, sorry. Wastewater is not a hindrance to coming in. Right. Right. Yeah. If we can release additional capacity, it will be phenomenal.
Right. I, I, I'm, I'm good at 9. I do. I do either 9, 9.1. I don't see it as a huge. Yeah. I know. It's not a big difference. It's more just meeting halfway. And then that was the math we used. And here we go.
All right. So what are we doing? Um, and you desire it. So we, uh, do you guys freeze? No, no, I'm just looking at something here. Okay. Sorry. Nobody was moving and I didn't hear anything. Yeah.
I guess I, I would, based on what we've heard, I'd make a motion. Um, do we, do we do, I, I'd even go just to keep it a whole number. I'd say 9%. I'd make a motion that we keep the rate increase for, uh, set the rates of fiscal year 2027 at 9% across the board on the current, uh, 26, um, rates. And if I have to say them, I need someone to do the math for me. I'll do it for you.
I'll second that motion. Mike. Darren Buck.
Yeah. Just go for here. I'll create a separate option for you for the next time, but, um, you're looking at the rates down here. So focus on this 27 area. Okay. Um, thank you. So then I, I, I will add, so the motion is the 9% rate increase, which would set the base charge at 9.56 per about a hundred cubic feet. I should know this, right? Um, what's the unit we use? That is, that is cubic feet. Um, correct. Is it a hundred or is it just cubic foot? That would be per hundred cubic feet. Sorry. Took me a second to think. Yeah. Per a hundred cubic feet. Okay. So, so the base charge would be 9.56 per hundred cubic feet. The tier one would be 7.52, uh, per a hundred cubic feet. And the tier two would be, uh, 22.58 per a hundred cubic feet. So I, I amend my earlier motion for that. Do I hear a second? Darren Bach seconds. Okay. Uh, call vote. Mike Gitten in favor. Darren Bach in favor. And did we lose Ed? I don't know. I think I don't see Ed.
Oh, he's there. Can you raise, if you're, you raise your hand, if your mic isn't working or up and down, if you have, there he is.
I didn't, I couldn't see Ed. Do you hear us? Unfortunately, we don't hear you. Can you give a thumb up or down if you're up for the motion that we just made a 9% increase for next year?
Okay. I think that was an up.
Okay, great.
So what do we do next? We, we have to publish something or are we? Um, one of us has, I think you published a sign. I know I have a sign. No, I think we have to advertise, right? We, we advertise for two weeks. Is that?
You're on mute, Sarah, up here. Sorry. Yes. We have to advertise twice in two weeks prior to the meeting. So it'll be two weeks prior and then one week prior. Okay. And, and I was at town meeting when this was voted on, but I must admit, I kind of stopped paying attention after 930 or 10 o'clock. The, the, the electronic did it, did it, or did it not pass? I can't remember.
After all of that, it passed. Okay. And it's in effect. This means you could post it to our website.
I, I, or whatever. You'll figure it out, Sarah.
I am not sure. Um, I honestly don't know much more than what Averja said. Yeah.
Are we one of the first to, to, to, to have to do that? Like, I'm sure the, speak to the concom. I'm sure they've done it already. I'm sure.
Okay. Um, Matt, do you need anything from us? Did we lose them yet? No, I'm here. Okay. No, I'm all set. Okay. So great. It's getting, you've trained us well. Thank you. You're welcome. And I think, you know, next year, you know, when, when I first joined this commission, it was always about how can we change the model to go from a base charge to more of a flow charge. Um, I think that's something, once we know our plant after that study, I think we still should look at that. Yep. Yep. But that was one of the big challenges was how do we get more to a flow, you know, actual versus a base, but. And, and, and especially if the mix of the users changes a little more to the commercial commercial, right. It, it would be, it would be more appropriate. Right. Yeah. But I, I do think, I do think once we get through this year, I think we got to start poking at that again. Again, once we know our plants so that. Yep. It can be more of what you actually contribute to the system versus. What your design flow is. Yep. And before, before Matt goes, I just want to jot down those rates. So give me a minute to, to look at them and, and take notes. Oh, and I'll, what I'll do is I'll, I'll do a, and we'll call it the official option, whatever you want to call it. I'll put together a packet for you. So you'll have that. Okay. Feel free to jot it down if you want. Yeah. I'm just going to jot down the, I I'm keeping my own running total. So, um, while we're doing, and Matt, I'm curious how much revenue actually comes from tier two?
