all right let's call a meeting to a to please rise slute flag if you're able pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the rep for which it stands one nation under God indivisible andice thank you thank you uh today is Wednesday March 13th 6:30 p.m. we're at the M school cafeteria for those of you who are not familiar there's an exit behind us and there's an emergency exit there bathrooms are right here across the hall and there's a bubbler in the back just so you're familiar with your settings um first item in business is membership uh eight members appointed in sworn in so we're all set correct M yep we're all here we're all here um approval of minutes of the February 12th 20 2024 and February 21st 20 24 minutes so I have distributed the uh I've distributed the minutes from February 12th and we can vote on those want to move them I will move the minutes of February 12 2024 we have a second second it second okay any discussion on the minutes by the members seeing none all in favor I unanimous upcoming meeting date um Mari was thinking April 3rd before for the election any input on that everybody available is there available everybody good that side your side everybody good okay next meeting will be April 3rd uh probably 6:30 at our usual spot yes okay our usual spot is town hall for those of you that um don't attend every meeting all right we're going to get into a presentation just so you know I made this meeting here in the neighborhood to hopefully get a good turnout and uh thank you very much for turning out um we're going to try to move move along as quickly as possible if possible wait for the presenter to finish before questions because it takes it Off Track and then a person will ask a question your question so if possible wait for the end of the presentation if you see a mess up or something obviously raise your hand and I'll recognize you the mic's alive so anybody that's near a mic or approaches the mic it's live when you approach it so um just be aware of that okay okay we're going to move right to Roger Fernandes he's our consultant with a presentation good evening everyone thank you Mr chairman again my name is Roger FES and U we'd like to give you folks an update um thank you for being here so just right so first just want to recognize the ioc members um as many of you know they're represented by the planning board the uh Board of Selectmen finance committee um and other members at large so some of the topics we'd like to hit upon today include the funding commit uh committed to date which Mario will talk about um and the tax implications associated with the project how these how this cost I'm sorry how this project will directly affect you from a cost standpoint as a resident um the creation of an Enterprise fund and the fees Associated that we anticipated going to be associated with any uh sewer connections and water connections where we are schedule wise and what we you should anticipate in terms of uh future Town vots um so in front of you see a diagram or a picture of the of the corridor um and we've listed it in three different sections uh the three different sections are not arbitrary they're spelled out the way they are because of the infrastructure associated with each section and by that I mean in some sections there are pump stations and uh some sections that the water continues um so there there was some some strategy associated with initially breaking uh breaking the project up in three three sections um um for those of you who've been following the project you know that originally uh the uh committee and the town was looking at just the first section but after some uh discussion some input from the community um in January the ioc recommended that the town considered the entire project um in large part because of the deficiencies associated with that the current bidding climate and um we also think that there might be some good news uh in the future that would impact the project cost C so there are other advantages with breaking the project up into sections uh one of those include the bidding process so when the project um this project is being bid it's being bid with the base bid and what's referred to as ADD alternates and why that's important is because these ad alternates allow the town to evaluate the contract uh the overall bid by portions so the first uh base bid will tell us what uh the section one cost and then the town has the option to enter into contract with the same contractor in the same contract for section two and section three so it's a provisional Safeguard to make sure that the budget reflects what we're hoping it's it's going to uh reflect and this process is Not Unusual to Westport other communities do it uh the state does it with their projects um so that's that's what we're planning to do here um the other thing I want to mention is that the intent in in guant TR to do that the intent is to be able to present the final bid to you the residents before town meeting so you know what this project is going to cost unfortunately we won't be able to tell you that prior to town vote but you'll know that value prior to town meeting and so we'll have a bid in hand not a contract yet pending funding and P and pending final uh approval by the board of selected so I think that's important important thing to take into consideration um so there you can see the three sections and the limits um I won't read those or in front of you and then the estimated the the overall estimated cost of the project was $35 million just to give you a sense of how the project team is working that uh we just received an estimate uh Friday of last week at just under that number so um it's still a bidding climate we hope that the ultimate bid will be under that but like any other bid we won't know but with the safeguards we're introducing as part of the bid project I'm sorry the bid process it'll it'll provide a town with some flexibility and some uh decision making power so I'm going to ask Marty Marty would you mind speaking to the next slide please yeah the the next slide on page five has to do with the funding commitments that the town has already made and the funding commitments and the money spent have come from Grants they have not come from the from the budget we've had early funding of U $50,000 for that section one of the U of the project and then we had a bigger grant for $380,000 for further design of that section one and these sections really got the these funding really got the uh the project going and we have to credit the the planning board for for doing that um our our Senator Rodricks got an arpa earmark uh for a million dollars and this has largely funded all of the uh design and Engineering work that uh kleinfelder engineers has done to date and we have spent 612,000 of that with 388,000 remaining uh there's another uh chunk of money uh bucket of money coming to uh Bristol County from the arpa uh funds again so we had $2.8 million of Bristol County money uh the Bristol County I'm sorry the arper committee has allocated a million dollars of the 2.8 to the route 6 Water and Sewer project and uh we have allocated 789,6 of that so far the board of Selectmen in the last month or two has allocated that amount for um design of the um really primarily for the for the maer neighborhood which is not really the project we're talking about um tonight that's a a future project it's a neighborhood well it's right here basically and then we have $211,000 remaining um in in that bucket of money so today it's it's really $1.8 million we have either spent or allocated toward design and Engineering of this uh this water andur project thank you Roger back to you thank you m so I just just wanted to back up for one second and just let folks know with respect to the um trunk line itself in the route six section I should have mentioned that the extents in that rendering basically put that line from the Fall River Line all the way up to the uh D just just to give a sense of reference um so um the next thing we wanted to present to you is the alternate uh funding opportunities those funding opportunities sought and potential tax credits available um as part of any uh sewer connection uh when it does become available in your community so as you might already know Westport pursued grants low interest loans for the route 6 Water and Sewer project and we continue to monitor these application statuses closely and we say monitor closely because a lot of the a lot of the responses we get are not their the it's dependent on the time of the year for example the srf funding we just received word uh we just received the uh issuance of what they referred to as the initial use plan and that that came through in January so uh we're still working on some of these Brands and low interest loans um and I'll talk about them specifically for example we applied for the srf low interest Loan in that first section of the uh large contract section one that you saw in the rendering for about $7.5 million and the town was selected for that low interest interest loan and um we're speaking with the state to try to see if they could so by selection they mean we listed on the final in intended use plan for the seven 7 and a half million doll and we continue to have conversations with them and the hope is to get the full project funded through srf because the difference in loan uh values is a little over a percent and when we're talking about these kind of values it adds up to quite a bit of money um the other thing that we're continue to um worked on we continue to wait on in terms of a formal notification is the past Grant and that's in reference to uh the gford uh Street um water loop that ultimately connects out out to Route 6 so we're optimistic about that we're waiting for a formal notification of award uh which we have not received yet um and then we continue to uh apply to mass Works Grant and the mass Works Grant is uh really driven by Economic Development so we have to let the folks at the state know that this uh Municipal project is en tied is tied into some sort of development could be residential or commercial but um so we plan on resubmitting uh uh when the applications open open up again and maybe uh working with some of the local business along the corridor route 6 Corridor so that we can build uh the application as strongly as possible um another another thing that's relatively recent that is is sort of a big deal and that is that 2023 Massachusetts introduced a significant tax credit to homeowners uh with failed septic systems to include so this tax CR includes connecting to the minicipal sewers so the tax credit could be up to $188,000 um or 60% of the cost cost up to $30,000 and you're able basically to take that credit at $4,000 annually over a period of up to 5 years and that credit becomes available uh the year that the uh sewer is connected to the system so that's that's that's that could end up being quite a bit of savings okay sorry so one of the things we we try to be careful about is when we we begin to talk about the funding and and the different applications of the funding is a terminology so here when we we talk about uh funding allocation we're referring to the cost sharing approach that will pay for the relevant project costs which are split between a townwide levy and and we're looking to do that over 20 year debt exclusion and again a debt exclusion is a temporary um borrowing that the town has to pay back and property owners who benefit from the Improvement via a betterment assessment now we talked about betterment assessments on some of our last ioc meetings but um just as a betterments are charges for improvements that increase property value which are attached as leans on the property once operational at the property line property costs are shared among benefiting properties and those special assessments we we're looking at signing those for 20 years so ens ostensively what that means if there's a pipe available in front of your property the property is considered betterment and so the fee portion of the fee of that associated with that infrastructure is assigned to that particular the property um and so the overall project when we talk about allocations of of project costs the the rendering on your right um we see we see on the left sewer of $30 million and that's the portion of the project that's uh the sewer portion is $30 million and from that portion we want to divide the uh cost of the project between the bettered properties via betterment to the tune of 20 % or $6 million and for the remainder of the project $24 million or 80% assign assigned townwide uh for the water portion the uh project proposes to assign the full 5 million dollars of the water portion to a townwide uh Levy so on