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Uxbridge finance panel backs plan to return unspent water and sewer capital to enterprise funds
Summary
Finance committee members were briefed on returning unspent sewer and water capital project funds to enterprise retained earnings, and staff said using ARPA and grant funds for recent upgrades avoided raising rates; the committee agreed to pursue an amended motion at Town Meeting so enterprise funds can be returned.
The Town of Uxbridge Finance Committee on Sept. 17 heard from finance staff about planned amendments to Article 2 of the fall annual Town Meeting warrant that would allow unspent capital appropriations for the water and sewer enterprise funds to be returned to those funds’ retained earnings.
Town finance staff said an accounting discrepancy in the drafted warrant left enterprise funds out of the return-to-capital-stabilization language. Staff proposed working with town counsel to amend the motion on the Town Meeting floor so that unspent water and sewer project balances are returned to their respective enterprise retained earnings rather than to general capital stabilization alone. “It’s a significant amount,” a staff speaker said, citing roughly $250,000 on the sewer side and about $100,000 on the water side as the scale of potential returns.
Officials explained those returns result in part because several projects were paid using federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and other grants. Finance staff said the sewer SCADA upgrade and other work were covered by ARPA and grant interest income, so the originally appropriated sewer retained earnings are no longer needed for those items. Staff noted specific line items that will be returned at Town Meeting, including approximately $7,004.76 from a compact tractor/compactor line and about $1,600 from a sewer trailer account.
School and DPW projects also showed savings: staff listed about $44,000 in returns tied to Taft Elementary HVAC work and roughly $28,000 and $1,700 for other school HVAC line items (about $70,000 total for school-related returns). DPW vehicle and equipment items that came in below specs (loaders, plow) were estimated to yield another $67,000–$70,000. Staff estimated total capital stabilization returns across departments could approach $140,000 but pledged to provide a precise figure before Town Meeting.
Committee members asked about timing and whether ARPA should have been conserved for other priorities. Staff said the ARPA-related obligations had to be made before Dec. 31, 2024, and that using ARPA funds for certain sewer and water projects avoided placing additional burden on ratepayers. “The using that 250,000 for the SCADA would have impacted the rate payers,” one speaker said, arguing the ARPA approach preserved rate stability.
Finance staff said they will coordinate with town counsel to produce the amended Town Meeting motion that explicitly adds enterprise funds to the return-to-earnings language and will provide final numbers ahead of the meeting. The Town Meeting vote will determine whether the amendment is adopted and whether the identified balances are returned to enterprise retained earnings.