Do we, do you have a, how much? Yeah. So I, I don't have a great feel for that. I do know that we have, when we've done this analysis every year, we just carry a 400, 100, 400 cubic feet for tier two, which is not a lot. Yeah. Okay. But that, that number hasn't been, um, there hasn't been an analysis on what that number truly is. For two or three years now. So that might be worthwhile doing next year too. If we're looking at the model, right.
Okay. Yeah. The quarterly billing spreadsheet, I think I sent it to you after the last meeting. You can, you can see, I believe that highlights red for folks that are using more than their design flow, which would put them into tier two. So it's not the full, you know, numbers crunched for you, but it kind of gives you a sense of how many people are actually hitting tier two. So we could take, I can take that and work with Matt with that and, um, find a way to actually figure out what that really looks like from a revenue standpoint. Yeah. So I didn't realize the ones in red. Okay. I'll look at it. Yeah. But you can see here, but let's just say that that 400 is right. I mean, you're looking at a very small portion of your overall charges. Yeah. Yeah. I know. 1.4% or something like that. If that 400 is right and everything else is right. So I was thinking from three years ago, we were going to jack that up and say, okay, if you really go over, okay, there'll be the penalty kind of like a demand charge on electrical. That's how electrical works in the commercial and industrial world. You get hit really hard, right? As soon as you go over just a blip. Um, but, but we couldn't, it was just, it was too erratic of a revenue stream relying on that. So we never went forward. So again, I think, I think we're good where we are. And then after the study, we start playing with this again. Okay. I keep Matt on his toes.
Always up for a challenge.
Okay. So 2027, we are set. So anything else on fiscal year 27 rates? I'm good. The advertisers will be done. We'll formally vote on it again next week. And then we'll have to, then we come in and sign something. Is that the question that I was asking? That is correct. We'll have something printed out once that meeting has passed. What do we call it? Okay. So now, uh, we'll move on then to, to Jared. We, we, we already heard one important fact. The flow is steady, maybe up a hair. Yep. Um, what else? Um, so I believe last month I mentioned that Skated 2. Uh, computer had, uh, computer had died. Um, and we got that back. Uh, it was covered under warranty. Um, IT wasn't really given an exact reason by the manufacturer for what went wrong. Um, all we know is that it was a faulty, uh, logic, a main logic board. Um, and Skated 1 is on warranty until next April. And Skated 2 is on warranty until January. Um, so should anything go wrong in that time, it's covered. Um, if not, after that time, we will discuss with IT and go forward from there. Um, we had a bit of TMP issues on both MBR trains. They were both, um, tripping out with high TMP, high pressures. Um, there's a brief week or so, you know, less than a week of me doing a lot of clean water backwashes to just loosen up the material and be able to get us to run through the night. Um, we contacted Kubota and, um, Tyon Bond and, um, Aqua Solutions about possible next steps. Um, they actually had Kubota come out to send, they sent a representative out after we had done a chemical cleaning that had decent results. I personally wasn't too thrilled with them. Um, but so the Kubota reference, uh, comes out, we did a tank drawdown, um, and he, you know, got really up close in person. Looked really, you know, intently at everything we had, all the data. And he kind of thought that, yeah, it's not ideal, but it's really not that bad. And we're doing it. We're in a good position we're in. Um, there was a little bit of, uh, one set of diffusers were, um, are slightly plugged on train one, but again, he wasn't concerned. And he, um, said that probably, you know, in a few months, maybe we can drain the tank down. Um, and clean out the, uh, diffuser heads, but he's, he's doesn't see a point to doing it right away. He doesn't, he's not concerned about that. So overall, our memories are actually in a, in a pretty good and healthy position, um, that we just, yeah, we kind of weren't expecting it from what we were seeing. Um, but since doing that cleaning on side one, it's been working amazingly and side two is going to get cleaned soon. Um, and yeah, not too bad. Um, we had Wilson controls came in and, uh, set up the bypass for the screens are like the bypass flow detector for the screens. So now, um, um, should the screen number one or the, the main screen not be able to handle it. It'll go up and over contact the detector and then kick the other screen on. Um, um, we also had LCS add a, uh, trend chart for these screens so that we can see how like the flows and, uh, if, and when, uh, the backup screen is being kicked on. Um, um, and lastly, uh, there's a little bit of a leak in one of the screens. Um, so I opened up a, the seal and saw that the shaft seal was a little, um, like the rubber gasket part was a little loose. So we, uh, contacted IPEC and they will be having someone come out to repair that themselves. Um, and that is, uh, my month of April and overall SCADA system has been working well. Yeah, it's, it's been very good. We haven't had an issue with SCADA. It's really the computers that have crapped out on us.