this next slide um we begin to see how this impacts you from a cost standpoint so um we have uh the total number of Residential Properties and non-residential properties in term of the borrowing the rate at which we're going to borrow um and then the estimated project cost uh those next two values 7.73 and 7 followed by another 7.73 is the current tax rate and Westport has the same tax rate for both residential and non-residential properties the other thing the project is trying to do is limit or as closely as possible possible the edu cost and an edu cost is an assignment set by the betterment that means that a so an easy way to think about that is that if you live on Route 6 and there's a pipe there in front of you for this project not for all projects but for this project and it's a residential single family home you will not pay more than 10,000 or about $10,000 over the course of 20 years and we feel like that number is actually probably going to come down a little bit um when you contrast that with the cost associated with replacing the septic system or denitrification septic system you're talking three and four times and then even that system becomes U unusable at the end of its useful life um so again the next the next section the cost sharing allocation we again present um the sewer portion 30 million 80% time wide 20% via betterments and the next uh uh table below that is where the hits the road how is it going to affect you as a taxpayer well if we look at just sewer um 25 25 $24 million is uh the cost of that 80% and the uh proposed tax impact per $1,000 based on your assessed value not what's on Zillow your assess value um you'll see a 35 C increase uh per thousand a 7% increase for the water for a total of 42 cents or um if you uh uh live in what is the average single family home assess value here in Westport of $596,000 then your average assessment would go up $250 um per years so here here's the same uh calculations but it's broken down by home value so you so you can pick based on this slide where you might fit and if you look all the way to the right of the table you'll get a good sense of what it's going to cost you weekly so I'll leave that just for a second so you guys can look at it okay good okay so when we when we're placing Sor in your roads um and we're creating a system there's there's a requirement to be able to own and maintain that system operate and maintain that system that's where the term on and M as most of you might know comes in operations and maintenance there's a cost associated with that and in our new system that cost tends to be low but like anything else as it gets older by older 10 20 and so on years down the road those costs tend to increase and eventually things need to be replaced so the town needs to be able to create uh an Enterprise fund to consider those future costs as well as be able to uh pay the user fees for disposal of storage and the acquisition or or getting of water so um so we so a water waterline Enterprise fund or Water Service Enterprise fund already exists in Westport so you have water systems so we'd have to do the same thing for sewer we'd have to set up a sewer Enterprise fund and there's a statute associated with that and that'll be something you see town meeting uh mgl chapter 44 tells us how we can do that and as I just mentioned with this with this project they're going to be user fees so um the user fee rates for Westport residents utilizing Fall Rivers Water and future Sewer Service are as follows so so Fall River charges um its residents uh uh the base rate of $3.77 per 100 cubic feet not gallon 100 cubic feet there's about 748 gallons in a um in a 100 cubic foot so um Westport uh and we'll give you a sense of what that might look like for for a traditional homeowner at the end but um so Westport users pay 55% more than the base rate in for river which amounts to about $584 for water this is currently what's in place and then uh Westport charges the uh $7 28 cents per CCF so again the the markup that you're seeing in the water bill from Fall River is because Fall River requires it it's not a town a town markup it's a Fall River markup and so the same application would would take place when we're discussing sewer um the base rate for sewer service is for Four River residents is $66 um Westport users would be charging an additional 50% 5% more than the base rate resulting in a rate of $939 and we would include the same markup if you will to cover operations and maintenance of 25% bringing the total sewer fee anticipated sewer fee uh for to for Westport Westport residents at to $11.74 so Fall River also charges a um a connection uh so even though we're here in Westport if you connect to the system forward requires that a fee come back to them uh for River imposes a uh fee for water and sewer connections a onetime fee connection uh is applied at a dollar per gallon of projected daily flow um Westport may add up to an additional $2 $2 fee again one time fee um for operation maintenance and administrative costs so here we'll look at an specific example uh where we might have a single family home dwelling uh with three bedrooms Title 5 Title 5 is something that's prescribed to us by U estate which equals about 110 gallons per bedroom so if we take that 110 Gall per bedroom times three bedrooms time $3 the $1 for River requires plus the $2 um Westport is looking at comes out to 9 and the same calculation uh would be results if we're talking water as well $9.99 I'm going to add at the end that as as we move forward keep in mind that this is a if the project were to be approved by by by the folks of Westport and we being Advanced it's it's a several it'll take several years three years potentially to build up the entire project and and put it online um and during that time um there will be a s Commission form something we'll talk about in our last slide and that's one of the authorizations or or Powers within the SE an authorized SE commission to be able to create rules and regulations that are typically applied in every other community that has a SE commission that will cover anything that might fall um um outside of what you see here now so project uh schedule um as I mentioned earlier I think I did that the project is on track uh to be able to provide you uh at town meeting a bid again not a contract a bid uh we anticipate that all the project uh