The Watuppa Water Board convened on April 10, 2025, to address the Fall River City Council's rejection of their previously approved budget. Mr. Clark, the Administrator of Public Utilities, explained that the initial budget proposal, which included a 5% water rate increase and no base meter fee increase, was based on a consultant's recommendations but was deemed unacceptable by the City Council. In response, the board made approximately $280,000-$290,000 in cuts, primarily by reducing capital improvements and eliminating funding for intern and co-op student personnel costs. Additionally, $200,000 of an anticipated $293,000 settlement from Westport, expected in fiscal year 2026, was incorporated as a revenue source for the current budget.
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Public / Other
The appropriate hour is here and gone and uh call this meeting of the Wampa Water Board to order. Um Mr. Clerk, would you call the role? Uh President Terry here. Member Ferrer here. Thank you.
0:18Uh okay.
0:22Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or visual recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium.
0:34Attendees are um I can't what is that? Oh, apparently advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledgeable and permissible. Sorry, but my copy is getting getting old. Okay.
1:01Um, item number one on the agenda is citizen input.
1:07And having none, we can move to item number two, minutes of the previous meeting.
1:14Um, want to take a minute to review. Um, and after review, chair entertain a motion to accept the minutes as presented.
1:41motion seconded. All in favor? I I Okay.
1:49Um I promise not to pontificate, but I wanted to say something in case someone um is wondering what's going on.
1:59Um the city council um the Watupa water board uh is subject to any ruling of the uh powers vested in the city council and the city council has informed the water board and the water board has informed the administrator of public utilities that the previously approved budget is not acceptable. And so here we are this evening, Mr. Clark.
2:39Yes, without a doubt. So based off of their comments uh from the uh from the previous meeting uh they did move the budget uh on and uh rates are still in ordinance uh as have been proposed but uh based on their conversations and the president uh was there with me as well presenting uh to the council uh we decided to go back and take a look at the budget. Uh the original budget that
3:06was uh proposed uh to uh this uh this committee and the council was based off of the recommendations that were provided uh by our consultant that we had last year that came in and uh reviewed all of our rates budget funding and everything like that. Uh their recommendation were the rates uh was actually higher than the rate that was uh that was used that was uh used last year. So, the one that's in this current
3:35fiscal year's budget, uh it their proposal was higher. Uh last year, the council did reduce that uh by using the amount of free cash that we had available within the budget to red reduce the rate increase last year.
3:54Um so, um we didn't go with their recommendation last year. uh that's not what we're using right now. Uh their recommendation for years after that was to uh and that was about a 3% uh difference. Uh that was that was cut off from the use of free cash last year. 3% on the rate increase and it was 28% rate increase. Um the uh what was proposed for the four years
4:23after that was 5% increase uh on both the rate and also the base meter fee. Uh this year the original proposal was that 5% increase as well as uh no increase to the base meter fee. Uh that's how the budget was originally constructed this year. That's how it was built. Uh when the uh council, you know, after the last council meeting uh went back, we took a look uh and took a look at the budget uh
4:52and uh went through the budget. Uh there are some things we were able to reduce.
4:56uh capital capital improvements. So, uh we cut that down. So, uh potentially uh if there's large issues that occur or uh equipment that's needed, we may not have the funding to be able to purchase that within this year's budget. Um other things that were reduced were some uh uh some uh uh other personnel cost. uh those were people that those were costs that we would use for either interns or co-op
5:31students uh that we would bring in uh to the to Bah use in m multiple divisions.
5:38Uh so we we may not have the funding to do that uh do those programs this uh that's a shame this coming year.
5:46Um and just some other minor cuts throughout uh throughout the budget as well. Um, so that's uh that equated to uh roughly a um about little over two $280,000 uh decrease $290,000 decrease uh in the overall uh budget. Uh once we went through, we looked at uh the uh rates. So the original proposed rate increase was 34. Uh so it was from $4 uh 34 up to uh $4.58 uh when we revised the budget that was
6:34uh that was decreased.
6:37The one other thing that we did do too, seeing that the council is trying to minimize the rate increase as much as possible, uh we do have the settlement with Westport that we're expecting to uh receive those revenues in fiscal year 26.
6:55Yeah. So, we'll we plugged in as a revenue source $200,000 of the $293,000 uh that we'll be receiving uh from Westport on the settlement uh as a revenue source within this budget. Uh that again also decreases uh the rate increase. So, with those uh with those changes that were made, uh we were able to bring the uh rate increase um down to $441 uh for this coming year. That's a 17
7:30cent increase from the current uh from the current rate. Um effects on the average household is $91 uh per the average household. Again, that's 53 CCFs. Single household is one potentially single uh home. Three family that may be multiplied by three or a little bit less than because you don't have multiple fixed fees. Yeah. And based on that, you're looking at a $224 increase per quarter.
8:05Yep.