Do, um, did you have to service the, uh, route 20 pump station since last month? Um, no, no, no sort of servicing like that. Do you mean the Oxbow pump station? Yeah, that's. Yeah, sorry. That's all right. Yeah. Um, we have, haven't, we had, um, Boston O'Neill and BlackRock out to do some sampling last week. Um, they took samples and we took samples. So we're waiting for, um, the results of that. And then, um, Jared's scheduling a clean out, um, this, this week. So working on that. Um, so, so, so that's still operation. That, that process is then on pause while they present this alternate whatever, but. Well, we've told them that there should be a parallel track, that they should be working on their design.
We're still, we're still not quite on board with their O&M plan. Um, so we'll see. And, and we're billing them for the work we're doing. We are, but it's difficult because it comes out from our budget now and then it's not less, doesn't come back in. So, right. Yeah. It's not a long-term, even if they like it, it's not a long-term solution. That's right. Okay.
Um, Darren, uh, Ed, any questions operational oriented? Glad it was a okay month, you know, like routine type stuff.
Okay. Um, Sarah. Yeah. Let me just share my screen. Um, new revenue, 37 K and that's okay. There it is.
Okay. Everyone can see the report. Yep. Okay. For the top here. Okay. So we are at 83% of the year complete as of April 30th. Um, you know, similar to last time, there's not too much to discuss in expenses. The predictions are pretty similar. We've liquidated some POs with some extra in them, but those are really already accounted for in the forecast. Anyway, it's not planning on being completely spent. Um, the general equalizer here is the small equipment, you know, which we have ourselves spending 97 of the 105 so that we land. I actually added a new row in here because the operating expenses include personal services and that's not really part of it that you can't transfer between personal services and goods and services. So I want to make sure we were at like a hundred percent on goods and services itself. So that is why that orange line is now in there, which we have ourselves at 99.9. Um, you know, everything is pretty much in here that is planned for. We, um, are hoping obviously for nothing, no surprises. No surprises. And then we go our way down to revenue and user charges are definitely looking good at 563. We're trying to get to 690 because we do have that May 10th billing that's about to go out in the next day or two. I say May 10th, that's like a loose date. So we usually are within a few days of that. Um, you know, which based on what we had the last time, it should be about the same number of days in the cycle as the last bill is about a 70, 71 day billing cycle. And this one will be as well. Um, and that one was around like 125, I believe thousand that was filled out. So, you know, if we collect the same, we usually do collect about 98% honestly on our revenue. So usually, um, we would land up at 690 as predicted, which is that bubble year we talked about because we do have the May one coming in, in June, as opposed to a June one coming in, in July. Still four quarters filled out, but the collection comes in this year. But Matt, Matt didn't use the 690. He, he was kind of using as a steady state for each year, more of the other number, right? That is correct. Right. That's one time thing. How long does that take to work through? Well, the, the first quarter of next year, then be actual representative, or is it going to take a year to catch up? Yeah, that's kind of funny because what happens is, you know, we'll have, you know, now it's going to be May is like the fourth quarter billing. Um, so next year it will be like, you know, August and then every three months from there. So it's really just kind of like, kind of like, we're, we just jumped ahead or ahead a month in billing. So we only, we bill in arrears. We do bill what people have used up until that point. We're just sending that bill out a little sooner. So we're just, we're, we're doing them, um, the reading earlier by a month. So it kind of, if you look at it perpetually, it really doesn't ever, you know, come back around to be a problem. It just continues. It would be a problem if we pushed things out instead of in. So, but yes, he only put a 690 in for this year and did not carry that forward in future years because that would be wrong. So now, and then you can see our miscellaneous revenue operating, which is where that extra money came in because we did settle on a number with town center, which was just that, just shy of 200 K, which is why we had put in a placeholder of 150 in the last rate study conversation. And then it went up by about 47,000. And then I did lower a couple other revenue lines, which is where we ended up at the 37,000 net revenue increase. Um, I think I pushed down just interest. I'm just not sure on interest. It's so hard to track. It doesn't really get, um, necessarily put into our accounts till the end of the year. There's usually like a, a lump sum that comes in and I just don't know. But that's the, 5,000. Did they buy the 5,000? I think it was around 5,000. They did take it all. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So it is spoken for. And when we get to that topic, we'll have more to talk about, about that and about other interested parties. Okay. I'll hold my question till then. Hopefully we'll get a little more interest in the fact that we will have this retained earning additionally sitting in our bank account, so to speak. Um, you know, maybe we'll have a nicer little bump in interest next year until we spend that, obviously. We won't right away. That 2 million year when we hit that big capital expenditure is when we start to actually hit that stuff harder. But, um, in the next couple of years, not so bad. That's what we're preparing for. Right. Right. Um, yeah. So this is really where we're at. There's nothing to talk about in capital. You know, we're, we only have one project, you know, for the rest of the year that's open, which is that, that design right there. And we have an invoice in for some of that, but we're going to spend the whole 75 when it's all said and done anyway. So we already know that.
