November 17, 2025 – Wastewater Management – Video & Transcript
November 17, 2025 - Wastewater Management
At 1136, I call the November 17, 2025 meeting of the Wayland Wastewater Management District Commission to order Mike Gitten here, present via Zoom.
Ed, will you just say you're present so we can hear it, make sure your mic works.
Okay. Is there any public comment?
I am looking, and aside from the seven panelists, I do not see anybody in public comment. Okay.
So let's get to the monthly operating report.
Jared? Yep. It wasn't too bad of a month. We've had some elevated nitrates. So we were working with Whitewater to make adjustments for that. We were increasing the return flow, changing air patterns, adding sugar and sodium bicarbonate.
We also were preparing for the screens I.O. panel. So Daigle and Wilson were in, getting that mounted, getting the conduit ready.
Wilson also came in and helped us look for the unknown electrical issue. It looked like we had a bad transformer and another one that was not fully grounded. So we were getting some weird electrical signals coming through from the MCC cabinets to the PLC. Wilson also swapped one of our spare pre-air blower drives to our sludge basin blowers so that we could have at least one sludge blower that will keep mixing up the sludge in the basin so it does not go septic. We had McVac pump out alta so that got cleaned up and since some had come over to the Route 20 pump station, we had them clean that out. But there was a moment where the waste valve actuator had gotten stuck and unbeknownst to me, it was slowly trickling flow into the sludge basin. So I actually got called in for a high alarm in the sludge basin and I just had to really make sure that the valve was tight and then we were able to get it pumped out during the week. The thermostat for the plant was dead, so facilities came in and got that up and running, so we have heat, which is great. This was done before it was getting too cold, so it wasn't really a worry, but definitely good to know that now that it's getting freezing temperatures, that plant is going to be all set. Pride came in and they replaced the floor drain pipe that is under the bathroom, but it is inside the EQ tank. So, thankfully, that is taken care of. Now, the gases from the tank are no longer escaping and that is much safer and healthier.
And yeah, that's pretty much our month at the plant.
So, we're still in the process of improving the automatic washing of the screens. We're still using a little more water than we'd like? Yeah, so they were able to set it up in a way that it runs on a cycle. It's not fully connected to SCADA in the sense that when the flow meter senses flow, the screens kick on. But the solenoids on screen two are working on their timers, so it's not fully spraying water at all times. Sometimes there's a clicking of it coming on and off, but even that one is still technically running at 24-7. Screen two actually has bad solenoids, so the manufacturer is going to be giving us new ones and installing them. And so, for the time being, we still have the water reduced on that one, and that's more of our lag screen. So, if the first one does back up, we still have a spare, but it's not – we've definitely reduced our water usage since the original installation. So, when the SCADA and the power issues get resolved, it will improve further, or is this going to be the status quo? So, unrelated to, like, any sort of SCADA or electrical issues, it just needs to be fully tied into SCADA. So, like we currently have on the screen, like the – it looks like the old screen setup, but that's because we just haven't had it fully integrated yet. Okay. When do you think this will be as efficient as it can be, you know, as the setup allows us to be? Yeah, that's a good question. We don't have a timeline right now. We're working with Aqua Solutions to get those valves, and we don't have a delivery date on those. Additionally, the controls were set up into the panel, and we need to get the as-built plan for that so that the SCADA company can program it into the SCADA program. Is that from Ty and Bond, or where does that come from? That's coming from Wilson Controls and Daigle Electric. And then on the power, when you say transformers, you're talking little ones, not a big pad, right? Yes. Yeah. Electrical terminology is not my forte. So, yeah, it's a small – Small is good. Small versus not on a pad. That's me too. And is that something like – like, where are we on – we had a little money left in the project. Are we now into, you know, maintenance, and is this a small capital, something we could pull from that fund? We pulled from – some of it from contingency for the emergency electrical repairs, and we're pulling the remainder from the small capital. Is it 10,000, 50,000? What are we thinking? Any idea yet?
The total will probably be in the range of 50,000. Okay.
But the good news is it's not like bad wires or bad – it could have been a lot worse. Hopefully it's fixing. It can always be worse. Yeah, hopefully equipment failure is easier to deal with than something that also, Jared, I know nothing about.
Okay.
Also, in terms of – go ahead, Mike. No, go on. I was going to change topics. I just – in terms of operations, we've also been working with Hastings in order to set up their potential expansion of their sewer in that area. Yeah, they talked to us about potentially a payment plan, and I was wondering if the board would approve – asking them if they would be put on a plate. I do have some – can we talk some more operational things before we – Oh, sure. Yes. I actually – I did have from – so I was just looking at the notes for today. The last time we were surprised, the plates, we were seeing holes, sharps. Is that still an issue? No, that was really just from the physical cleaning that we were doing by pulling up the membranes. And then that sludge valve that you said was left open, is that a manual one, or is that something on a cellulinoid valve? It's not a cellulinoid. It's an actuator valve. It's one of the originals to the plant. We replaced one last year, and we just had a plan going forward of kind of replacing one once a year about. And so, yeah, like the automatic wasting cycle happens every day, and it just, you know, closes some, opens this one, does its thing, hits its goal of gallons, and then closes back down. And I think this was a weekday that I – so I had been here, and it just – by all accounts, it really looked like it was closed. It just happened to be the tiniest little bit open. Like it wasn't even registering on the flow meter.
But, yeah, no, nothing concerning. The biggest issue usually with those is that they get stuck in a more obvious way, and then I am aware of it and have to basically manually open and close these valves. That's usually how we know that they go bad.
But, yeah, it's not too typically anything crazy like that. Okay. And the nitrates, is that going on long enough that it's no longer an excursion and we have a permit? Do we have to notify someone, or is it still – No, we're doing fine. We still – we did have an exceedance last month, but it's still not of – it's still not to the point of a concern. And we're – especially we're trending downwards now. Okay. Yeah, we're not concerned with it. And a lot of that was maybe due to the need for more water while we got the front end set up? Yeah, we messed with the biology by pumping out of the tank so much. And then also with the extra water we were getting from the screens, the clean water was just diluting the amount of biology we had. So it made it, you know, just a little more difficult. And then my final operational question, overall flows, are we seeing a change with the Council of Aging and Library, or is it not noticeable? Yeah, I – it really comes and goes. I would say we're still around that, you know, 32 mark.
Okay.
Ed, any questions regarding operating, or you're all set?
Okay. Well, we could jump to request for service and talk about Hastings, or do you want to do that? I can do it under request for service. I thought maybe we were going to talk about it under the operations, but either way. Well, I want to just keep going in case anyone is jumping on. Sure. We'll go to the monthly financials, and I just – I did text Darren to see if he was getting on. I didn't hear back, so I suspect something came up for him. Yeah, he did email the group. He didn't include you by name, Mike. He included the wastewater commission. Oh, that, yeah. There I see it. Conflict, yes. So he's got a family emergency that came up this morning? Okay. Yeah, so he did notify us early on that he was likely not going to be here.
Got it. Okay. Okay. Can everyone see the budget okay on the screen? Yep. Excellent. All right, so this gets us through October 31st, 2025. The expenses haven't moved a huge amount since the last time, so I don't have anything super unexpected to point out. We already knew that we were over on the water. We actually did take some – or that we're going to be over in the water. Sorry, we're not over yet. We were able to take the first quarterly bill that was high out of the project before we exhausted the project budget, which is, you know, definitely exhausted. We no longer have that, which is why I know it was mentioned before that contingency and small equipment are helping us with our current maintenance issues. Other than that, it's pretty much status quo, nothing to point out unless you have any questions on expenses specifically. The interesting thing to point out would actually be wastewater user charges, which – so in here, because it's only through October 31st, it looks like we're under, right? Because we've had two billings come due at this point, but I put a note over here because as of 1114, we actually have a 295K. I think that revenue was posted just a little bit after this budget was run, so it's actually really good. I mean, overall, you figure you have one summer month and one winter month in this billing, so it's kind of a pretty clean half a year overall because we have another winter and summer. So, you know, 295 out of 533 is a pretty good spot to be in, so I'm pleased with that. Yeah. Let's hopefully keep that up. And we know we have – obviously, I know we'll get to it, but we have new projects coming online, so maybe only up from there.
Leans, I should have highlighted it, but I figured I'd bring up leans. So, this revenue you see here is just money that's coming in from the last round of leans because the official timing for leans this year, I believe, is usually around end of November, early December. So, we're coming on that point where we are about to finalize those. I can tell you that for this year's leans, we have about $6,135 to be leaned, which is not bad. So, I do believe that includes interest, so give or take a few. We're about at $6,000. And these are four residences and one commercial property. The commercial property is actually going to be sold by December, so I'm pretty sure that that will get cleaned up when the MLC and the closing goes on. It will have to. I'm sure it will be. So, that's about maybe like 1,200 of it accounted for for that. The other four properties or residences, they are, I believe, all in bankruptcy, and they have been on this list every year. So, I don't anticipate much to come in. We don't ever really collect on those ones. I'm assuming none of them are in the Hastings room. I hope not. Jeez, that's an interesting question. Let me see. I can answer that question. Okay. But this is all good. While you do that, this is all great because I still remember when we first brought in the Abrams group. I think we were running about, I can't remember, 8%, 10% of unpaid. And I think they said if you're below 5%, it's more normal to 2,500. We're at 1%. Excellent job. Yeah. You know, we're lucky this year. It's definitely the lowest year we've had since I've been here. So, and to go back to what you just said, I'm actually really glad you asked that because I didn't even think of this, but there is, there is a Hastings Way property on here. I won't, I don't have to say the address. No, but I'd be curious. If, I would want to make sure it's not one of the ones that is the 13th, well, nevermind, it's not. Nevermind. It's obvious. I guess it's not totally as relevant as I thought, except it does show that there's some risk on our part by how we approach this. But in the short term, none of the 13 would be on that list because they're not clients of ours yet. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So, yeah. So, that's good. We're having a good year off as far as revenue goes. Well, that's, that's, that's great. Well, we only, we only got to get, you know, seven more months of no major equipment failures. I mean, right now we're still reacting to you, you, you, you prove something and it highlights a weak point in something else or stresses something else, which is why, why we're not giving away our full design flow quite yet. Um, just for this reason, and, and hopefully, it sounds like what I'm hearing is the free repair of a defective apart of is, is, is, is, is on the critical path of getting that last year's improvements. That's right. In a, there's still be odds and ends, but in a better spot, which. Yeah. It, it, that happens. Okay. Um, yeah, there's not. Um, much more to note. I mean, interest is down this year. That's a sad thing. That was a really nice year last year, but I guess that's the market. So that's where we're at. Um, and then, you know, we already talked about how we have expended this entire budget tank painting. That's been over a while. And we just to still have that low pressure sewer replacement design that is yet to be spent, but I'm sure will be. Uh, so, um, yeah, so I think we're overall looking good unless you have any questions on anything specifically. Have, have we, do we have an R, how does that get, does that have to go out for a formal RFP that the 75k and has that happened yet? Or is it, can that go? Um, no, I'm still working on the scope of work. Okay. So they sent us a scope of work. I sent a bunch of comments back and then met with them to discuss it. And now we're waiting on a updated scope of work. So we can give it to the, we can, we can procure this through our existing relationship with the vendor. We can, we, and we have those vendors through a request for qualifications that we can allow back. Okay. I'm, I have nothing, Ed, is that still there? Yep. Good.