permits uh will be hand in hand um it's and it's and I don't work for CLI F but you know my my a lot of credit goes to the entire group uh for being able to expedite um a $35 million project the way it has been um and so um with with that we again we don't we don't see any reason why we shouldn't have that big in hand for town meeting and have all the permits in hand right at right after town meeting and the final the final uh thing I want to say before I maybe turn it over to the committee regarding the ballot questions is the route six section um a portion of the project um is the main ottery if you will it's the main line at which by which all the surrounding communities can connect that means that that infrastructure need to be sized and designed so that it can accommodate future connections um the pump stations the size of the pipe for both Water and Sewer are all sized for the greater good of that portion of Ro six so I think that's important to keep in mind I think the ioc thought a lot about that and how uh it's it's if the project uh cost allocations need to be need to consider that aspect and in terms of what we we call that that that's referred to typically as a general benefit that means that's something that's there that's that's intended to accommodate just those that are but the pipe at some point in the future so in any case that was my last thought Mr chairman are there any questions before we go on to the next section all right thank you yeah good evening folks um I'd like to talk about the and the and the we have here um the the Outreach is comprised of of of several media first of all um um you know Board of selectman meetings and I think a lot of you watch those and you can um if you've been watching them you've seen the uh the votes that they've been taking uh to uh allocate um arpa Bristol County funds um the uh the Board of Health has has written a uh letter of support in the shorelines The Herald is kind of the herald in the standard times circulation in town is is kind of died but we hear that the shorelines is probably the most widely circulated newspaper in town and so we're very glad that the Board of Health has um issued a letter of support and it was in last week shorelines um Lin should have a letter from the planning board that the chair has written a letter and uh we will we will find that uh probably in tomorrow's uh Edition also we are here as the infrastructure oversight committee if you've been following us you know we were established in in uh June of uh 2022 by the board of selectman to really oversee the uh the project the the design and engineering and and now as we move forward to the uh the actual authorization of the of the debt component uh which will be at The Ballot Box in a in a month and a town meeting in a couple of months and we were here tonight um we we had um a u a large meeting at the new Auditorium of the middle and high school on January 24th and we're we're back here tonight uh because we believe it is important to have Outreach to the North End Community and so we did the the high school and now we're doing the Mamer school um we have other um Outreach um we have um worked very closely with um a couple of environmental groups the Westport River Watershed Alliance and the buzzers Bay Coalition they are very active in um actually helping us in Outreach and um we are doing other things as well we well last night we presented before the the finance committee they they grilled us for two hours and 15 minutes it was quite a meeting but they really uh do seem very interested in our project and hopefully we will get a positive recommendation from them as they sit on the on the stage at uh at the town meeting in in May and uh going forward we've got a um a meeting this Saturday at the general meeting of the Westport River uh I'm sorry the Westport Point uh neighborhood association that's at the Howen house the Methodist Church the point it's part of the general meeting that goes from 10:00 a.m. to to 12: uh noon and then just to wrap up this part um you're going to see some yard signs we had them printed and we we we got a took delivery of a hundred of them uh today and so you should see them popping up around town uh we might have a second 100 hopefully and then there will be mailings it's going to be a joint effort of the Buzzards Bay and the Westport River Watershed Alliance but it's going to be to all five precincts in town and that will be closer to the the date of the the town election which is April 9th um that is uh in summary some of the uh the Outreach that we've been undertaking so that's that's the end of my report I don't know some important dates everybody needs to know on the uh Town election ballot April 9th there'll be a question uh to support the project there will not be a dollar number we can't put a dollar number by law but that that's going to give the community an idea of of who supports this or not it's kind of in a it it's coming up quick okay so we need anybody that supports this project to get out and vote because that's going to prove who supports it in general the North End doesn't vote so the ones that are the ones that are involved in this project don't generally vote as much as the South End we've got to convince the South End to pay for the project up here so you guys need to show there's a need if if we don't get the the high count obviously we're not going to do as good at town meeting if let me back up a little bit if it does happen to fail at The Ballot Box and passes at town meeting we will probably come back with it but we need to have evidence that it's needed and if it's voted down in the North End it's going to be a lot tougher sell to bring it to a special town meeting does everybody know what I'm talking about we're asking for the town to pay 80% of this project for the users to pay 20 asking the town to pay 100% to bring the water to the neighborhoods okay this way it's not a betterment for your water for everybody that's involved so we just need to make that clear clear it's very important to get out and show that if you support this project and not on April 9th okay all right the next Point well um Jerry has some points he wants to make Jero I've got Jerry and so he's got um some comments that he'd like to to make thank you for coming out tonight uh We've on each of our meetings we've mostly been talking about the uh