That's really it. So between the two retained earning pots, it was actually at the end of the year, it looks like it's about 180, 180,000 that we're pulling from, but it's going to be replaced with the, the privilege fees, et cetera. And then some that were collected this year.
Yeah, I took those out of the forecast entirely to retain earnings lines as being needed in the two spots that we have. And then we have it up here and then we have it, sorry, it's a bad highlight and down here. That was what we were planning, but we, I don't have it in here anymore because I know we already know we're not going to actually have to take it out. Right. And, and in addition, we're not taking any out. We're also contributing more to it. Yes. Correct. What's enabling our rate or technically maybe we could have gone lower than that, but, but like we're, we know we need it for future. So I think we're in a good spot.
Yeah. But, but, but it also make the numbers balanced. It was more actually more like $200,000 in, we took out of our savings account, but it was covered with deposits, which we're not going to get the same level next year. Correct. Because we're out of capacity. We're counting on flows to pick up at a reasonable amount that doesn't strain the system that causes problems that we can't even foresee right now. Which is what our study is going to do. Yes. Right. Do we have a vendor lined up to do that or we got to wait until the fiscal year starts? You're working on that right now. We're trying to do something as soon as possible. It's a special type of procurement and it does, would allow us to potentially utilize some of the privilege fees that are coming in of that $200,000, $75,000 of it to get that going, which would kind of, there's a way to use it in this year. I know we've talked about how you cannot use, obviously, revenue that comes in, like you can't just turn around and write a check and use it. But if you do a, the word is escaping me, I know Abby knows it, a certain type of procurement, I think it's a peer review. You can have that money immediately go into that account and then it can be turned around and be used right now. We're trying to get this moving. We do have to work with finance and with the town manager's office to get details on that. So that's in process. So hopefully sooner than later, trying to get it going. Awesome.
I'm good on financials. I don't have anything else. I'm glad Jared has a hybrid now with gas prices.
Just a few questions above on costs. So the sludge disposal going about, is that largely driven by the FOD pumping? The Delta pumping we've been talking about, the Oxbow? The overage is mostly due to that, but not entirely. There was some emergency pumping earlier. Not emergency. Yeah, it was part of the process of, I think, I wouldn't say emergency, but doing the screen replacement. I know we took everything we could out of that replacement line, capital item. Once that was gone, there was nowhere else to take it from. But it's not, I'm just kind of ready for our per gallon, pound, whatever price to go up. It's not due to that. It's mainly due to volume. It's definitely due to volume. It's not a price change. And the water fee is due to all the maintenance and the fine-tuning operation this year. That should go away. That's right. It'll always be a little more than it used to be. We used to barely use anything. I heard that water people aren't as diligent as us as keeping the rates down, is what I hear. Yeah, that's, you'll see some things, I'm sure, out in the world soon with water. That's why Tom needs some time off.
And, okay. Mike.