Okay. Okay. Uh, capital budget requests. Next year already. Can you believe it? Yeah. It just rolls in from one year into another. When is this to bookend this? When, when is this due to the finance committee or wherever you send it to next? Or did it already go? It was, um, October 24th, it was submitted to the, uh, the town manager and finance director. And, um, you know, I think we've been talking, ours is, um, relatively limited when I say ours, wastewater, as opposed to the full DPW and, and water. Um, we just have, um, for FY27, it's really just the one item, which is the $125,000 for the design of the low pressure system within Route 20 and, and within, and, uh, town center. So we have that listed, um, and that's really a, a prelude to the $2 million actual construction that we have, uh, requested for, bear with me one minute. I'll look at that, uh, that's, so that's the following. So that would be FY28. And, and, um, how does the $125,000 relate to the $75,000 we're, we're looking to spend this year? Yeah, I think one is kind of identified more as preliminary, conceptual, and the $125,000 is a more formal, but I can, I can let Abby give. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right now it's more of a, uh, existing conditions and preliminary design, uh, recommendations and sort of deciding what project, the exact project we need. And then next year is coming up with the contract documents for that project. And they'll be able to get that done. You know, if we don't, at this point, we're not going to be able to green light anything, probably till January, right? They can get it done in, in four or five months, that study? Yes. Okay. And, and the, and the $2 million, is that, is that, do we go on our own schedule or we'll react to what others are doing in the, in the road? And so what we're, we're, we're trying to couple this with, you know, the pending project of Route 20's rehabilitation. And we have some, um, engineering funds available to us, to the department, uh, through a town appropriation, $250,000 to begin, um, the, the design of that. And what we're anticipating doing, that'll be through the TIP program with the state. But certainly, uh, we would not want to embark on construction until the low pressure system was rehabilitated to the, to the need that we determined. Okay. Water's brand new. Drainage is all the state. And for the most part has been done. And then that will also be, um, addressed during, you know, the reconstruction of the road as well. So you're right, Mike, it is being timed with the anticipated Route 20 rehabilitation. But so the book, the book, the bookend on that, like if next, it could be 28 or 29, but he can't, we don't want, we want to be done before, um, anybody put the shovel in the ground for it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That'll, and that'll be a significant design effort. Um, that's probably in the order of, you know, $10 million project. The town will, um, be required to fund the design and the state will likely through its TIP program pay for construction, but, uh, we would likely not be breaking ground on construction for, for a number of years.
That's any, and, and I can't remember, did, did Jared, did we get a vehicle for ours? Did we get a new vehicle this year? It is on order and like many of our vehicles, it takes a long time to get these things. So, uh, but you're right. Um, Jared has, uh, a hybrid F-150 on its way. Okay. And, and, um, great. So I guess, you know, what we would like is to have the commission, you and Ed vote favorably on this capital project as presented. And then that was, uh, because as part of the CIP, there's actually, um, um, a space where we date and show the, uh, the result of the vote on the CIP. Okay. Yeah. I mean, for, I, as long as we're not a hundred percent locked into the 2 million in fiscal year 28, it could slip a year or two, depending on all the moving parts. And, and the outcome of the two designs that, um, what we'll, next time we talk about this, we'll have the benefit of this year's work and, and maybe even a little bit of next year's work to, to talk to. Right, right. So the motion would be really just, um, localized on FY 27. So the motion could be that the commission votes favorably for the low pressure sewer replacement design of $125,000 as shown in the FY 27 capital project request. Okay. Okay. I, I do have one, one other question though. Um, the, the, the, the privilege and betterment fees that we're collecting this year. Um, if, if something, if something goes, a piece of equipment starts behaving poorly, we can add that when we do the budget for the year's operation. What, what, what is that? That, that's correct, Mike. So this month, this meeting, we're reviewing and asking for a vote on the capital project in December, we'll be speaking about the operating budget. And it's in that budget that we'll identify, um, what amount from the privilege fee revenue that we obtained would be, be looking to spend through the use of retained earnings in FY 27. So we'll have that in our December meeting. Yeah. This is not meant for major O and M things that versus, or, or I guess mid, mid, mid, mid level O and M things that we could capture either with the small equipment or in the actual operating budget. Correct. Yep. Um, well, I should have been taking notes. I, I make a motion that we approve. Uh, I, I, I need my cue cards, Tom. What was I, what was it? You can just, you can actually just say, uh, accept the motion as Tom described and that works. I like that. I accept the motion as Tom Holder described, um, Mike Gitten, Ed, you okay with the motion?
Ed, can you hear us?
Abby. Abby's gone. She's the closest. Okay. I'm going to take a bite of my sandwich while we wait. Good move.
Can you hear them? What? Can you hear them? Oh, okay. Yeah. We can hear you. We can hear you loud and clear. Yeah. This verse. It's already got to high. So that's why it. Can you hear us now, Abby? I can hear you. Um, can, can you speak again? Yes. How's this sound? It's not very loud. Hmm. All right. I'm going to try again. Yeah. How about this? Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's pretty, it's still pretty weak. Oh. Sometimes. Is it the zoom volume or the computer volume? It's the speaker volume. I tried changing the speakers, but the speakers are pretty low here. Um, but did you hear them describe the capital budget? They would like you to approve the capital budget. Yeah. Well, I don't, I don't know the system that much yet. So the budget, I, it's difficult for me to give any idea about how the budget, uh, so the engineering part, uh, I can't help. Right.
So what, can you, can you hear me, Abby? I can hear you. So, Ed, um, in essence, what we're looking for this morning is the commission membership to vote, uh, for the request that we've put forward for FY27, the capital request. And that request is to continue with the design effort, uh, to evaluate and design a possible replacement of the Route 20 low pressure system. So that is in our FY27 capital request. Mike Gitten voted yes to approve it. And we're looking for you to vote as well. Well, my year is not as good as you need. Okay.
Let me see if I can hold on. Yeah, that's okay. No, no, hold on. Let me try this. Yeah. If this, if this works, we'll do the same thing tomorrow night for the Board of Public Works. Great.
Can you speak? I can hear you. Can you hear me? Okay. Why don't you try again? All right. Can you hear me all right? For some reason, it's very, it is very low. Um, yeah, let me just get my computer and, um, okay. Maybe while we wait for this kid, have we scheduled meetings past, um, today? No, we have not. Okay. We definitely need to do that. Maybe we just chat about that a little bit while we wait for Ed and then we can come back. Sure. So do you see a need right now? So we'd be, um, uh, if we went for the third Monday, Monday, we'd be, is that what we're on or the fourth? Yeah. We'd be the, the 15th. Is that what we're scheduled? Yeah. That would be, that would be the third Monday. Right. Yeah. And if we need a meeting, I, I, I, I'm available at that same time.
No, we want to, we want to solve this. Here, you can sit here and then I'll put that in the schedule. Okay. Yeah. I think that would, and Ed generally can make most meetings. So I think he'd be okay. We just have to clear it with Darren. Yeah. I'll invite Darren. I'll do the invite that I always do and I'll follow up. Yeah. We'll revisit that when, when Ed's with us, but, um, I'm just, and then you, and it sounds like that meeting would be important because we want to talk to small capital, et cetera, and start the general budget discussion. Exactly. Yes. And then. All right. Ed, is that much better? Yep. Okay. Great. Okay. Hi. Hi. Hey, now technology. So Tom, maybe, so I'm not sure. Why don't you just repeat the, uh, the, the, the motion, if you have that written somewhere. Yeah, I can, it's not written, but I think I can recite it. So the motion would be that the wastewater district commission, um, makes a motion to accept the FY 27 capital budget request, which includes $125,000 for the design of the low pressure sewer system. Um, and, and that's the system that runs in, um, the, in, in, down route 20. And, and the, the, the, the thing that gives us motivation besides it being a little bit old is there's plans to do a major rehab or route 20. And if we're thinking about this, we want it done before the rehab's done and there's a moratorium on us doing anything besides emergency repairs. So with that in mind, Mike Gitten, I, I, I second the motion or actually I first motion. Ed, do you second the motion after hearing that explanation?
Is that okay with you, Ed? Yeah, that's fine. Okay. Then I, Mike, Mike Gitten, I, I say we, we, we, I go yes. Aye. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Okay. The, the, the good news, it's not another $500,000, whatever, whatever. Yes.
Okay. Now to, uh, request for service. And we're talking, the first would be the Hastings group where the, the 13 folks that are on their own system now talking about joining us. Yes, we've been talking with them about joining and they had asked us about, um, a payment plan and, um, I was wondering if the board would approve us discussing with them, uh, whether or not their HOA would be able to make the phone payment and pay the monthly bills, uh, for the houses. And then we would be able to, um, set up like a six month payment plan with the HOA. Okay. And with that, you're, you're thinking the, the, the, the connection that is, would they be in the betterment or the privilege end of the world? This is, this is all privilege fees. So we're sort of past the betterment. There's no longer betterments associated with this. Um, all of this is under the privilege fee. So we'd be, yeah, we're talking to privilege fee, but, uh, setting up a payment plan with the HOA potentially, and maybe even, maybe even talking with them about all of the utility bills within their development. And then potentially we could solve one of the, uh, problems that we have right now with the billing. Um, I, I, I, you know, I, I support those types of discussions. I, I, even if they came in and committed in whatever, a month or two or a week, we wouldn't be seeing flow from them for probably at the best next summer. Uh, right. And so there's no, I see no costs to the, to the, uh, committee, to the, the commission. And, um, and it, and it, it, um, with only an upside. So I, I would support that.
Any, any questions about what we're talking about? It's like when they, they're going to be new, so they pay the privilege fee for the expanded use and they, they want to talk about a payment plan, um, to, and the payment plan would be just for the units that need it, not for the entire 13. Right. Is that where we left that?
