Public commenter warns council against surrendering town water system designation for new town hall property

During public comment, a resident identified in the transcript as Ace of Holmes raised multiple substantive concerns about the town—s handling of the water supply at the new town hall property on 742 Tenrod Road. The speaker said a recent Department of Health (DOH) notice described a “significant deficiency” and warned that surrendering the property—s public water system (PWS) status would mean losing system approvals and could require a full re-application for any future PWS use.

Ace of Holmes told the council that giving up the PWS designation “is short sighted, counterproductive, and a breach of fiduciary responsibility.” The comment argued the town should install a treatment system to address intermittent contamination and properly decommission any illegal or unused well infrastructure under DOH rules rather than surrendering PWS status. The speaker estimated remediation costs (citing a figure of “15 to 20k” for some fixes) and warned the property—s market value could fall “$200k to $300k” if the PWS designation is lost.

The commenter also raised separate concerns including a burned dump truck procurement (discussed elsewhere in the meeting) and town permit fee schedules that the speaker said may not comply with state statute. Finally, the commenter challenged the council—s use of the phrase “potential litigation” as a basis for closed-session deliberations, noting that the state statute cited allows closed sessions for actual litigation, not merely potential litigation.

Councilors acknowledged the public comment and moved forward with agenda business. No formal council action was recorded on the water-system point during this meeting; the remarks were entered into the public record for future consideration.