I don't know. I just saw something come across my desk. I have no idea if it's, there's a big pot of money out there for small pack, for small people like us, if you want to try and do energy recovery from it, heat recovery, is our system even viable for something like that? Not really, no. We looked at that money too. Yeah. And it wasn't going to be enough for us to work in. But we looked at it. Like a co-gen, a mini co-gen? I think it's even simple. Just, yeah. And, you know, maybe it'll be around in two years after we do the study and whatever development that's happening leads to something we can't even think of right now to touch the plan again. We'll keep it in mind. There you go. Okay. Microgrids are huge. Microgrids are huge right now. They are. We're booming on microgrids. Oh, yeah. Um, okay. Anything else on financials? Good. Let's get to this media. Request of services. So we're, we're sold out. Yeah. Are we going to make more? We are sold out. Um, to your question previously about Hastings Way, they're proceeding with their connection, um, submitting the next stage of documents for their, um, wastewater permit. But, but in that they've also requested an initial, an additional 880 gallons per day. Um, and while we are out of capacity, um, I looked at the town buildings that we have on there, including the COA and, and the library. Um, and it looks like, um, those design flows are much, much higher than what we're seeing there. Um, I also looked at the public safety building. Um, their average is in the 350 range and their design flow is 1,100. There might be a little wiggle room there, but it's not as, um, dramatic as the others, but the COA is averaging about a hundred gallons per day. Um, and their design flows 3,000 gallons per day. Um, and Sarah's pulling the numbers on the library, but they're at. I know that's you. So, okay, let me just look at that. Up now. Okay. Yeah. Um, their design flow was 820 and, and the last is about 150 being the highest. So we think that we can parse out 880 gallons from some of these design flows, maybe, uh, let the town pay a little bit lower in, um, uh, base charges and sell that additional 880 gallons per day. As long as you guys are on board.
Does our rules and bylaws allow that or, or do we have to increase the, the, the, the, the, the, by noise? So, um, it allows us to take back the, um, design flow. Yes. Is there a process for that? How would that happen? Um, I think this will be the first time we're doing it. So we'll be making the process. Um, or do we vote to do another thousand released?
Um, I'd feel better before we look at the treatment plant, but, um, taking it from, um, some of the underutilized properties, as opposed to increasing our design flow yet. Uh, I think in these cases, uh, the design flow is significantly higher than what they're seeing. So I think it's, I feel, I feel, I feel more comfortable at this point. I do too. I, I, I agree. I mean, if it's, I, I mean, I don't disagree. I'm just making sure we're arguing all points. That's right. Yeah. I think, I think it puts us in a better position when we're looking for the grants that we're looking at to be able to say that we're out of design flow. I agree.
And what's the rationale? Do they have the need or they just want to design for that for a future need? Um, and for us to accept it, we need to be able to say, you can use it. They would like to, in the place of where their septic system was, eventually put in a couple more down townhouses there. Okay. Um, so in order to look at building those townhouses, they need the waste water flow. So that, that was on the table initially, but it wasn't in the final, um, proof of whatever we, a permit that we gave them. And now that they realize, yeah, I got it. All right. I, that makes sense. Yeah. I, I, I get my only, once again, if anyone's paying attention to what we, I don't think any big user is going to be able to make a big project based on what we're talking about here. Right. But I imagine we may hear from other little users like this and we can continue to have little discussions like this, but we're not, we're not giving, we're not going to find 10,000 gallons by doing this to a hundred users. No. Okay. I mean, that's my only, just bring that up. Do we have to vote on that, Abby, or are we, you're good? I don't think that we do. Um, but I wanted to. Right. Review it with the district before we went ahead and did it. I, I have everything you said. I think you, what you said at the end was it's better to do this than to say, Oh, it's noise increase the, the flow by a thousand. Because it hurts us with other reasons. I agree. Um, and then you go ahead, Mike. No, that's the Hastings and then town bought five, right. Or like you said, we're sold out. So all that went there. That's right. And is there any others there or that's everything? No one is asking right now that I'm aware of unless you don't have anyone, Abby. I don't. But, um, now that the, um, height restriction was passed for the, uh, development down by Longfallow to do the higher density townhouses. I know that they'll be, uh, working with us to, um, try to increase the flow there. And town center said that they wanted to continue to work with us to try to find a way to increase the design flow available. I, as I said, I was at town meeting for that part and I was surprised that no one brought up septic or sewage. And I just bit my tongue and all, all roads lead to us. Oh, exactly. Well, that's good news. I mean, the 5,000, I mean, that's encouraging for what they're planning and what they're looking for, what that is, but they're preparing themselves for it. So is on that note, is it correct when people send an email to the, whatever the, the, the committee to do, uh, Abby Sauer, do you get Tom, do you get those two? Like the, the people at the, the, I kind of call it the coffee shop had questions. Did I assume, did you see that? Ones that come to the wastewater management district email? I do. I, uh, Tom sees it. I do not believe Abby or Darren do. I think it's just Tom and I. And yeah, you remember seeing that Darren, they were, they had a question about something. And I, it was also an email on the Dudley pot that came in. Yeah. Did somebody reply to that person?
I'm trying to remember the Dudley pot when that was not right. April, April 28th.