Well, I, I, I think the one concept, yeah, that I'm, I'm concerned about is that we, we deal with all 13 or we don't, um, accommodate or, or make that consideration because, uh, although they're talking about, you know, they've got some dwellings are favorable to this and some dwellings are not, um, you know, as a, as a, as an owner. We don't want to, uh, uh, consider anything but all 13, uh, because what'll happen is that, uh, uh, uh, you know, one of their, the genesis of this for them is that they would like to rid themselves of a, of a septic system that takes up a lot of real estate on their property and do something else with that. Um, so with them making the connection to the town system, um, they, they would want to have all 13 of those dwellings connected and they need to work through actually how, you know, they, they obtain those payments. And it really shouldn't be borne by the town to concern ourselves with that. So if the payment plan, you know, is supported, which it appears that it is, that payment plan would be the privilege fee for all 13 dwellings. But as far as use, we're not really there yet on how that would work. And my one thought is, um, if we take it to the, the quarterly billing, if, if, um, uh, you know, that, that would be a little more convoluted and more difficult to, to come up with. Um, um, a, I don't think there should be a payment plan on quarterly billing, but where am I going with it? If, if, if we get, if we give them the capacity on a payment plan, um, they're, they're committing to the base fee, even if they don't go forward until we release them of, of that commitment, which we've never done before. Cause no, no, no one's ever asked though. We do have the mechanism for it. Now that the concept is in our, in our rules and regulations, we just said never implemented it. And I think when we did it, it was under the, the concept that as we get near our capacity, that if we had another person that was walking in with a check to assume what was a bad start by someone else, we would, we would do that. Um, just speaking out loud, if we did a payment plan and the deal falls apart on their end before they could do it, um, it would protect them a little cause it wouldn't have written as big a check, but it, um, we, we would, we would have to just, I, at my point, I wouldn't, I would be very strict on the, uh, if, if they got into a lien situation, I would, I would down and then I'd want to enact our ability to just say, forget about it. Um, and, and, and, and give, and sell the, uh, the, uh, capacity to someone else. I, I guess we can't be forgiving. Yeah. The one other concern that we have as well is that, uh, you know, and you referenced it, Mike, is that, you know, the base fee. And then once they're connected, the actual, you know, consumption charge is that, um, you know, if there are a number of dwellings that are not supportive of making the connection, I would be reticent. And to, uh, to have the town trying to chase those owners for the base fee and the, and the, and the quarterly consumption charge. So I, I would recommend that as we negotiate this and craft, you know, uh, legal instruments to, to help advance this is that some sort of a, uh, uh, a mechanism is established whereby we're not at risk. That the HOA is at risk. Cause I don't know. I could say about the lean, but I don't know how fast we could move. Um, if it, just, if this went South and we had this capacity tied up, um, uh, for whatever reason. Um, but all we're talking about is, is, are we open to the concept? And, and, and ideally we'd, we'd like a plan that somehow not only covers the privilege, but going forward. Cause when they, when they come in and start the process, they're committed. And, and then that's my next question. What, what is our normal? So terrain came in and, and took more capacity. Are they going to get the base bill starting next, starting when that would be immediate. I think it's pretty much that's on there now. Okay. So it, so it does. Yeah. So it, it raises that issue immediately and then it gets to, um, it would put work on, on you all. If, if we don't look at, you know, if we, uh, we have, uh, adequate capacity. And especially, you know, the, the wastewater, the volume can change during, uh, you know, depending on how, how it work. Uh, you have to have a little bit of reserve capacity for your current system. So these are based on reserve. Oh, go ahead. Yeah. About 2,900 gallons. And we have about nine, 9,000 available. Is that Abby? Is that right? Yes. Um, but it, it, the more we talk, it just, you can't separate the issue with a privilege fee from ongoing billing. Right. And because they need to acknowledge, not only is it, sure, it's a big, it's a big check for the privilege, but then there'll be 13, what we think are reasonable, quarterly charges that need to be covered. We're starting, starting at least the base fee almost immediately. What, what is the base fee on 2,800 small, 2,800 gallons, small users? You might just have that number. I can have it in a few minutes. 2,800, get 2,800 gallons. Or you mean like 220? No, the, assuming they're not connected, they pay. All right. So for each, um, cause it's, you're talking about Hastings in this moment right now, right? The, the, all the different 13 times 220. Right. So they would individually pay here. You guys, you can keep talking. I'll pull that up and I'll chime in when I have it.
Yep. Um, so, but the bottom line is we're only talking about talking and it just, the conversation just highlights the need to be thoughtful about this. And, and I, and if, if, if, if, if we do come up with agreement for all 13 to, to, um, be billed through the homeowners association, um, it still makes work for someone on this call, um, to, to add up the 13 water uses and, and, and come up, confirm there's no extra charges. Yeah. The, um, each 220 unit at 220 gallons per day for each of those two bedroom units is about $235 per quarter. Okay.
And for all 13, it's, it's, I don't have my calendar. I'll do it. A little over three grand, I think.
And, um, and, and the, and the privilege fee is going to be around 70 grand, something like that. Correct. Yep. Okay. Yeah, right there. Okay. But at this point, what we're, we just want to be able to more formally with the blessing of the, of the, uh, committee, um, the commission to, to enter into discussions with the homeowners association. So, I, I make a motion that we, we start discussions with, what's the proper name of the entity? Wayland Commons, or, uh, they call themselves that, don't they? I, I don't know what the entity of the HOA is though.
Um, with the representatives of, of Wayland Commons to, uh, uh, develop a payment plan for privilege fee and, and other charges. Is that what we're talking about? That is. Yes. Yes. Um, I, I, I, I support that, that type of motion. Ed, you, you okay with talking? Uh, I'm fine with it. Okay. But, uh, I just, I just, I just want to point out, uh, you can always add, uh, storage to balance the flow rate and, so, give you a little bit of extra. Yeah. But, but, any, anything you add it out, it'll be costly. Unless someone else pays for it. Yeah. True. Okay. So, I make, I make, uh, then I, I say we vote, I support the motion, Mike Gitten, yes? Yeah. Yes. Okay.
Anything else on requests for service? We were, we've been talking about adding some sort of a deadline to commit. So, that once the sewer application has been submitted, something like saying that, uh, the privilege fee or the commitment needs to be made, uh, two months after the sewer use application, um, adding in something like extensions may be granted based on the calendars of other town boards. Because I know sometimes these are held up by planning board approvals or things like that, but just adding a timeline to our sewer use application so that, um, some of these have been out there with questions. But when we have other people coming to ask for reserved capacity, how much do we hold it for? And the sewer use application, that, that is what we use to calculate our privilege fee and, and have these discussions, but it also gets blessed by the board of health. Is that correct? Is it the same? Are they involved in that? They're not specifically involved in it. I usually involve them, um, just in, in discussions, especially, I, I involve them if there's a restaurant. So we talk about, um, uh, grease traps and things like that. So, um, I haven't talked to them about all of them, but all of the major ones we do. Yeah. I, we should revisit that because like a year or two ago, they updated their rules and regulations. And I thought they asserted control over us in some odd way, um, that they actually needed to be involved in all, um, mainly, mainly, mainly it's only new. I, I don't, I'd have to look it up. I'll, I'll sit down with Darren and review them. Yeah. Okay. I, I, I, I fully support that. Um, I, I don't know what, uh, um, I, I guess I would not, I guess I know I defer to, to the professionals in the town as far as the sequence. Um, we, we don't, we, we, um, we don't want it to drag out too far. So they need to be able to go to another, another board commission or something and say, I have the sewage capacity. Right. Or else they can't get through that step. Right. And we want our check. That's right.
Okay. So, um, I, I, I, and so if, if that other, whatever throws aren't, aren't as friendly as we are and throws an obstacle that becomes the, the applicant's problem, not ours, unless they come and talk to us. Yeah. Um, and then I also, as far as, um, would we need to update our rules and regulations or would this just be by whatever we talk about today? Um, I'm in the process of updating the rules and regulations. So this can be something that I add to it, but this would be something I was, I was just going to add it to the actual sewer. I mean, the more, the more we talk about it, I, I, we could always revisit it as whatever we say is better than what we have now from the applicant's perspective. Perspective. Right. Um, two months, I'd, I'd be even open to, to three months having seen how, because we're a lot of volunteers on our boards and things come up. Um, so we would, we would, we would, would we want, my only thought was, and maybe it's just too complicated. Would we want a, a, um, an intent deposit? Like, would we want, you know, a 10% at time of doing it and the rest three months later? Um, because, um, it doesn't cost anyone much to come in and show you something and, and fill out a form. Um, and to be fair, um, excuse me, to the smaller applicant, it wouldn't be a lot of money, the homeowner or the very small development. Um, and, um, to something bigger, we wouldn't be tying up a lot, um, with, with an applicant who, who's looking to make a big investment already.
Would that 10% be refundable? I'm thinking no. That's why I wouldn't go higher. For some, for something like terrain though, that would have been when they submitted their application, them paying $7,000, um, unrefundable. Before they're even had sold the property. So. Well, how long do they, do they show up with a check or do we, how are we handling it now? Is it, is it, you know, this isn't really yours until you pay us and, and, or do they show up with a check? We have them do the sewer use app. Well, we haven't really decided.
For terrain, how has it worked? Yeah. Up to date, we haven't had so many requests, so it hasn't really. Uh, an issue terrain had requested the flow. They submitted a sewer use application. And then when they had all their approvals, they came in and paid with the check. But, um, but all of that seemed to be moving forward that had, you know, you know, forward momentum. Some of these other requests, um, are more questions than, than actual projects moving forward. Well, not, not to, not to stifle, um, development. And what's in our interest is the committee. Maybe, maybe we have a, uh, you know, you got, you got 30 days to, to put this 10% down and then another, another 60, you know, give them three months to, to, to finish. That, that, that way they can, they can, I mean, I would think they would have, once again, I don't understand all the way the, even as of right, I'm not familiar with how it all works in our town. Well, I guess maybe rather than, you know, charge a 10% down payment, we could establish, you know, that an applicant must, if we think that the building permit is really the first formal trigger of somebody seriously pursuing something that, um, that, you know, the clock starts ticking upon the receivable of a, of a building permit. And then there, we know that they're working their way through the, um, you know, through the process was right now to date, you know, and to kind of echo what Abby's saying, we, you know, we haven't had a lot in the past. Now we've got a, a number of folks that are, we've got three in particular and, and, you know, using our judgment, we know that all three of them are, are seriously pursuing things. So we're, you know, you know, kind of preserving that capacity for those three, you know, so we could do something rather than having a fee that would need to be not refunded. Um, we could do something. But Tom, we're talking about sort of the period in between when they request it and when they even start something like a building permit. How long do we reserve a flow for them? Um, yeah, I mean, Tom, in the meantime, it could take a year or two, right? Uh, well, without, without a sewer, uh, then you cannot really develop a piece of land. Uh, if it's, uh, uh, that's, I think that's, uh, in the old day, that's what the town decided don't want more development. Uh, I remember in the early 70s, I wrote a letter to, to the town, told them you can apply federal government grant to pay for all the sewer construction. Uh, the Uncle Samuel would pick 90%, uh, we only need to pay 10%. Uh, the, the few towns around this area all have no interest at all, so that's the, if that's still the principal of the town, then you're really difficult to, to do anything. Uh, you know, the Board of Health have to have their rules to meet. Yeah, I, I, I think I, you know, on a similar note, I think it might be better just to time it to a clock versus to an event, because there's so many different ways that the approval process could go. That maybe you'd be more of a clock that you could come in, you know, we'd give you 30 days to give a percentage and then another 60 or 90 to do the rest. Um, I, I, I've been in, I haven't been in town as long as Ed, but I don't think I've seen any project that's not as of right, that's not a single family home, uh, get through everything in three months. I think, I think, I think when people come in, they're advised to plan for a year. Just to change subjects briefly, Abby, we've got a one o'clock at the MWRA. What's your pleasure? Would you like to go to that? Or do you want me to, uh. Oh yeah. Stage right. And I'll go to it. Um, I can go. Um, the other, the only other question I had on some of these connection issues was that, um, we had talked about potentially collecting consultant fees under, um, review of sewer use application issues and, um, had at my desk before, but Mass General Law allows you to collect, uh, consultant fees from an applicant, uh, through the town clerk, uh, the town clerk sets aside a special account, um, and that enables us to kind of collect a consultant fee for reviewing the sewer use application. So we would be able to do something like that if we needed to. Yeah. That's, that's encouraging. Was that, uh, you know, we've, we've got a situation currently where that might help us out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, just like, you know, going back to what I was talking about, only one of us needs to leave the meeting. I'm happy to do it. Or if you think it's better that you go, either way is fine with me. Well, I hope we're done before one, unless you have to travel somewhere. Well, we got to, we got to drive to the site. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying we have to end the meeting. I'm just saying one of the two. No, I think, I think we're getting near the end. I mean, is there something we need to, we want to act on today? I mean, I, I, I support payment plans. The more we talk about it, I, I would, I would be, I'd be more towards. Whatever, 30, 45 days to come in and put in an earnest to show you're real. And then another 60, even 90 days. Uh, I think terrain, I've been on this board for, I don't know, too many years. I don't remember an interesting project like that coming in so quick, uncontroversial, even from us and just show up and write a check.