technical aspects of this project um everybody here okay louder and and right into the mic Jer anyway we've been talking mostly about technical aspects of the project and the funding um but uh we we really have to get out there and get get the true factual information uh about the project I I read some of the stuff about everybody's required to tie in and things like that and I I don't ever recall us saying that um so U so anyway I started to uh think about uh what how we should um uh get the facts out there and uh it's it's difficult to do because we are a public body and uh we can't spend money to uh try to campaign for for any particular side of this thing but U uh I I started jotting a couple things down and I realize that um if we don't move on this project as you probably know there's been previous attempts 20 years ago uh and prior to that to try to get sewer and water sewer and all water on Route Six uh because of to the various environmental issues that are up there in the small lots and and so on the other things that we have talked about but but uh right now as you know those failed uh primarily failed and so right now I feel that we have to do it this time or just forget about it because I don't think you're going to get it two years from now I don't think you're going to get it five years years from now 10 years from now even 20 years from now very difficult to see the future but um there's reasons I'm saying that is right now it seems to me my own personal opinion that a lot of things have come together at the right time the right way to make it so that this will be your your opportunity if you want that project um and I I just joted down a few of them today uh one is the U availability potential availability and the availability of Opera funds I don't expect that too much in the future and I don't think any of us would uh the public and governmental recognition generally Across the Nation right now where people are realizing they've got to put money into the infrastructure highways sour systems and so forth uh and so I think that's another U thing that will help us at this time uh we have in our town we're very fortunate right now in my opinion at least I do watch this pretty closely uh to have a very strong interested and active local planning board uh the uh the board members planning board members the staff and uh and volunteers that work and help uh with the planning board we have also an active and committed and FIS fiscally aware select board and finance committee uh as you know they've been uh indicating heavily recently on on how tough the town has it uh financially and of course you could say well this is going to add to it but it may add to it over a long period of time but the more grants we can get and so forth the more it's going to reduce that um but uh but again I'll say that our select board members are I think very strong I think we have a very solid uh good working board now and finance committee um right now now we have knowledgeable and committed volunteers on various boards such as this one closer to the mic closer J sorry uh we have volunteers who are willing to give their time uh for uh for these things to take place and uh and I'm particularly want to commend the volunteers even on this board who um have a particular expertise in sewer and water excavation and installation and so forth one of whom is Bob DEA and Manny saw on the other end uh and they they work with this stuff so they've been tremendous help besides of course our project manager who's hired he's the only hired person besides the engineering firm we have a number of interested and involved general public part of the general public like you folks tonight and that was shown when we had the meeting at the high school we had a lot of people at the high school they showed an interest in that we haven't always had that for projects in town so hopefully that will help us get the word out the current planning board has proposals right now coming before town meeting uh to uh rezone portions of Route Six and um in order to uh improve economic development that will be a tie-in with the sewer and water project so again that's coming together we we haven't had that before the um the recent and current threats to the Westport River and the aquaa from various sources of pollution and contaminants you've been hearing a lot about the nitrates and so forth and now the pasas and U and so uh uh that's coming together that should help us in the financing of of this project as well as well as the interest on the part of the people in town not only the north end but hopefully the south end as well you've got that bread and cheese Brook that's just pouring the pollutant down down the river at least that's what's what has been uh alleged um we have um I don't know how many of you have followed this but um within the last year or so the d massach d has um come down with some very very strict uh mandates and so forth for failed septic systems uh they backed away a little bit because our Board of Health made a very strong statement against what was happening but I think you'll see some of that's going to be coming back but for right now they've they've eased off a little bit and that is for uh having to replace all cess pools and all fail system uh with nitrate type reducing system septic systems so again that is something that is around the corner and if we don't get this project now you're probably going to be faced with that particularly in the North End um and these recommended systems are um are are very expensive I I personally had to put two systems in and they were over 20,000 and one was 30,000 so that's more than the vment that we're talking about on the sewer system any more okay yeah the other thing just uh two more one is the U the train is coming into to uh new bford in Fall River and you may or may not know that the state is proposing to put mandates for special housing in the areas of these uh train stations uh they are uh mandating a lot of resoning uh to allow for these this housing and so forth so again that's going to be more expense and U we don't know for sure if it'll hit Westport but it was originally Pro proposed to include Westport uh and then the last thing is mass Highway again I don't know how many of you are aware but Mass highway is actively working on redesigning uh the entire Route Six from Fall River Line