Plymouth Village Water & Sewer District opens public hearing on 2025 budget, proposes multiple capital warrant articles and 5–7% rate increase

PLYMOUTH, N.H. — The Plymouth Village Water and Sewer District opened a public hearing Jan. 14 on the district's proposed 2025 budget and a package of capital warrant articles that together seek state and federal grant and loan funding and would support multiple water and wastewater projects.

The hearing, opened by the chair at 5:05 p.m., covered eight warrant articles describing projects including Highland Street distribution work and reservoir shortfall remediation (roughly $6.3 million cited), a 2.5-million-gallon low-service water storage tank (about $7 million), replacement of Well No. 1 (about $1 million), a wastewater treatment plant master plan (about $315,000), electrical and HVAC upgrades at the wastewater plant (about $3.5 million), solids-handling/sludge-drying improvements (about $7 million) and headworks/influent pump-station upgrades (about $7 million). District staff said the articles are being posted so the district can apply for financing and grant packages, not as a binding commitment to construct every item.

Jason (Director of Operations) provided the technical descriptions and condition summaries for the capital projects, saying the Reservoir Road tank (installed in 1970) shows concrete spalling and cannot be taken offline without building a second tank for redundancy. Jason said Foster Street Well No. 1, installed in 1952, has a deteriorated bronze screen and cannot be rehabilitated in place without major building work, so the district proposes drilling a new well near the existing location once newer Holderness wells are in service. “This well provides close to 700 gallons per minute,” Jason said, noting the proposed Holderness wells produce roughly 300 gpm each.

District staff and board members emphasized that posting warrant articles is a prerequisite for applying to several funding sources, including federal and state programs. The chair and staff noted guidance from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) and the Division of Local Government Finance (DRA) constrains article wording; staff said DES advised against overly restrictive dollar limits in articles so the district can pursue varying loan/grant packages.

District staff summarized past funding success to demonstrate likely grant/loan mixes: an estimated 25% grant expectation in a 2018 package yielded closer to 40% in grants; a 2022 ARPA package produced roughly 50–60% grant coverage on some projects; and a 2023 State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan produced about 70% grant. Staff said these historical results show some favorable grant outcomes but do not guarantee future awards and that specific grant percentages are not yet known for the 2025 package.

The proposed 2025 rate changes would raise rates across user classes by roughly 5–7%, district staff said. For a typical residential water account, base-rate increases were described as roughly $7–$12 depending on meter size; residential sewer bills were described as increasing roughly $20–$25 per billing period. Staff said the district intends to post the full rate sheet and update the online rates calculator so customers can see specific dollar impacts.

Board business following the hearing included routine approvals and motions. The board approved the December meeting minutes and the payroll and manifest by voice vote; authorized execution of funding-application signatures needed for grant and loan applications (Stephanie and Tom were named among those asked to sign); approved a multi-year audit engagement with Posnick and Sanderson for the coming years; approved a special project assistance supplemental form for the Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund; entered several purchase requisitions into the record; and accepted the fourth-quarter water and sewer warrants. Motions were passed by voice vote as recorded on the meeting record.

Director's and operations reports included notice of two recent grant awards: a $30,000 water sustainability grant (50% match budgeted) to support preliminary engineering on the low-service-zone tank replacement and a $25,000 local source-water protection grant to help fund fencing and security at the Foster Street well site. Staff also reported that the forcemain No. 4 design is about 90% complete and under DES review, that a hotel (Home2 Suites) has submitted a connection application and mainline extension request for review, and that photovoltaic (solar) project planning with the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative is underway.

The board set candidate filing dates for the open commissioner seat from Jan. 22–31, noted March 11 as voting day and scheduled the annual meeting for March 13 at 6 p.m., and set the next regular board meeting for Feb. 11 at 5 p.m.

The hearing was closed at about 5:32 p.m. and the meeting proceeded to other business.