But they're as of right, pretty much. Correct. They're not doing a heck of a lot. Change. Yeah. No. A few parking spaces and. That's right. And we don't have many properties like that in town. That's true. But, uh, it, well, in our service area, I should say. Um, so I, I do. Yeah. So we could, we could craft a proposal, um, and, uh, get that out to the group and then put that December agenda, uh, would be something a little bit more structured, formatted or whatever for your consideration. Yeah. I, I guess where I'm coming from, I, I think the more we talk, I don't know whether they have to tie it to the town permitting process because. Got it. Okay. Too many variables and, but I, and I, I'd, I'd be open to make it longer as long as we got an earnest fee, whatever the proper deposit that non-refundable at some shorter, reasonable window and, and, and on the consulting fees. So as, uh, do we need to look into that to see as the, uh, um, commission that, that, that avenues available to us still, or.
Yeah. It sounds like Abby did the research on mass general law. Um, I think we just need to make sure that, uh, you know, we can start with the finance director, uh, to make sure that they're open to allowing for that. But, uh, yeah, so that can be on staff's plate. Yep. So we'd put something in these regs, our rules and regs to say that under certain conditions, we can negotiate getting a proper, whatever this is called to, to, to support reviewing a proposal. So we could think creatively, like Ed said, about maybe, maybe that person puts in a holding tank and, and, and, and level flows to us versus business hour flow or something creative.
I'm not even, I mean, I can draft some language for rules and regulations, but I think in the meantime, I think mass general law allows us to do it, um, as a district, but we can, you know, talk to the finance director and find out the logistics of, of that. I'm, I'm totally up for it because what I learned last meeting is that nice, that nice privilege fee we got. We can't really commit it to any, not, we can't really, we cannot commit it to anything till next year. It would be nice if we could have front loaded this, um, professional review of our current plant and, and what is the, based on what we've learned in the last five, 10 years, what is the real design flow we could sell with an adequate level of safety? That's correct. And then also look at, is our ratio of the title five to design flow adequate after the, you know, our, our uses, usage history. Can, can, can, can we do a, a proper statistical study and, and come up with maybe something a little different? Right. All right. I can head out and go to the, uh, okay. I, um, I will represent and then I'll, um, I'll head down there myself. Okay. All right. Thanks, Abby. Um, I'm sorry. I was going to say to get back to the people that are buying for this flow right now. Um, they're all wondering how much time they have. So I'm just wondering what we're going to say to everybody, I guess, in the meantime, we think we have some commitment dates roughly, um, you know, one of them likely mid-December. Um, I think Hastings is a little bit hard to, to gauge, but it's got to be somewhat in the next, hopefully month or so. Um, and then we have town center who would take everything that is available after that. Um, so. So my, my suggestion would be, um, we, you know, we have the three of them. We have, um, a particular flow for constituent road. We have a particular flow for Hastings. We have town center who's looking for the balance of that. I think between now and our December meeting, I think we've got, we can kind of, you know, say to those folks that we are preserving their capacity of request. And then at the December meeting, we'll have a formal vote on what the mechanism will be, including a deposit. And at that point, we would then issue, um, the request for that deposit from those three entities should they want to continue with us. So I think we, I think we'll be okay until the December meeting. Okay. Does that, I don't know, Mike, do you? Yeah, I, well, you know, better. To me, I mean, at a very high level, you know, 20, 2900 to the Hastings, did, did, did the Coticia road, did they get, were they able to get their design flow below to two, 2,999? That's like, yeah. Oh, they did. Oh, sorry. I was going to say it's an Abbey thing. So I'm not sure. I think Abbey was pretty confident based upon seating and all of that, but it would be south of, uh, 3000 gallons a day. I mean, I know they're scheduled for the zoning board tomorrow evening. Yeah. We'll probably have a better sense of how that goes. And then, and then that would leave a roughly 4,000 to the new managers of town center. And I guess it's up to them. This is a public meeting. They heard that there's residents in a small business that are looking to come in. And if they, you know, I think they'd make their own business decision on whether they'd come in and, and, and take that out of the public good while we figure out. We do think, I do believe that there is more capacity available that we could, we could get out, you know, not, not another, not another Alta, not another, um, development like we heard about last month, but I do believe that there's a couple thousands of gallons of capacity that we can get out by our professional staff doing a higher level review of the design flow, the way we use it for allocating versus actual history, a high level course review. So, um, if someone's looking to gobble up 20,000 gallons there, it's not there 10,000, um, uh, you parse it out that way. It's, it's, it's there or 9,000 or a little more.
Okay. Uh, if, if, if any, uh, uh, uh, engineering, technique stuff you want to be review, I'd be happy to do it. Yeah. There's no charge.
Yeah. Great. Very good.
Um, anything else under requests? Nothing new. So, so I, so I think that the one thing out of this is we, we are, they, they, the, uh, the commission is open to, to, uh, some sort of hold based on, of a reasonable period. I, um, we, we got to just be a little more thoughtful than what we can do right now. Um, and, and we're open to availing ourselves of being able to take, uh, um, uh, independent consultant fee, whatever the proper term is. So we can review what's put in front of us.
Okay. Good synopsis. So we have the October 20th minutes. You said two minutes, right? I did because we had to, I, I should have wrote this in here and maybe it'll have to wait another meeting, but, um, I, we actually did not vote on the last minutes. We had, um, postponed. September and October. Right. So that's why I sent them both. I reviewed both. Um, and, uh, I would say that, uh, in the context of the agenda item of reviewing minutes, they're both minutes and, and we could, um, versus in the public interest of, getting these out in, in November versus December, I would, I would move forward with reviewing the September 8th, 2025 minutes, which were circulated to the committee in advance of this meeting and also in advance of the last meeting. I, I, so I make a motion to approve the September 8th, 2025 minutes as they are. Ed, I'm not sure if you had a chance to look at them. I did look at them. Um, I, I had no comments on, on them. Are you okay approving the, uh, September 8th minutes? Ed? I second. Okay. And, and to prove I did read the minutes, I, I also reviewed the October 20th, 2025 minutes. I, I make a motion that we approve them, but there's a typo on the requested capacity for Hastings. Oh, okay. Um, okay. And I just made a, but, but I, I, I could tell you what I, um, it's, uh, yeah. And the Hastings, uh, oh, is that the capacity? I, under Hastings way, it says for information, the flow rate for these, it says 44 units. It should say 13 units in the, in the first paragraph. Who's speaking on that one? Is that Jim's? Yeah. Okay. I took it from the written verbiage. So I'll double check that for sure though. Yeah. So maybe we could put a, a sick in there or something. Um, cause yeah, from the 13 units is 2,860. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'll take a look at that for sure. Um, and then I guess just to, you know, to, to keep with the letter of the meeting law or whatever, if you, I would approve, I would make a motion, get a second and vote each one separately. Just should we meet that, the spirit of. Well, we did, we did vote on the, um, September. Okay. All right. So we got an hour on the hour on the, uh, October 20th, 2025, I make a motion that we approve them with an editorial comment that it's, it's, um, if, if it's even appropriate then, uh, 13 units, uh, but if that's what he said, that's what he said. Um, I'm not going to argue with AI. That could be wrong. I'm the second. Okay. So then we, once again, so we made a motion now we approve, I've, Mike Gitten and, uh, very good. So we'll dispense with that. Anything else, um, people want to bring up?
Um, nothing here. Um, so we're proposing, uh, same time, December 15th, Monday, 1130 meeting in December. Yeah. We've done 1130 and 12. So it's whatever works better, I guess. And then we can see what Darren says after we set these. To be honest, if we had 12 does work a little better for me, you might see me, I might eat more of my lunch in front of you, but, uh, if, if we could do 12, but I'm, I'm flexible anytime after 1130, but 12 is better. Okay. And do we want a pencil? Do we need a pencil in a January date? So third weekend, uh, sort of what? December 5th, sorry. It's a December 15th. Yeah. We need a January and probably a February if we can do it. We usually try to do three months at a clip. So I think, I don't have a cat with January 19th. Is that Martin Luther King day? Yeah. We have to stay clear of that.
Yeah.
So do we, do we do it another day of the week? Do we do a week later? Do the 26th. Uh, is that, I'm not sure if, is that a school vacation a much? Oh no, that's January. My bad. Take that back. No, yeah. School vacations the week prior to with the holiday week. Yeah. Yeah. I do. I'm, I'm fine with that. And once again, I do prefer noon, but I am, I, I can be flexible after 1130 works. Okay. Yeah. I'm flexible, but just have, let me know. A little bit earlier. That's all. Okay. And, and January, when is school vacation, Sarah? In, uh. It's February 16th. Yeah. It's the week of school. So it's that third Monday. So should we do it the same thing? 23rd. By then, is it, would it be better to move, move, meet a week earlier or later? It doesn't matter. Probably a week later again, because they're also going to be really close together. They'll be like a two week gap. That's it. What was the 23rd? Yeah. Okay. I put it on. Okay. Very good. I'll text these to Darren. So he sees them, you know, and I'll also send you out invites to every meeting. Great. Okay. With that, I make a motion to adjourn. Mike, Ed, you ready to adjourn? I vote we adjourn. Ed, you ready to adjourn? Yeah. Thanks for coming in. And. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for coming in.