to u to Dartmouth and including part of donet and they want to redesign it and then repave it and once they do get it repaved you you're not allowed to break the pavement for I've heard five years and I've heard seven years so I'm not sure which is accurate but um it's a long time and so you basically if we don't get it going this time I think you're going to be out of L thank you yeah we're going to move through okay you don't all right folks once again we have public comments on the agenda did anybody want to bring up anything or speak about anything the mics are up here if you could um if you could just state your name too for the records they can't hear yeah sorry bad the first person so yeah Jeremy Packard Russell Street uh I just have two things uh you guys show the average tax increase for household based on value at that that broke it down by weekly costs yeah I just think that's a little misleading I think monthly and annual will probably a cont we have both I thought just we no we have both um just back up a little so um so you see the full impact and then the following column it says weally we did try to oh no than and then the only other question I had was is this vote just for Route Six or is it does it include the like roadway no man's going to speak about the loop in a few minutes that's a proposal that is not moving on yet we're talking about the trunk line of Route 6 as it comes up there'll be Stouts for the neighborhoods as it comes along include the macroo but they've had some good luck recently in finding some money that will make it hopefully it'll make it happen or so there planning to connect that into those STS that that this project is going to leave as we move on I I believe it's probably going to be a survey of neighborhoods to see who needs what or if there is emergency situations as we come up to tie in if people don't want it tied in on their street it's no sense running the lineup but but there's a good amount of people that need it yeah know uh we're not at this point we're not going to force anybody to tie in as a select when I'm saying that um so that's the status right now all right thank you okay thanks Tony hi I'm Tony beer and I've been hounding this group for two years now so Mr chairman Steve and muray and some of the other folks have listened to me for two years so I apologize for that but I'm going to try one more stab at it because what we're talking about are people that are not only paying for the 35 million but be paying after that on a regular basis and hopefully it'll have a better quality of life in that neighborhood and benefit from that so I stand in favor of it I don't stand in favor of the financing that's been done today and uh I would applaud everything this group has done except I think we failed on financing and uh I said that a number of times I've referred where we could go to get additional financing or members of this committee has talked about that and I would hope that we would do it sooner rather than later uh there's a critical timetable on the financing um I don't know there's any from the state here today hopefully if there is maybe Senator Pro's office or representative of um um Paul Smith's office could talk about that I don't see this as a state project I've never seen it as a state project and I'm that many miles in the United States see it as state projects they see it as Community Based projects and I've been told by this committee on more than one occasion there's no such things as ear marks well there isn't but there certainly are earlocks taking place in the billions of dollars across this country right now and if you look at hyanis as an example and most of these folks in the crowd have been to hyenas there's a little pot of hyenas Coville uh Village I think it's called they just got 24 million 24.4 million to extend their water and sewer in that little Community now I would hope that Roger or Jim or other folks that are being uh charged with these responsibilities at least pick up the phone and call Senor and find out how they got it and I would suggest as I've suggested the members of this Committee in the past that we need to take a delegation and go down to Washington and meet with Senator waren and meet with uh Senator B and meet with representative KY and talk about Westport and talk about how we're going to do a community grant that tied in to West for I'm not talking about something that's unusual matter of fact I can't even find another Community across the country that's try to do this type of project without getting 75 or 80% covered by the federal government and then another 10 or 15% by the state we seem to be going everything through Massachusetts for funding and we're missing a vote on this this is poor planning financially and I think we owe it to the people that are here tonight to say that we've at least been to Washington we spent a couple of days down there and this is what they told us and I think you're going to be surprised when you do that we haven't done that over the last two years I hope we can do it by the end of the month because if we're going to be voting on this guy stuff we should know what those figures are we should know what those costs are we're not talking about homes that are 350 and 400 and 500,000 we're talking about some homes that were purchased for 100,000 or 200,000 maybe Max and they're struggling and they have to pay from week to week and they're going to be paying after the people pay for this initial 35,000 they're going to be paying on top of that I don't think it's fair to to ask us to get out and and support but have the North End doing this without even taking the effort to go down the water Washington that's where the money is folks that's where we got to go for it we're not doing that we need to do that this project is instrumental to the growth of our community it's going to help everybody townwide from an economic development standpoint it benefits all of us but it's going to be on the backs of of the folks that are going to be living there and hopefully they're going to see some advantages 3 five years down the road where their property will have some additional value and I think all tax payers will see a value if we start be able to build our economic development in the north end but we're going about this wrong if we were going to build a school in our community the first thing we