8:09Uh yes. Yes. Yes. It just was. of the the average bill that we're using would go up only $224 on a quarter on a quarter without a doubt in relation to water. Yeah. And just, you know, I just want to, you know, talk with the board. Sewer sewer, we did the same exact thing, too, because a lot of people talk about, you know, well, water. So, they interchange the two for, you know, it comes up. Oh,
8:40it's always the water goes. It's usually referred to as water. They're synonymous. Always. But when they say water, they're usually talking about water and sewer, which is two totally separate rates, two totally separate budgets, two totally separate. But the uh the sewer, we did do the same thing with adjusting it and stuff like uh adjusting the budget and adjusting the rate. So the total impact to a customer
9:08for water and sewer increase annually, the average household is $25.97.
9:16So that is 2.9% increase on the total bill for the average household. That's that's incredible. Yeah. Well done. Well done. In this day and age, that's extremely well done. The question comes out, you know, are how close are we to the safety edge? You know, again, it's it's a tough thing. You know, the way that the rate increases were structured uh by our consultant was to be able to build up our stabilization,
9:51build up our retained earnings, make it so that we have uh money to be able to uh self- sustain and be a sustainable enterprise fund moving forward. Not following their advice and reducing uh the amount that we increase definitely puts that in jeopardy. Yeah, I've always referred to long-term debt as sins of prior fiscal years because what we're looking at is is the neglect that didn't
10:19go into the system in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s when no system improvement systemwide was done. And only in the 80s and 90s did we begin to edge back on that. Um, and now we're we're slipping. Yeah. You know, my my big concern is using up your your your Westport settlement money is is that um you just returned from Washington. Um, and you shared with me that the uh FDA and other federal
11:00agencies are just telling you um in your discussion group that these cuts are just that's it. They're they're coming.
11:12Yeah. You know, we've seen we've seen a number of grants uh get cut. Uh one that we just applied for a month ago, they came back and said, "Nope, programs done. We're not it's not all the great the whole all the funding for this program is being cut. Uh so um I think it's going to be uh an interesting stent. You know, as you know, we've been grant funded between water and sewer.
11:37We're probably $75 million in the past 6 years, 7 years that we've gotten $75 to $80 million uh to do a lot of the projects that we've been able that we've done between ARPA funding, separate grant funding, FEMA, MIEMA, uh you know, uh hazard mitigation, state funding and stuff like that, SRF program, principal reduction. Um that totals a big chunk of change that our rate payers have not had
12:04to pay back. uh uh with a lot of those programs drying up, uh either you know, we're going to have to uh you know, start shutting down in infrastructure or funding it all ourselves.
12:20And and that's how the slippage starts.
12:23And that's how it started the last time.
12:26And then it was every year, no, no, no.
12:30until it built up to, you know, it's the little molehill in the mountain. Um, so to so to speak, it just builds up. One of my concerns is is that losing um losing traction um losing traction will endanger us applying for grants.
12:52Assuming there is some around, we're not going to have the uh the means, we're just not going to have it. Yeah. No, it's definitely tough, you know, and again, we're going from what was originally proposed was an 8% increase.
13:08Uh what's proposed in front of you is a four 4%. For sure. Yeah. You know, so it's it's a big reduction. and some of these line items, some of the things that we that we had to cut. Again, you know, if we have major issues throughout the year, uh we may have to come back to this board and may have to go back to council to find out where to get that
13:27funding to be able to plug shortfalls.
13:30That's the problem with using your savings account to balance your budget.
13:35And that's why the auditors, you know, everybody talks about they need an audit, you know, a fiscal forensic audit. Well, the first thing they tell you is your rate is too low. So, you know, where do you go from there? You know, it's an interesting number. I was playing with the the rate before and Tom's revenue estimates and everything and it it came down to something that we've been talking about
14:04for a long time is the average daily metered consumption is approximately 6.4 million gallons of water. That's not much at all. And the problem is once again it comes right back to we don't sell enough product but I mean when your revenue stream is $6.37 million uh average pumping metered I mean my god yeah the you know we've had this conversation multiple times that we we have the waters to to
14:48sell we need the customers y And the customers are going to be in our surrounding communities. They're not going to be in Fall River. It's going to have to be. It's going to have to be.
14:56They're not going to be in Fall River.
14:58They're going to be in the surrounding communities uh neighboring communities uh that uh you know that either us or the communities are going to have to expand out to to get those customers.
15:10Yeah. Well, we know the council is in favor of um presenting a resolution. Um, I received an email from them today, so that's a good thing. Well, all right. Let's not beat a dead horse. Um, the um Gerald proposed or chair would entertain a motion to now we we previous to this had approved.
15:43Um, so what we should do here, let's just adjust a motion to adjust the the budget at this time and resubmit it to the council. Um so the chair would entertain a motion to um resubmit the budget at the figure of 16 million571,442.
16:15Reluctant. Yes.
16:18Seconded. All in favor? I I. And to support that budget of 16,571442, the chair would entertain a motion to approve a water rate proposed of $441 per 100 cubic foot. Seconded. All in favor? I. So moved. Any other business to come before the board? Not seeing any board entertaining a motion. Seconded. All in favor? I.
16:51Good night, Irene.