Okay. Is there any public comment?
I am looking, and aside from the seven panelists, I do not see anybody in public comment. Okay.
So let's get to the monthly operating report.
Jared? Yep. It wasn't too bad of a month. We've had some elevated nitrates. So we were working with Whitewater to make adjustments for that. We were increasing the return flow, changing air patterns, adding sugar and sodium bicarbonate.
We also were preparing for the screens I.O. panel. So Daigle and Wilson were in, getting that mounted, getting the conduit ready.
Wilson also came in and helped us look for the unknown electrical issue. It looked like we had a bad transformer and another one that was not fully grounded. So we were getting some weird electrical signals coming through from the MCC cabinets to the PLC. Wilson also swapped one of our spare pre-air blower drives to our sludge basin blowers so that we could have at least one sludge blower that will keep mixing up the sludge in the basin so it does not go septic. We had McVac pump out alta so that got cleaned up and since some had come over to the Route 20 pump station, we had them clean that out. But there was a moment where the waste valve actuator had gotten stuck and unbeknownst to me, it was slowly trickling flow into the sludge basin. So I actually got called in for a high alarm in the sludge basin and I just had to really make sure that the valve was tight and then we were able to get it pumped out during the week. The thermostat for the plant was dead, so facilities came in and got that up and running, so we have heat, which is great. This was done before it was getting too cold, so it wasn't really a worry, but definitely good to know that now that it's getting freezing temperatures, that plant is going to be all set. Pride came in and they replaced the floor drain pipe that is under the bathroom, but it is inside the EQ tank. So, thankfully, that is taken care of. Now, the gases from the tank are no longer escaping and that is much safer and healthier.
And yeah, that's pretty much our month at the plant.
So, we're still in the process of improving the automatic washing of the screens. We're still using a little more water than we'd like? Yeah, so they were able to set it up in a way that it runs on a cycle. It's not fully connected to SCADA in the sense that when the flow meter senses flow, the screens kick on. But the solenoids on screen two are working on their timers, so it's not fully spraying water at all times. Sometimes there's a clicking of it coming on and off, but even that one is still technically running at 24-7. Screen two actually has bad solenoids, so the manufacturer is going to be giving us new ones and installing them. And so, for the time being, we still have the water reduced on that one, and that's more of our lag screen. So, if the first one does back up, we still have a spare, but it's not – we've definitely reduced our water usage since the original installation. So, when the SCADA and the power issues get resolved, it will improve further, or is this going to be the status quo? So, unrelated to, like, any sort of SCADA or electrical issues, it just needs to be fully tied into SCADA. So, like we currently have on the screen, like the – it looks like the old screen setup, but that's because we just haven't had it fully integrated yet. Okay. When do you think this will be as efficient as it can be, you know, as the setup allows us to be? Yeah, that's a good question. We don't have a timeline right now. We're working with Aqua Solutions to get those valves, and we don't have a delivery date on those. Additionally, the controls were set up into the panel, and we need to get the as-built plan for that so that the SCADA company can program it into the SCADA program. Is that from Ty and Bond, or where does that come from? That's coming from Wilson Controls and Daigle Electric. And then on the power, when you say transformers, you're talking little ones, not a big pad, right? Yes. Yeah. Electrical terminology is not my forte. So, yeah, it's a small – Small is good. Small versus not on a pad. That's me too. And is that something like – like, where are we on – we had a little money left in the project. Are we now into, you know, maintenance, and is this a small capital, something we could pull from that fund? We pulled from – some of it from contingency for the emergency electrical repairs, and we're pulling the remainder from the small capital. Is it 10,000, 50,000? What are we thinking? Any idea yet?
The total will probably be in the range of 50,000. Okay.
But the good news is it's not like bad wires or bad – it could have been a lot worse. Hopefully it's fixing. It can always be worse. Yeah, hopefully equipment failure is easier to deal with than something that also, Jared, I know nothing about.
Okay.
Also, in terms of – go ahead, Mike. No, go on. I was going to change topics. I just – in terms of operations, we've also been working with Hastings in order to set up their potential expansion of their sewer in that area. Yeah, they talked to us about potentially a payment plan, and I was wondering if the board would approve – asking them if they would be put on a plate. I do have some – can we talk some more operational things before we – Oh, sure. Yes. I actually – I did have from – so I was just looking at the notes for today. The last time we were surprised, the plates, we were seeing holes, sharps. Is that still an issue? No, that was really just from the physical cleaning that we were doing by pulling up the membranes. And then that sludge valve that you said was left open, is that a manual one, or is that something on a cellulinoid valve? It's not a cellulinoid. It's an actuator valve. It's one of the originals to the plant. We replaced one last year, and we just had a plan going forward of kind of replacing one once a year about. And so, yeah, like the automatic wasting cycle happens every day, and it just, you know, closes some, opens this one, does its thing, hits its goal of gallons, and then closes back down. And I think this was a weekday that I – so I had been here, and it just – by all accounts, it really looked like it was closed. It just happened to be the tiniest little bit open. Like it wasn't even registering on the flow meter.
But, yeah, no, nothing concerning. The biggest issue usually with those is that they get stuck in a more obvious way, and then I am aware of it and have to basically manually open and close these valves. That's usually how we know that they go bad.
But, yeah, it's not too typically anything crazy like that. Okay. And the nitrates, is that going on long enough that it's no longer an excursion and we have a permit? Do we have to notify someone, or is it still – No, we're doing fine. We still – we did have an exceedance last month, but it's still not of – it's still not to the point of a concern. And we're – especially we're trending downwards now. Okay. Yeah, we're not concerned with it. And a lot of that was maybe due to the need for more water while we got the front end set up? Yeah, we messed with the biology by pumping out of the tank so much. And then also with the extra water we were getting from the screens, the clean water was just diluting the amount of biology we had. So it made it, you know, just a little more difficult. And then my final operational question, overall flows, are we seeing a change with the Council of Aging and Library, or is it not noticeable? Yeah, I – it really comes and goes. I would say we're still around that, you know, 32 mark.
Okay.
Ed, any questions regarding operating, or you're all set?
Okay. Well, we could jump to request for service and talk about Hastings, or do you want to do that? I can do it under request for service. I thought maybe we were going to talk about it under the operations, but either way. Well, I want to just keep going in case anyone is jumping on. Sure. We'll go to the monthly financials, and I just – I did text Darren to see if he was getting on. I didn't hear back, so I suspect something came up for him. Yeah, he did email the group. He didn't include you by name, Mike. He included the wastewater commission. Oh, that, yeah. There I see it. Conflict, yes. So he's got a family emergency that came up this morning? Okay. Yeah, so he did notify us early on that he was likely not going to be here.
Got it. Okay. Okay. Can everyone see the budget okay on the screen? Yep. Excellent. All right, so this gets us through October 31st, 2025. The expenses haven't moved a huge amount since the last time, so I don't have anything super unexpected to point out. We already knew that we were over on the water. We actually did take some – or that we're going to be over in the water. Sorry, we're not over yet. We were able to take the first quarterly bill that was high out of the project before we exhausted the project budget, which is, you know, definitely exhausted. We no longer have that, which is why I know it was mentioned before that contingency and small equipment are helping us with our current maintenance issues. Other than that, it's pretty much status quo, nothing to point out unless you have any questions on expenses specifically. The interesting thing to point out would actually be wastewater user charges, which – so in here, because it's only through October 31st, it looks like we're under, right? Because we've had two billings come due at this point, but I put a note over here because as of 1114, we actually have a 295K. I think that revenue was posted just a little bit after this budget was run, so it's actually really good. I mean, overall, you figure you have one summer month and one winter month in this billing, so it's kind of a pretty clean half a year overall because we have another winter and summer. So, you know, 295 out of 533 is a pretty good spot to be in, so I'm pleased with that. Yeah. Let's hopefully keep that up. And we know we have – obviously, I know we'll get to it, but we have new projects coming online, so maybe only up from there.
Leans, I should have highlighted it, but I figured I'd bring up leans. So, this revenue you see here is just money that's coming in from the last round of leans because the official timing for leans this year, I believe, is usually around end of November, early December. So, we're coming on that point where we are about to finalize those. I can tell you that for this year's leans, we have about $6,135 to be leaned, which is not bad. So, I do believe that includes interest, so give or take a few. We're about at $6,000. And these are four residences and one commercial property. The commercial property is actually going to be sold by December, so I'm pretty sure that that will get cleaned up when the MLC and the closing goes on. It will have to. I'm sure it will be. So, that's about maybe like 1,200 of it accounted for for that. The other four properties or residences, they are, I believe, all in bankruptcy, and they have been on this list every year. So, I don't anticipate much to come in. We don't ever really collect on those ones. I'm assuming none of them are in the Hastings room. I hope not. Jeez, that's an interesting question. Let me see. I can answer that question. Okay. But this is all good. While you do that, this is all great because I still remember when we first brought in the Abrams group. I think we were running about, I can't remember, 8%, 10% of unpaid. And I think they said if you're below 5%, it's more normal to 2,500. We're at 1%. Excellent job. Yeah. You know, we're lucky this year. It's definitely the lowest year we've had since I've been here. So, and to go back to what you just said, I'm actually really glad you asked that because I didn't even think of this, but there is, there is a Hastings Way property on here. I won't, I don't have to say the address. No, but I'd be curious. If, I would want to make sure it's not one of the ones that is the 13th, well, nevermind, it's not. Nevermind. It's obvious. I guess it's not totally as relevant as I thought, except it does show that there's some risk on our part by how we approach this. But in the short term, none of the 13 would be on that list because they're not clients of ours yet. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So, yeah. So, that's good. We're having a good year off as far as revenue goes. Well, that's, that's, that's great. Well, we only, we only got to get, you know, seven more months of no major equipment failures. I mean, right now we're still reacting to you, you, you, you prove something and it highlights a weak point in something else or stresses something else, which is why, why we're not giving away our full design flow quite yet. Um, just for this reason, and, and hopefully, it sounds like what I'm hearing is the free repair of a defective apart of is, is, is, is, is on the critical path of getting that last year's improvements. That's right. In a, there's still be odds and ends, but in a better spot, which. Yeah. It, it, that happens. Okay. Um, yeah, there's not. Um, much more to note. I mean, interest is down this year. That's a sad thing. That was a really nice year last year, but I guess that's the market. So that's where we're at. Um, and then, you know, we already talked about how we have expended this entire budget tank painting. That's been over a while. And we just to still have that low pressure sewer replacement design that is yet to be spent, but I'm sure will be. Uh, so, um, yeah, so I think we're overall looking good unless you have any questions on anything specifically. Have, have we, do we have an R, how does that get, does that have to go out for a formal RFP that the 75k and has that happened yet? Or is it, can that go? Um, no, I'm still working on the scope of work. Okay. So they sent us a scope of work. I sent a bunch of comments back and then met with them to discuss it. And now we're waiting on a updated scope of work. So we can give it to the, we can, we can procure this through our existing relationship with the vendor. We can, we, and we have those vendors through a request for qualifications that we can allow back. Okay. I'm, I have nothing, Ed, is that still there? Yep. Good.
