Town Commissioners — 2022-06-22

The Town Commissioners held a 5:30 PM work session with the Town Engineer and WWTP consultant that found membrane problems at the wastewater treatment plant may be caused by excess chlorine during cleaning; the commission voted 3-0 to accept a $1,580 Micro‑Tech Designs proposal to extract and integrate plant data and discussed $8,000–$10,000 estimated costs to upgrade cleaning processes and potential Microdyne equipment upgrades pending attorney review. At 6:00 PM the commission held public hearings on Ordinance 22‑06 (an 8% per year water and sewer consumption rate increase for five years starting July 1, 2022) and Ordinance 22‑07 (the FY2022–23 general budget with a constant yield tax rate of $0.2217 per $100 and a commercial/personal property rate of $0.55 per $100, and an enterprise budget adopting the same 8% rate increases); staff noted a minor correction to the >7,000 gallon volumetric charge from $3.87 to $3.88 and there were no public comments. In the regular meeting the scheduled guest about truck parking canceled; the Town Engineer reported large cost increases for the new water tower and line replacement project (from $3,075,221 in 2017 to $7,292,711 in 2022) and recommended pursuing additional USDA funding and possible loan forgiveness, with the town attorney meeting USDA on July 12 to discuss options. Public Works items approved or advanced included signage changes for Dudley Ave. to discourage through truck traffic (resident suggestions modified by staff and approved by commissioners) and a new weekly mowing schedule; the minutes provided end partway through the Public Works section.