Commission debates capacity and fee changes in proposed wastewater agreement amendment
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Summary
Staff and the town attorney discussed proposed amendments from a partner utility seeking higher permitted capacity (up to 350,000 gpd), an 18-month schedule extension, and updated fees; public works staff advised caution on committing capacity and proposed a percentage-based fee tied to plant capacity instead of legacy ERU spread.
The town attorney presented three substantive amendment requests from the other party in a wastewater service agreement: a requested capacity increase (to 350,000 gallons per day), a proposed extension of completion/operation dates (roughly 18 additional months) and a request to revisit monthly fees that were last adjusted in 2016.
Public Works Director CT Eagle said the town does not currently have 350,000 gpd capacity on paper or, practically, and recommended against committing to an absolute large number the town cannot reliably deliver. Eagle proposed a year-by-year or percentage-of-capacity approach and suggested updating the fee calculation to reflect current operating costs rather than spreading ERUs over decades as earlier agreements did. Using updated cost figures, Eagle said the town—s current monthly operational contribution would rise from approximately $10,573 to about $13,158 for the partner—s projected usage, an increase of roughly $3,000 per month; using today—s full updated rates could raise their current average bill from roughly $32,000 to about $37,000 per month.
Commissioners questioned timeline realism, whether the other utility—s engineering and funding plans were credible, and what backup options the town might employ if capacity runs short (including routing flow to the villages plant under an existing agreement). Commissioners generally favored incremental, percentage-based fee language and extending the other party—s completion schedule to the suggested September 2030 milestone, but took no binding vote. The discussion provided direction to staff to draft revised contract language that ties fees to capacity and includes incremental thresholds and to return with a proposed redraft.