Town Commissioners — 2021-06-30

This record is the Queenstown special meeting and public hearing on June 30, 2021 to consider Ordinance 21-03, which would adopt the FY2022 General Fund and Water & Sewer Fund budgets, set a constant-yield tax rate of .2026 per $100 of assessed real property and a .51 per $100 tax on commercial/business personal property and public utilities, and adopt the third of three years’ 5% monthly water and sewer rate increases. The proposed budgets list Total Operating Expenses of ($652,128) for the General Fund and ($831,142) for the Water/Sewer Fund; no public comments were received and votes recorded were 3-0 in favor. Town Engineer Robert Rauch reported the wastewater treatment plant has 200,000 GPD capacity and should handle peak flows and planned developments (Harbor Golf Course likely needing 14 additional EDUs to reach 28 total = 7,000 GPD; Wheatlands likely needing 264 EDUs = 66,000 GPD), and said additional capacity may be achieved without physical plant upgrades. Rauch said boat ramp work and dredging are being prepared for bid advertising, and discussed options for the Wall Street water tower including replacing it with an antenna tower (document lists an estimated cost of approx. $1-SO,OOO - ZbO,OOO to erect the tower), keeping it functional (higher maintenance), or leaving it non-functional (lower maintenance); he also described a proposed Urquhart Drainage fix to intercept and route runoff into stormwater management systems before it reaches the creek.