The Watuppa Water Board held a joint meeting with the Sewer Commission on March 4, 2026, which was delayed by a week due to a snowstorm. The meeting, called to order by President Tero and President Ala, included roll calls by Mr. Ferling, noting the presence of Member Ferrer, Member Souza, Member House, and Member Hyak. The primary focus of the meeting was the approval of the fiscal year 2027 budget for the water department. The board first unanimously approved the minutes from the previous meeting and then unanimously approved proposed leak abatements totaling $12,254.49, bringing the fiscal year total to $42,632.54. The main discussion centered on the proposed FY27 budget of $16,151,881. Mr. Ferling explained that the budget would maintain the current water rate of $4.24 per CCF for the third consecutive year, attributing this stability to increased water usage from converted mill properties and outside communities, favorable chemical bidding, and a decrease in debt service due to expiring loans and new grants, such as the wind grant for lead services and ARPA funding for water main replacement. While electricity costs increased due to a new 4-year contract, the overall financial management allowed for no rate increase. The budget also included a $60,000 retirement buyout, anticipating three retirements in water administration. The budget was unanimously approved. The meeting concluded with a review of Westport's billing, confirming they were up to date on payments, and the monthly report was accepted unanimously.
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Having been reached the I'm going to call this meeting of the Wata water board to order and ask the clerk to call the role.
0:09Member Ferrer here. Uh President Tero here.
0:16My turn.
0:17All right.
0:18Okay. It's 5:00. Welcome to the um March 4th meeting of the for commission. Mr.
0:25Ferling, could you please do the uh roll call?
0:29Yep. Member Souza here.
0:31Member House here.
0:32Member Hyak here.
0:34President Ala here.
0:42Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting and may transmit uh the meeting through any medium. Attendees are advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.
1:08All right. Excellent. Thank you very much. Uh as stated on the agendas, both agendas independently, this is a joint meeting of the water board and sewer commission. Again, we have very limited uh items on the on the agenda that's proposed to both boards and we appreciate both boards coming in together at the same time. Uh primarily it's because we have budgets uh that are due to uh to the city council to the
1:31mayor's office and then down to the city council.
1:34We are a little bit behind on schedule uh from what we normally are within a year due to the snowstorm last week. As you uh as all board members know, we did have to uh cancel the meetings last week. uh rep post them for this week uh and then we won't be getting these uh to the mayor's office to send down to the council for next week. So we're about a
1:55week behind where we normally are. Uh so if it's okay with the two commissions, I think what we'll do is we'll take and we'll go through uh the waterboard agenda first uh have them go through and then we'll go into the sewer commission agenda.
2:10No objection.
2:11Thank you. Roll call having been uh completed. Item number one on the agenda is citizen input. Do we have any citizen input?
2:20Uh there has not been any provided to us.
2:23Okay, we'll move speedily on to uh item number two, the minutes of the previous meeting. Um if there are any corrections, adjustments or comments like to make a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting.
2:37Seconded. All in favor?
2:38I I uh proposed leak abatements. Um rolling along on those um having reviewed them, I have no questions whatsoever. All um the abatements meet the um the standard for the leak abatement policy. And um with that in mind, the chair would entertain a motion to approve um abatements in the amount of $12,2549 bringing the total to date for the fiscal year $42,632.54.
3:31Like to make a motion to accept the proposed leak abatements. Seconded. All in favor?
3:36I I.
3:38All right.
3:41Which brings us to the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget of 16,155,881.
3:57Mr. Clerk, thank you very much. Uh in front of the water board is the proposed budget for FY27.
4:05Uh the proposed budget for FY27 as stated for the water department is 16,155 uh8 $881, excuse me. So $16,151,881.
4:22Uh that's supported by a water rate of $4.24, which is the current ordinance that's in place. So there is no change or increase or decrease within the within the uh the rate. So that's $4.24 per CCF where it is now. Uh so again, the only approval that's needed by the board is the approval of the of the budget. Um you know, it was a good year for uh our budget this year. Some of the reasons
4:52within our budget uh that uh we do not have uh we do not have rate increases uh is because of some of the uh some of the uh realized increases that we have with increased water usage. So there's been some realized increase. You have a number of mills over the past number of years that have gone from vacant built properties to full residential operational units. uh you know 40 or 80
5:19units within a building that had zero water usage for a number of years. Um so we're start we're starting to actually finally realize that within our rates that increase usage uh there is some increased usage by outside communities as well.