do is we go to the state we talk about the financing we start talking about what percentage the taxpayers are actually going to pay if we're going to do a a special project infrastructure Project Clean Water Act infrastructure act there's so many there's billions and billions of dollars that are going out weekly we haven't done any of it it's about time westw got some of that if not we should look at our Senators our US senators and our US Representative and maybe find somebody who could represent us a little bit better thank [Applause] you I I'd like to just U respond to Tony um briefly we did try that last year without much success we did get a million dollars from our representative bill keting in the house we got nothing from our two senators they did not support through uh committee last summer these are congressional allocations these are what we call earmarks and we did not do well last year but we're on a learning curve and we uh as far as the uh the ear marks this year we have to put in some kind of preliminary um request by March 31st which we will do and we have to put in a full request by May 31st which we will do and then we have to as as Evan gendro reminded me you know these are busy people we have to keep reminding them that we are seeking These funds and part of reminding them is to go to DC and go to the Dirkson office building or the Rayborn building or Cannon or whatever uh office building uh for the Senators on on Capitol Hill and to try to personally plead for us but what we have to do is continually remind them through this subcommittee process that we need the money for this so when we're asking for a debt exclusion of up to 35 million we hope to never get anywhere near that mon that number and so uh you know this is a different year last year was a learning curve this year hopefully we'll have more success thank you I would like I would like to add we looked into different funds and the first thing they asked is how Diversified we are if we'll take large scale projects Roger kind of touched base on it we could get more grants if we wanted large Manu large manufacturing uh something that's going to bring hundreds of jobs into the town we would move up hyenas has a lot of Tourism so they're showing a lot of tax stles come to the state state going to invest to it because they got a huge amount of uh people going to the town spending money that comes back to the state so that's what they're looking for on that end we've poked around we're going to keep poking around uh we're going to try to do the best for you but keep in mind we're still trying to keep the character of the town uh in between all of this go ahead man um my question is at one point in the numbers at one point in the numbers you said it was 990 a year in a bill on each one now is that a sewer bill and a water bill or is that a combined bill so is the sewer bill and water bill two different bills that that home owners are going to get if they tie in CU I know the number was 99 because if you take 990 and divide it by 12 months they're now at $82.50 per Bill if that's two bills and if it's one bill it's still a bill that they would pay every month on top of their taxes going up correct well actually the 990 represents a portion of the uh connection fees so it's and 30 the fees themselves for for for the death no so you have that's a good question so you have the user fees so every time you take a shower or fles a toilet that water goes somewhere someone's charging through that right so in this project the intent is to bring where water isn't available water will be brought to the property line where sewer isn't available that'll be brought to the property line was referred to stubs and then at some point as a homeowner uh you might have like to connect your uh sewer system get rid of your septic system connect your sewer system when you make that connection to sewer you get charged one time 990 one time 9 but then they would get a monthly bill right and that's right for water now is it sewer and water together do we know that are they getting two bills if they got sewer and water two bills so you get one for water which which you do now if you have water if you don't have a well you get a bill for water for water use okay and then if you connect to the sewer system you you get charge the sewer user fee just like everybody folks sampon Fall River does right now okay my next question um goes to somebody made a comment of um to redesign rot six and um so if we put this water in does that mean that all of a sudden five years from now we're driving down rout six and it's all Tenon buildings because they don't long need a septic system so we selling all our car dealerships so that they can put up tenants and we can have low income housing all the way down room six and instead of keeping like Steve said for pretty we now have all of Route Six as three story tenement buildings because people are going to want to come in and build now that you don't need a septic correct that's what I'm curious about are we zoned for that meaning could that happen nothing's impossible in Massachusetts I would never guarantee that's not going to happen in Massachusetts as soon as they claim a hardship they'll give them a permit so I I would never make that promise to you uh the the part of the zoning that they're proposing includes mixed use including housing up in the St the St is behind the Dunkin Donuts in that area um part of the we touched base on it but but uh for those of you that might not have got it we're within the target zone of the train and Fall River the impact zone is roughly um around around Davis Road to whites they're going to force us to put dense housing there uh it's not something we want of course we'll fight it but if we're within an Impact Zone and the state of force is on it just like they're trying to force the septic system how this originally came up that we dodged that they went to the cape and started forcing them first butang hang on one second let her talk she does bring up a legitimate concern you might have recalled a few years ago 40 BS could go in which is 40b is is affordable housing that they could force on a community the only thing that could save us is Conservation Commission so they could come in and force that honestly it was done in the past but as we add affordable housing and we make an effort toward affordable