Okay. Okay. Uh, capital budget requests. Next year already. Can you believe it? Yeah. It just rolls in from one year into another. When is this to bookend this? When, when is this due to the finance committee or wherever you send it to next? Or did it already go? It was, um, October 24th, it was submitted to the, uh, the town manager and finance director. And, um, you know, I think we've been talking, ours is, um, relatively limited when I say ours, wastewater, as opposed to the full DPW and, and water. Um, we just have, um, for FY27, it's really just the one item, which is the $125,000 for the design of the low pressure system within Route 20 and, and within, and, uh, town center. So we have that listed, um, and that's really a, a prelude to the $2 million actual construction that we have, uh, requested for, bear with me one minute. I'll look at that, uh, that's, so that's the following. So that would be FY28. And, and, um, how does the $125,000 relate to the $75,000 we're, we're looking to spend this year? Yeah, I think one is kind of identified more as preliminary, conceptual, and the $125,000 is a more formal, but I can, I can let Abby give. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right now it's more of a, uh, existing conditions and preliminary design, uh, recommendations and sort of deciding what project, the exact project we need. And then next year is coming up with the contract documents for that project. And they'll be able to get that done. You know, if we don't, at this point, we're not going to be able to green light anything, probably till January, right? They can get it done in, in four or five months, that study? Yes. Okay. And, and the, and the $2 million, is that, is that, do we go on our own schedule or we'll react to what others are doing in the, in the road? And so what we're, we're, we're trying to couple this with, you know, the pending project of Route 20's rehabilitation. And we have some, um, engineering funds available to us, to the department, uh, through a town appropriation, $250,000 to begin, um, the, the design of that. And what we're anticipating doing, that'll be through the TIP program with the state. But certainly, uh, we would not want to embark on construction until the low pressure system was rehabilitated to the, to the need that we determined. Okay. Water's brand new. Drainage is all the state. And for the most part has been done. And then that will also be, um, addressed during, you know, the reconstruction of the road as well. So you're right, Mike, it is being timed with the anticipated Route 20 rehabilitation. But so the book, the book, the bookend on that, like if next, it could be 28 or 29, but he can't, we don't want, we want to be done before, um, anybody put the shovel in the ground for it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That'll, and that'll be a significant design effort. Um, that's probably in the order of, you know, $10 million project. The town will, um, be required to fund the design and the state will likely through its TIP program pay for construction, but, uh, we would likely not be breaking ground on construction for, for a number of years.
That's any, and, and I can't remember, did, did Jared, did we get a vehicle for ours? Did we get a new vehicle this year? It is on order and like many of our vehicles, it takes a long time to get these things. So, uh, but you're right. Um, Jared has, uh, a hybrid F-150 on its way. Okay. And, and, um, great. So I guess, you know, what we would like is to have the commission, you and Ed vote favorably on this capital project as presented. And then that was, uh, because as part of the CIP, there's actually, um, um, a space where we date and show the, uh, the result of the vote on the CIP. Okay. Yeah. I mean, for, I, as long as we're not a hundred percent locked into the 2 million in fiscal year 28, it could slip a year or two, depending on all the moving parts. And, and the outcome of the two designs that, um, what we'll, next time we talk about this, we'll have the benefit of this year's work and, and maybe even a little bit of next year's work to, to talk to. Right, right. So the motion would be really just, um, localized on FY 27. So the motion could be that the commission votes favorably for the low pressure sewer replacement design of $125,000 as shown in the FY 27 capital project request. Okay. Okay. I, I do have one, one other question though. Um, the, the, the, the privilege and betterment fees that we're collecting this year. Um, if, if something, if something goes, a piece of equipment starts behaving poorly, we can add that when we do the budget for the year's operation. What, what, what is that? That, that's correct, Mike. So this month, this meeting, we're reviewing and asking for a vote on the capital project in December, we'll be speaking about the operating budget. And it's in that budget that we'll identify, um, what amount from the privilege fee revenue that we obtained would be, be looking to spend through the use of retained earnings in FY 27. So we'll have that in our December meeting. Yeah. This is not meant for major O and M things that versus, or, or I guess mid, mid, mid, mid level O and M things that we could capture either with the small equipment or in the actual operating budget. Correct. Yep. Um, well, I should have been taking notes. I, I make a motion that we approve. Uh, I, I, I need my cue cards, Tom. What was I, what was it? You can just, you can actually just say, uh, accept the motion as Tom described and that works. I like that. I accept the motion as Tom Holder described, um, Mike Gitten, Ed, you okay with the motion?
Ed, can you hear us?
Abby. Abby's gone. She's the closest. Okay. I'm going to take a bite of my sandwich while we wait. Good move.
Can you hear them? What? Can you hear them? Oh, okay. Yeah. We can hear you. We can hear you loud and clear. Yeah. This verse. It's already got to high. So that's why it. Can you hear us now, Abby? I can hear you. Um, can, can you speak again? Yes. How's this sound? It's not very loud. Hmm. All right. I'm going to try again. Yeah. How about this? Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's pretty, it's still pretty weak. Oh. Sometimes. Is it the zoom volume or the computer volume? It's the speaker volume. I tried changing the speakers, but the speakers are pretty low here. Um, but did you hear them describe the capital budget? They would like you to approve the capital budget. Yeah. Well, I don't, I don't know the system that much yet. So the budget, I, it's difficult for me to give any idea about how the budget, uh, so the engineering part, uh, I can't help. Right.
So what, can you, can you hear me, Abby? I can hear you. So, Ed, um, in essence, what we're looking for this morning is the commission membership to vote, uh, for the request that we've put forward for FY27, the capital request. And that request is to continue with the design effort, uh, to evaluate and design a possible replacement of the Route 20 low pressure system. So that is in our FY27 capital request. Mike Gitten voted yes to approve it. And we're looking for you to vote as well. Well, my year is not as good as you need. Okay.
Let me see if I can hold on. Yeah, that's okay. No, no, hold on. Let me try this. Yeah. If this, if this works, we'll do the same thing tomorrow night for the Board of Public Works. Great.
Can you speak? I can hear you. Can you hear me? Okay. Why don't you try again? All right. Can you hear me all right? For some reason, it's very, it is very low. Um, yeah, let me just get my computer and, um, okay. Maybe while we wait for this kid, have we scheduled meetings past, um, today? No, we have not. Okay. We definitely need to do that. Maybe we just chat about that a little bit while we wait for Ed and then we can come back. Sure. So do you see a need right now? So we'd be, um, uh, if we went for the third Monday, Monday, we'd be, is that what we're on or the fourth? Yeah. We'd be the, the 15th. Is that what we're scheduled? Yeah. That would be, that would be the third Monday. Right. Yeah. And if we need a meeting, I, I, I, I'm available at that same time.
No, we want to, we want to solve this. Here, you can sit here and then I'll put that in the schedule. Okay. Yeah. I think that would, and Ed generally can make most meetings. So I think he'd be okay. We just have to clear it with Darren. Yeah. I'll invite Darren. I'll do the invite that I always do and I'll follow up. Yeah. We'll revisit that when, when Ed's with us, but, um, I'm just, and then you, and it sounds like that meeting would be important because we want to talk to small capital, et cetera, and start the general budget discussion. Exactly. Yes. And then. All right. Ed, is that much better? Yep. Okay. Great. Okay. Hi. Hi. Hey, now technology. So Tom, maybe, so I'm not sure. Why don't you just repeat the, uh, the, the, the motion, if you have that written somewhere. Yeah, I can, it's not written, but I think I can recite it. So the motion would be that the wastewater district commission, um, makes a motion to accept the FY 27 capital budget request, which includes $125,000 for the design of the low pressure sewer system. Um, and, and that's the system that runs in, um, the, in, in, down route 20. And, and the, the, the, the thing that gives us motivation besides it being a little bit old is there's plans to do a major rehab or route 20. And if we're thinking about this, we want it done before the rehab's done and there's a moratorium on us doing anything besides emergency repairs. So with that in mind, Mike Gitten, I, I, I second the motion or actually I first motion. Ed, do you second the motion after hearing that explanation?
Is that okay with you, Ed? Yeah, that's fine. Okay. Then I, Mike, Mike Gitten, I, I say we, we, we, I go yes. Aye. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Okay. The, the, the good news, it's not another $500,000, whatever, whatever. Yes.
Okay. Now to, uh, request for service. And we're talking, the first would be the Hastings group where the, the 13 folks that are on their own system now talking about joining us. Yes, we've been talking with them about joining and they had asked us about, um, a payment plan and, um, I was wondering if the board would approve us discussing with them, uh, whether or not their HOA would be able to make the phone payment and pay the monthly bills, uh, for the houses. And then we would be able to, um, set up like a six month payment plan with the HOA. Okay. And with that, you're, you're thinking the, the, the, the connection that is, would they be in the betterment or the privilege end of the world? This is, this is all privilege fees. So we're sort of past the betterment. There's no longer betterments associated with this. Um, all of this is under the privilege fee. So we'd be, yeah, we're talking to privilege fee, but, uh, setting up a payment plan with the HOA potentially, and maybe even, maybe even talking with them about all of the utility bills within their development. And then potentially we could solve one of the, uh, problems that we have right now with the billing. Um, I, I, I, you know, I, I support those types of discussions. I, I, even if they came in and committed in whatever, a month or two or a week, we wouldn't be seeing flow from them for probably at the best next summer. Uh, right. And so there's no, I see no costs to the, to the, uh, committee, to the, the commission. And, um, and it, and it, it, um, with only an upside. So I, I would support that.
Any, any questions about what we're talking about? It's like when they, they're going to be new, so they pay the privilege fee for the expanded use and they, they want to talk about a payment plan, um, to, and the payment plan would be just for the units that need it, not for the entire 13. Right. Is that where we left that?
