Select Board approves water contract guarantee, fee abatement, licenses and hires; authorizes multiple routine items

At its March 31 meeting the Southampton Select Board approved a set of motions authorizing the water department contract borrowing guarantee, abating permit fees for an Old Town Hall masonry project, approving licenses and several personnel changes.

Water main contract guarantee: The board moved and seconded a motion to sign contract number 2026-1 with Comprehensive Environmental Inc. as the supervising engineer for the College Highway water-main project and to act as guarantor for the borrowing associated with the project. The project combines phases 2 and 3, replaces aging cast-iron mains with new plastic pipe, and has a low bid near $1.866 million with total project borrowing previously approved at roughly $2.07 million. The board amended the motion to note that the funding source will be water enterprise receipts and voted to authorize signatures. Select Board members indicated the water commission had approved the borrowing and that water rates and retained earnings are expected to support repayment; the project was represented as rate-funded rather than taxpayer-funded.

Permit fee abatement for Old Town Hall masonry: The board considered a request from a contractor to waive approximately $1,600 in permit fees for grant-funded masonry repairs at the Old Town Hall/police station. The board discussed procurement fairness and whether bidding documents accounted for permit fees, then voted to abate the eligible portion and asked staff to confirm whether waiver would have altered bid outcomes and to recoup any third-party processing fees if possible.

Licenses, minutes and personnel: The board approved an entertainment license, a one-day beer-and-wine permit for a ribbon-cutting event, accepted a package of minutes (Feb. 19, Feb. 25, Feb. 26 and Mar. 3), approved a part-time paramedic hire (non-benefited) and a change of status for a water-department employee to part-time non-benefit status with specified hourly rates.

Votes were taken by voice; where the motion text was recorded, the board verified the funding source or follow-up tasks where applicable. Several board members requested additional documentation (cash-flow and rate studies for the water enterprise) to be circulated to the board and public prior to final note issuance.