5:34Uh which is a good thing. Uh some of the other things within the within the uh budget that you'll notice we had minimal increases uh on the salaries based on the CBA that's that's in place the contracting bargaining agreement with ASME. Um there are some other line item increases minimal uh as seen fit by the division leaders and approved by uh myself. Um, one of the other things that I want to note, uh, on
6:02chemicals, so chemicals, uh, we actually decreased a little bit, uh, last year.
6:08We had them at a budgeted amount when we bid those out. So, we don't bid those out until, you know, maybe May or June, uh, when we're close to the fiscal year to try to get the best pricing for that fiscal year. Uh, those came in well below what we projected last year for the budget. Absolutely. Uh so we uh recognized that in this when we constructed this year's budget
6:29uh as well. One thing that you will see increased uh you know a fair amount in my eyes uh is the electricity. So, electricity, we were at uh we were into a 4-year contract uh with the uh Constellation, the city as a whole was with Constellation, the electrical uh supplier through the ISO. Uh that 4-year contract came up within the current fiscal year that we're in. Uh so we went from about
7:00roughly 0.09 cents per kilowatt hour uh to 0.01 uh.12 cents per kilowatt hour. So uh had a substantial increase there. Uh so that was uh that was realized within here.
7:18One other thing that uh you'll see a decrease in is actually our debt service. Uh so one of the big things we always talk about debt service and and the uh what we have. So again, we've realized we've uh seen some of the earlier projects, earlier phases that we've done back in the early 2000, those loans have started to come off uh of the debt service, which actually decreases the amount of debt service. uh when we
7:42did when we built our rate projections, our five-year projections uh three years a two years ago, uh you know, we actually had a lot more debt service coming on the books than we actually have, right? That's that's you know partially because of a number of grants that we got the wind grant for lead services uh ARPA funding to to replace over 2,000 ft of water made uh and those things which typically would
8:11be debt service new debt service coming on the books within uh FY27 uh but we don't have that within when we actually constructed the budget because of those grants and other other things that we had. Uh so again we were able to uh realize a little bit of extra revenue uh decrease on some of our debt service and some of our expenses. Some of our expenses did go up like I mentioned
8:33electricity uh but we were able to maintain a stable uh a stable rate to do increase of the rate this year.
8:41I have one question on the retirement buyout of 60,000 in the administrative section. Are we seeing the retirement of a couple of long-term employees?
8:55Yeah, right now, right now, so every year when I construct my budget, I talk to uh some of the staff, you know, that have been there for a number of years.
9:03Uh right now, next fiscal year, I'm projecting three retirements within water administration.
9:08Yeah.
9:10Yeah.
9:10Possibility. It's they're not locked in.
9:12It's it's nothing that they have to do, but I needed to have an idea for what for when I construct my budget. Uh that's why that did increase a lot.
9:22Yeah, that's a prudent move, especially given some of our longer term employees.
9:29Without a doubt, I don't have any other questions. I reviewed this uh this morning in the office and then this afternoon. Um Josh, have any questions?
9:43That looks pretty good.
9:45Yeah, it really does. And the fact that this is the third fiscal year in a row in which the water rate has not increased, and that's a testimony to good planning, good management, and um I'm very pleased to uh to approve this budget.
10:08So without any further ado, the chair would entertain a motion to approve the uh budget as submitted.
10:15I'd like to make a motion propose the FY27 budget.
10:19Seconded. All in favor?
10:20I I.
10:22So moved.
10:24That brings us to the end of our agenda items and the Westport update, other business, and the Westport billing review. As promised to the city council, we uh receive each month a copy of the Westport bill and their statement and they are up to date on their billing and they are up to date on their payments and really don't think we need to do anything either then except the monthly report as submitted.
11:05And um all in favor?
11:07All in favor make a motion to accept the report from the Westport building review.
11:12Seconded.
11:14All in favor?
11:15I I Nice job, Tom.
11:18And that brings us to the end.
11:21And if there is no further business, the chair would entertain a motion to adjourn.
11:27Like to make a motion to adjurnn the waterboard meeting.
11:30Seconded. All in favor? I. pie.