Well, I, I, I think the one concept, yeah, that I'm, I'm concerned about is that we, we deal with all 13 or we don't, um, accommodate or, or make that consideration because, uh, although they're talking about, you know, they've got some dwellings are favorable to this and some dwellings are not, um, you know, as a, as a, as an owner. We don't want to, uh, uh, consider anything but all 13, uh, because what'll happen is that, uh, uh, uh, you know, one of their, the genesis of this for them is that they would like to rid themselves of a, of a septic system that takes up a lot of real estate on their property and do something else with that. Um, so with them making the connection to the town system, um, they, they would want to have all 13 of those dwellings connected and they need to work through actually how, you know, they, they obtain those payments. And it really shouldn't be borne by the town to concern ourselves with that. So if the payment plan, you know, is supported, which it appears that it is, that payment plan would be the privilege fee for all 13 dwellings. But as far as use, we're not really there yet on how that would work. And my one thought is, um, if we take it to the, the quarterly billing, if, if, um, uh, you know, that, that would be a little more convoluted and more difficult to, to come up with. Um, um, a, I don't think there should be a payment plan on quarterly billing, but where am I going with it? If, if, if we get, if we give them the capacity on a payment plan, um, they're, they're committing to the base fee, even if they don't go forward until we release them of, of that commitment, which we've never done before. Cause no, no, no one's ever asked though. We do have the mechanism for it. Now that the concept is in our, in our rules and regulations, we just said never implemented it. And I think when we did it, it was under the, the concept that as we get near our capacity, that if we had another person that was walking in with a check to assume what was a bad start by someone else, we would, we would do that. Um, just speaking out loud, if we did a payment plan and the deal falls apart on their end before they could do it, um, it would protect them a little cause it wouldn't have written as big a check, but it, um, we, we would, we would have to just, I, at my point, I wouldn't, I would be very strict on the, uh, if, if they got into a lien situation, I would, I would down and then I'd want to enact our ability to just say, forget about it. Um, and, and, and, and give, and sell the, uh, the, uh, capacity to someone else. I, I guess we can't be forgiving. Yeah. The one other concern that we have as well is that, uh, you know, and you referenced it, Mike, is that, you know, the base fee. And then once they're connected, the actual, you know, consumption charge is that, um, you know, if there are a number of dwellings that are not supportive of making the connection, I would be reticent. And to, uh, to have the town trying to chase those owners for the base fee and the, and the, and the quarterly consumption charge. So I, I would recommend that as we negotiate this and craft, you know, uh, legal instruments to, to help advance this is that some sort of a, uh, uh, a mechanism is established whereby we're not at risk. That the HOA is at risk. Cause I don't know. I could say about the lean, but I don't know how fast we could move. Um, if it, just, if this went South and we had this capacity tied up, um, uh, for whatever reason. Um, but all we're talking about is, is, are we open to the concept? And, and, and ideally we'd, we'd like a plan that somehow not only covers the privilege, but going forward. Cause when they, when they come in and start the process, they're committed. And, and then that's my next question. What, what is our normal? So terrain came in and, and took more capacity. Are they going to get the base bill starting next, starting when that would be immediate. I think it's pretty much that's on there now. Okay. So it, so it does. Yeah. So it, it raises that issue immediately and then it gets to, um, it would put work on, on you all. If, if we don't look at, you know, if we, uh, we have, uh, adequate capacity. And especially, you know, the, the wastewater, the volume can change during, uh, you know, depending on how, how it work. Uh, you have to have a little bit of reserve capacity for your current system. So these are based on reserve. Oh, go ahead. Yeah. About 2,900 gallons. And we have about nine, 9,000 available. Is that Abby? Is that right? Yes. Um, but it, it, the more we talk, it just, you can't separate the issue with a privilege fee from ongoing billing. Right. And because they need to acknowledge, not only is it, sure, it's a big, it's a big check for the privilege, but then there'll be 13, what we think are reasonable, quarterly charges that need to be covered. We're starting, starting at least the base fee almost immediately. What, what is the base fee on 2,800 small, 2,800 gallons, small users? You might just have that number. I can have it in a few minutes. 2,800, get 2,800 gallons. Or you mean like 220? No, the, assuming they're not connected, they pay. All right. So for each, um, cause it's, you're talking about Hastings in this moment right now, right? The, the, all the different 13 times 220. Right. So they would individually pay here. You guys, you can keep talking. I'll pull that up and I'll chime in when I have it.
Yep. Um, so, but the bottom line is we're only talking about talking and it just, the conversation just highlights the need to be thoughtful about this. And, and I, and if, if, if, if, if we do come up with agreement for all 13 to, to, um, be billed through the homeowners association, um, it still makes work for someone on this call, um, to, to add up the 13 water uses and, and, and come up, confirm there's no extra charges. Yeah. The, um, each 220 unit at 220 gallons per day for each of those two bedroom units is about $235 per quarter. Okay.
And for all 13, it's, it's, I don't have my calendar. I'll do it. A little over three grand, I think.
And, um, and, and the, and the privilege fee is going to be around 70 grand, something like that. Correct. Yep. Okay. Yeah, right there. Okay. But at this point, what we're, we just want to be able to more formally with the blessing of the, of the, uh, committee, um, the commission to, to enter into discussions with the homeowners association. So, I, I make a motion that we, we start discussions with, what's the proper name of the entity? Wayland Commons, or, uh, they call themselves that, don't they? I, I don't know what the entity of the HOA is though.
Um, with the representatives of, of Wayland Commons to, uh, uh, develop a payment plan for privilege fee and, and other charges. Is that what we're talking about? That is. Yes. Yes. Um, I, I, I, I support that, that type of motion. Ed, you, you okay with talking? Uh, I'm fine with it. Okay. But, uh, I just, I just, I just want to point out, uh, you can always add, uh, storage to balance the flow rate and, so, give you a little bit of extra. Yeah. But, but, any, anything you add it out, it'll be costly. Unless someone else pays for it. Yeah. True. Okay. So, I make, I make, uh, then I, I say we vote, I support the motion, Mike Gitten, yes? Yeah. Yes. Okay.
Anything else on requests for service? We were, we've been talking about adding some sort of a deadline to commit. So, that once the sewer application has been submitted, something like saying that, uh, the privilege fee or the commitment needs to be made, uh, two months after the sewer use application, um, adding in something like extensions may be granted based on the calendars of other town boards. Because I know sometimes these are held up by planning board approvals or things like that, but just adding a timeline to our sewer use application so that, um, some of these have been out there with questions. But when we have other people coming to ask for reserved capacity, how much do we hold it for? And the sewer use application, that, that is what we use to calculate our privilege fee and, and have these discussions, but it also gets blessed by the board of health. Is that correct? Is it the same? Are they involved in that? They're not specifically involved in it. I usually involve them, um, just in, in discussions, especially, I, I involve them if there's a restaurant. So we talk about, um, uh, grease traps and things like that. So, um, I haven't talked to them about all of them, but all of the major ones we do. Yeah. I, we should revisit that because like a year or two ago, they updated their rules and regulations. And I thought they asserted control over us in some odd way, um, that they actually needed to be involved in all, um, mainly, mainly, mainly it's only new. I, I don't, I'd have to look it up. I'll, I'll sit down with Darren and review them. Yeah. Okay. I, I, I, I fully support that. Um, I, I don't know what, uh, um, I, I guess I would not, I guess I know I defer to, to the professionals in the town as far as the sequence. Um, we, we don't, we, we, um, we don't want it to drag out too far. So they need to be able to go to another, another board commission or something and say, I have the sewage capacity. Right. Or else they can't get through that step. Right. And we want our check. That's right.
Okay. So, um, I, I, I, and so if, if that other, whatever throws aren't, aren't as friendly as we are and throws an obstacle that becomes the, the applicant's problem, not ours, unless they come and talk to us. Yeah. Um, and then I also, as far as, um, would we need to update our rules and regulations or would this just be by whatever we talk about today? Um, I'm in the process of updating the rules and regulations. So this can be something that I add to it, but this would be something I was, I was just going to add it to the actual sewer. I mean, the more, the more we talk about it, I, I, we could always revisit it as whatever we say is better than what we have now from the applicant's perspective. Perspective. Right. Um, two months, I'd, I'd be even open to, to three months having seen how, because we're a lot of volunteers on our boards and things come up. Um, so we would, we would, we would, would we want, my only thought was, and maybe it's just too complicated. Would we want a, a, um, an intent deposit? Like, would we want, you know, a 10% at time of doing it and the rest three months later? Um, because, um, it doesn't cost anyone much to come in and show you something and, and fill out a form. Um, and to be fair, um, excuse me, to the smaller applicant, it wouldn't be a lot of money, the homeowner or the very small development. Um, and, um, to something bigger, we wouldn't be tying up a lot, um, with, with an applicant who, who's looking to make a big investment already.
Would that 10% be refundable? I'm thinking no. That's why I wouldn't go higher. For some, for something like terrain though, that would have been when they submitted their application, them paying $7,000, um, unrefundable. Before they're even had sold the property. So. Well, how long do they, do they show up with a check or do we, how are we handling it now? Is it, is it, you know, this isn't really yours until you pay us and, and, or do they show up with a check? We have them do the sewer use app. Well, we haven't really decided.
For terrain, how has it worked? Yeah. Up to date, we haven't had so many requests, so it hasn't really. Uh, an issue terrain had requested the flow. They submitted a sewer use application. And then when they had all their approvals, they came in and paid with the check. But, um, but all of that seemed to be moving forward that had, you know, you know, forward momentum. Some of these other requests, um, are more questions than, than actual projects moving forward. Well, not, not to, not to stifle, um, development. And what's in our interest is the committee. Maybe, maybe we have a, uh, you know, you got, you got 30 days to, to put this 10% down and then another, another 60, you know, give them three months to, to, to finish. That, that, that way they can, they can, I mean, I would think they would have, once again, I don't understand all the way the, even as of right, I'm not familiar with how it all works in our town. Well, I guess maybe rather than, you know, charge a 10% down payment, we could establish, you know, that an applicant must, if we think that the building permit is really the first formal trigger of somebody seriously pursuing something that, um, that, you know, the clock starts ticking upon the receivable of a, of a building permit. And then there, we know that they're working their way through the, um, you know, through the process was right now to date, you know, and to kind of echo what Abby's saying, we, you know, we haven't had a lot in the past. Now we've got a, a number of folks that are, we've got three in particular and, and, you know, using our judgment, we know that all three of them are, are seriously pursuing things. So we're, you know, you know, kind of preserving that capacity for those three, you know, so we could do something rather than having a fee that would need to be not refunded. Um, we could do something. But Tom, we're talking about sort of the period in between when they request it and when they even start something like a building permit. How long do we reserve a flow for them? Um, yeah, I mean, Tom, in the meantime, it could take a year or two, right? Uh, well, without, without a sewer, uh, then you cannot really develop a piece of land. Uh, if it's, uh, uh, that's, I think that's, uh, in the old day, that's what the town decided don't want more development. Uh, I remember in the early 70s, I wrote a letter to, to the town, told them you can apply federal government grant to pay for all the sewer construction. Uh, the Uncle Samuel would pick 90%, uh, we only need to pay 10%. Uh, the, the few towns around this area all have no interest at all, so that's the, if that's still the principal of the town, then you're really difficult to, to do anything. Uh, you know, the Board of Health have to have their rules to meet. Yeah, I, I, I think I, you know, on a similar note, I think it might be better just to time it to a clock versus to an event, because there's so many different ways that the approval process could go. That maybe you'd be more of a clock that you could come in, you know, we'd give you 30 days to give a percentage and then another 60 or 90 to do the rest. Um, I, I, I've been in, I haven't been in town as long as Ed, but I don't think I've seen any project that's not as of right, that's not a single family home, uh, get through everything in three months. I think, I think, I think when people come in, they're advised to plan for a year. Just to change subjects briefly, Abby, we've got a one o'clock at the MWRA. What's your pleasure? Would you like to go to that? Or do you want me to, uh. Oh yeah. Stage right. And I'll go to it. Um, I can go. Um, the other, the only other question I had on some of these connection issues was that, um, we had talked about potentially collecting consultant fees under, um, review of sewer use application issues and, um, had at my desk before, but Mass General Law allows you to collect, uh, consultant fees from an applicant, uh, through the town clerk, uh, the town clerk sets aside a special account, um, and that enables us to kind of collect a consultant fee for reviewing the sewer use application. So we would be able to do something like that if we needed to. Yeah. That's, that's encouraging. Was that, uh, you know, we've, we've got a situation currently where that might help us out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, just like, you know, going back to what I was talking about, only one of us needs to leave the meeting. I'm happy to do it. Or if you think it's better that you go, either way is fine with me. Well, I hope we're done before one, unless you have to travel somewhere. Well, we got to, we got to drive to the site. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying we have to end the meeting. I'm just saying one of the two. No, I think, I think we're getting near the end. I mean, is there something we need to, we want to act on today? I mean, I, I, I support payment plans. The more we talk about it, I, I would, I would be, I'd be more towards. Whatever, 30, 45 days to come in and put in an earnest to show you're real. And then another 60, even 90 days. Uh, I think terrain, I've been on this board for, I don't know, too many years. I don't remember an interesting project like that coming in so quick, uncontroversial, even from us and just show up and write a check.