I'll check on that. And it's coming to the WWMDC one, not directly to your individual ones. Right. Came in through the, the W that yeah. The members email one. Oh, maybe it's just you. Okay. So maybe that's different. There's one that's just WWMDC and then I think the members one might be specific to you, to just you three. Yeah. This one says WWMDC members at wayland.mass.us. Okay. So I don't, I don't know. We have to reply to that individual.
Well, why don't you forward it to us and we'll look at it. Okay. But you did, you remember seeing the technical one. Someone had a technical question. We were working with the building department. I'm getting back to them.
Okay. Anything else then? So, so even if we wanted to talk about this, we can't talk about anything for a while. Substantive on, on this item, um, going forward. So that gets us to the, um, meeting minutes. I must admit, I did not get a chance to. Neither. Give them a read. I'm getting slammed. What is the email address? I should forward this to, by the way, for some reason, I'm not able to like, I have to type it in here. What's the email address? I need to send it to Abby.
Well, I was going to say, you can do it to the general wastewater at wayland.ma.us if you want. And I, I am in that membership one, but that Dudley one is just not ringing a bell for me. So yours finally came up. So I'm going to forward it to you. That's fine. Okay. It's going to Sarah. Sarah, you can distribute it. I can. Yeah. Cause I get, we get emails from you and I'm, I'm not getting the others. So, okay. Okay. Uh, meetings are definitely long. So, you know, worst case you could, if you wanted to approve to next, next meeting, if you want, it's up to you. So just throwing it out there. I usually just read what mine were just to say, yes, I agree with.
Yeah. I kept a lot in there. There was, um, a lot of discussion with obviously Alta, which is pretty important stuff. And, um, and then the rate study itself, knowing that you might want to know all the details there. And we, I'm just reading my notes. We don't have the agreed upon date yet. Right. Let us get samples. Well, you did the samples. We did the samples on Thursday. Yep. So that you get a agreed upon data set. Okay. You did. Yep. And I'm, I'm glad to see you were consistent. You answered the question I asked last month, the same way, uh, this month.
It takes me a few times to, at least I'm consistent.
Yeah. Yeah. It's one. Cause we had Matt on.
Yeah. That was there. Teared.
Yeah. Um, Jared, that's why I asked about the SCADA. I'm good with, I wrote, I didn't read. I knew I just wrote where my name is, but I'm, I'm good with my notes.
Minutes. I should call it minutes.
I, I look, I have no comments. Ed, did any guests know up, down any comments? I, I'll, I'll, I'll make a motion that we approve the, uh, March 9th, 2026 meeting minutes as circulated. Second that motion. Darren Buck seconds. Yes. Darren Buck. Yes. Okay. Um, and I do think it's, I think it's important to get them out there just to continue to reiterate that if anyone's paying attention, the, um, the town's position on the, the FOD matter.
Those will be posted today. We have a brand new website. If you haven't taken a look yet, they just rolled one out this past week. All shiny and new. A bit of a learning curve on editing it, but I think we'll be fine. We've had some training. I'll go right now. Um, okay, I, I, maybe just circling back a little. So you were saying the privilege fee that we got from town center was more than the simple math because they were in the top tier of, of buying, which meant it was a negotiated. What we felt a peer review or whatever we had to do engineering wise. And you ended up at 200,000. What, what would have been, what, what is our privilege? It's like 20. It would have been around, uh, uh, uh, uh, like 24, 75, it would have been around 125,000. Okay. So, so, so they're paying around 70 grand for us to evaluate and, and it will help what you're saying. It'll help get a jumpstart on the whole study of the system. Exactly. Which they're also interested in, obviously, is we're hearing. That's right. So it's a, a win, win, a public private partnership. Come back if you want. Okay.
Any other topics not reasonably anticipated?
Okay. Our next meeting is important. So let's just review when it is. June 8th at noon.
That's what I got. That is correct. And that'll be the rate, the rate hearing and regular meeting. Okay. And, and then we're, at this point, we're assuming a pause for a month, at least a month, if not more, would be appropriate. Yeah. We normally meet again in September. We take July and August off, if that still works for you. Yeah. I, out of everything we talked about, would be if some great deal and solution was worked out with, with Oxbow in the next month that we need to hold hands on. That would be, that'd be ideal.
Okay. With that, then I make a motion at, uh, re-adjourn the meeting at, uh, 107.
Dan Bach in favor? We're getting, so we'll, meeting adjourned.