But they're as of right, pretty much. Correct. They're not doing a heck of a lot. Change. Yeah. No. A few parking spaces and. That's right. And we don't have many properties like that in town. That's true. But, uh, it, well, in our service area, I should say. Um, so I, I do. Yeah. So we could, we could craft a proposal, um, and, uh, get that out to the group and then put that December agenda, uh, would be something a little bit more structured, formatted or whatever for your consideration. Yeah. I, I guess where I'm coming from, I, I think the more we talk, I don't know whether they have to tie it to the town permitting process because. Got it. Okay. Too many variables and, but I, and I, I'd, I'd be open to make it longer as long as we got an earnest fee, whatever the proper deposit that non-refundable at some shorter, reasonable window and, and, and on the consulting fees. So as, uh, do we need to look into that to see as the, uh, um, commission that, that, that avenues available to us still, or.
Yeah. It sounds like Abby did the research on mass general law. Um, I think we just need to make sure that, uh, you know, we can start with the finance director, uh, to make sure that they're open to allowing for that. But, uh, yeah, so that can be on staff's plate. Yep. So we'd put something in these regs, our rules and regs to say that under certain conditions, we can negotiate getting a proper, whatever this is called to, to, to support reviewing a proposal. So we could think creatively, like Ed said, about maybe, maybe that person puts in a holding tank and, and, and, and level flows to us versus business hour flow or something creative.
I'm not even, I mean, I can draft some language for rules and regulations, but I think in the meantime, I think mass general law allows us to do it, um, as a district, but we can, you know, talk to the finance director and find out the logistics of, of that. I'm, I'm totally up for it because what I learned last meeting is that nice, that nice privilege fee we got. We can't really commit it to any, not, we can't really, we cannot commit it to anything till next year. It would be nice if we could have front loaded this, um, professional review of our current plant and, and what is the, based on what we've learned in the last five, 10 years, what is the real design flow we could sell with an adequate level of safety? That's correct. And then also look at, is our ratio of the title five to design flow adequate after the, you know, our, our uses, usage history. Can, can, can, can we do a, a proper statistical study and, and come up with maybe something a little different? Right. All right. I can head out and go to the, uh, okay. I, um, I will represent and then I'll, um, I'll head down there myself. Okay. All right. Thanks, Abby. Um, I'm sorry. I was going to say to get back to the people that are buying for this flow right now. Um, they're all wondering how much time they have. So I'm just wondering what we're going to say to everybody, I guess, in the meantime, we think we have some commitment dates roughly, um, you know, one of them likely mid-December. Um, I think Hastings is a little bit hard to, to gauge, but it's got to be somewhat in the next, hopefully month or so. Um, and then we have town center who would take everything that is available after that. Um, so. So my, my suggestion would be, um, we, you know, we have the three of them. We have, um, a particular flow for constituent road. We have a particular flow for Hastings. We have town center who's looking for the balance of that. I think between now and our December meeting, I think we've got, we can kind of, you know, say to those folks that we are preserving their capacity of request. And then at the December meeting, we'll have a formal vote on what the mechanism will be, including a deposit. And at that point, we would then issue, um, the request for that deposit from those three entities should they want to continue with us. So I think we, I think we'll be okay until the December meeting. Okay. Does that, I don't know, Mike, do you? Yeah, I, well, you know, better. To me, I mean, at a very high level, you know, 20, 2900 to the Hastings, did, did, did the Coticia road, did they get, were they able to get their design flow below to two, 2,999? That's like, yeah. Oh, they did. Oh, sorry. I was going to say it's an Abbey thing. So I'm not sure. I think Abbey was pretty confident based upon seating and all of that, but it would be south of, uh, 3000 gallons a day. I mean, I know they're scheduled for the zoning board tomorrow evening. Yeah. We'll probably have a better sense of how that goes. And then, and then that would leave a roughly 4,000 to the new managers of town center. And I guess it's up to them. This is a public meeting. They heard that there's residents in a small business that are looking to come in. And if they, you know, I think they'd make their own business decision on whether they'd come in and, and, and take that out of the public good while we figure out. We do think, I do believe that there is more capacity available that we could, we could get out, you know, not, not another, not another Alta, not another, um, development like we heard about last month, but I do believe that there's a couple thousands of gallons of capacity that we can get out by our professional staff doing a higher level review of the design flow, the way we use it for allocating versus actual history, a high level course review. So, um, if someone's looking to gobble up 20,000 gallons there, it's not there 10,000, um, uh, you parse it out that way. It's, it's, it's there or 9,000 or a little more.
Okay. Uh, if, if, if any, uh, uh, uh, engineering, technique stuff you want to be review, I'd be happy to do it. Yeah. There's no charge.
Yeah. Great. Very good.
Um, anything else under requests? Nothing new. So, so I, so I think that the one thing out of this is we, we are, they, they, the, uh, the commission is open to, to, uh, some sort of hold based on, of a reasonable period. I, um, we, we got to just be a little more thoughtful than what we can do right now. Um, and, and we're open to availing ourselves of being able to take, uh, um, uh, independent consultant fee, whatever the proper term is. So we can review what's put in front of us.
Okay. Good synopsis. So we have the October 20th minutes. You said two minutes, right? I did because we had to, I, I should have wrote this in here and maybe it'll have to wait another meeting, but, um, I, we actually did not vote on the last minutes. We had, um, postponed. September and October. Right. So that's why I sent them both. I reviewed both. Um, and, uh, I would say that, uh, in the context of the agenda item of reviewing minutes, they're both minutes and, and we could, um, versus in the public interest of, getting these out in, in November versus December, I would, I would move forward with reviewing the September 8th, 2025 minutes, which were circulated to the committee in advance of this meeting and also in advance of the last meeting. I, I, so I make a motion to approve the September 8th, 2025 minutes as they are. Ed, I'm not sure if you had a chance to look at them. I did look at them. Um, I, I had no comments on, on them. Are you okay approving the, uh, September 8th minutes? Ed? I second. Okay. And, and to prove I did read the minutes, I, I also reviewed the October 20th, 2025 minutes. I, I make a motion that we approve them, but there's a typo on the requested capacity for Hastings. Oh, okay. Um, okay. And I just made a, but, but I, I, I could tell you what I, um, it's, uh, yeah. And the Hastings, uh, oh, is that the capacity? I, under Hastings way, it says for information, the flow rate for these, it says 44 units. It should say 13 units in the, in the first paragraph. Who's speaking on that one? Is that Jim's? Yeah. Okay. I took it from the written verbiage. So I'll double check that for sure though. Yeah. So maybe we could put a, a sick in there or something. Um, cause yeah, from the 13 units is 2,860. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'll take a look at that for sure. Um, and then I guess just to, you know, to, to keep with the letter of the meeting law or whatever, if you, I would approve, I would make a motion, get a second and vote each one separately. Just should we meet that, the spirit of. Well, we did, we did vote on the, um, September. Okay. All right. So we got an hour on the hour on the, uh, October 20th, 2025, I make a motion that we approve them with an editorial comment that it's, it's, um, if, if it's even appropriate then, uh, 13 units, uh, but if that's what he said, that's what he said. Um, I'm not going to argue with AI. That could be wrong. I'm the second. Okay. So then we, once again, so we made a motion now we approve, I've, Mike Gitten and, uh, very good. So we'll dispense with that. Anything else, um, people want to bring up?
Um, nothing here. Um, so we're proposing, uh, same time, December 15th, Monday, 1130 meeting in December. Yeah. We've done 1130 and 12. So it's whatever works better, I guess. And then we can see what Darren says after we set these. To be honest, if we had 12 does work a little better for me, you might see me, I might eat more of my lunch in front of you, but, uh, if, if we could do 12, but I'm, I'm flexible anytime after 1130, but 12 is better. Okay. And do we want a pencil? Do we need a pencil in a January date? So third weekend, uh, sort of what? December 5th, sorry. It's a December 15th. Yeah. We need a January and probably a February if we can do it. We usually try to do three months at a clip. So I think, I don't have a cat with January 19th. Is that Martin Luther King day? Yeah. We have to stay clear of that.
Yeah.
So do we, do we do it another day of the week? Do we do a week later? Do the 26th. Uh, is that, I'm not sure if, is that a school vacation a much? Oh no, that's January. My bad. Take that back. No, yeah. School vacations the week prior to with the holiday week. Yeah. Yeah. I do. I'm, I'm fine with that. And once again, I do prefer noon, but I am, I, I can be flexible after 1130 works. Okay. Yeah. I'm flexible, but just have, let me know. A little bit earlier. That's all. Okay. And, and January, when is school vacation, Sarah? In, uh. It's February 16th. Yeah. It's the week of school. So it's that third Monday. So should we do it the same thing? 23rd. By then, is it, would it be better to move, move, meet a week earlier or later? It doesn't matter. Probably a week later again, because they're also going to be really close together. They'll be like a two week gap. That's it. What was the 23rd? Yeah. Okay. I put it on. Okay. Very good. I'll text these to Darren. So he sees them, you know, and I'll also send you out invites to every meeting. Great. Okay. With that, I make a motion to adjourn. Mike, Ed, you ready to adjourn? I vote we adjourn. Ed, you ready to adjourn? Yeah. Thanks for coming in. And. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for coming in.