housing it doesn't get forced on us there's a certain percentage do you remember the percentage we need 10% AFF it's 10% in town we need of affordable housing but if we're making a conscious effort to address it it kind of gets uh backed down a little if you will [Music] sir West just recently there was a thing that I guess there was a couple towns I want to say I think it was like new there um they said that they rejected more he's housing and now they're not getting any grants they're not getting any assistance so if we do not approve this we're still going to get that housing one way or another because if not she's going to resend our grants and our federal aid or state aid to the state like I kind of glossed over Yeah the more grants we get there's usually more tie-ins to it um again they are looking for housing that's a fact uh that's what I believe uh if Manny you want to chime in that's the first thing she asked when we were looking for money is how many houses can we have that was me oh I'm sorry uh um Mari is the one that excuse me let me introduce everybody I'm sorry I failed to do it at the beginning Jim haret Our Town Administrator Bob daylor is the one that started a lot of this he's on planning board Jerry candino is on the zba Mori Economic Development myself Steve selectman Roger FES is our consultant Joe Amal am bus he's at large member Manny saw is on planning board and the selectman and Chris Thatcher fincom fincom just so you know the full committee that's representing Tony go ahead St I think it's a little misting to to assume that U housing and we the idea of the train that we're going to be forced to do things on Route Six we may be U but that may be an argument as you say not to have water and sewer 6 because it'll be up to the state to provide that the same way wh's restaurant did when they were going to have that need but I I think it's also misleading to suggest that if we go after these federal funds uh with Congressional uh application for Westbard uh that we're going to be all these strings attached to them um if you look at them if if just in Senator Maki and Senator Warren there's over 196 Pages anybody can go home tonight and Google it and they're not uh with strings attach to the direct stuff that goes down and they're not all water and soil a lot of them are but there's a uh track that's being funded close by in another Community for $110,000 I don't know if John bullet's here but John you got another 10,000 for the 10 million I should say for for the track and another 10 million a little over 10 million to expand the Water Treatment Center in the city of New Beth uh there's stuff down in Cara there's stuff all around the state of Massachusetts there's all kinds of Grants without Springs attached that's why the amach they help out communities the areas that really of a need and politically they've been doing this for ages tip O'Neal was a great one for doing that many years ago we still have those things going on it's part of the political process we're not taking advantage of it the US senators and theate our US representatives taking advantage of it but for some reason it it does take some effort Mar and I'm glad to hear you are going down and going to the 31st it hasn't changed said the same thing last year we can check the tape get done all right go ahead all right I'd like to I'd like to just add that you know the project the project that we're we're talking about right now the route 6 trunk line is for um the responsible Redevelopment and economic benefit from the trunk line coming in however the design of the trunk trunk line is for the whole community and this this neighborhood here and the need for um public health and the environmental impact of the whole project for Westport SE and water so when we're talking about going to the federal government that's what we need to talk about we need to talk about the whole project and what's it's going to do for this neighborhood so this neighborhood right now we've moved forward with the survey of the entire neighborhood to sane on the edge of Kyle Jacob and the bread and cheese Brook Cuts right through it so we've done the survey for the complete Sur water design for this neighborhood um this neighborhood is we're going to find I've been told by the planner that it wasn't an environmental Injustice neighborhood but they were looking at different criteria we have a big swath up Route Six that was designated as a environmental Injustice neighborhood based on income criteria this neighborhood I'd say probably 90% of the septics won't meet Title 5 so this is this is going to be the the public health and the environmental benefit so we did appi for a grant and this is what I'm seeing on our problem and failures on our grants is just we applied for a past Grant was a simple application just on the back home Loop just to hit the school come out Osborne and go back on the route six and connect some uh a public well on Route Six I think what we need to do like we like we just said is we need to look at the whole project when we're going when we're going to the federal government for funding we need to we need to we need to do exactly that because just from that Loop what we're finding out is there's going to be no cost to bring that water M past your house and that that's what's going to happen as we expand the municipal water in Westport so if we go down if we go to if we go to the federal government we say I know Bob De did have some numbers you know it was spread out over 20 30 years um on the cost but 20 30 years from now the cost is going to be a lot more drastic we've already I mean Steve's been around for a while on some of the original studies and what the costs were we know what the cost has changed just in the last 5 years so I mean it is time for action and you know I'm willing to take the lead and go knock on some doors in Washington if people want to send us there um it's pretty pretty much I mean the public health threat and the environmental benefit of Westport s waters you know it far up surpasses the cost for economic development and I think that's what we when we're banging on the federal doors that's what we got to be talking about very good anything else to add Manny on the ma Loops we'll be wrapping up the agenda I think I think Roger could add to that and and let us let us know what uh you know what's been done so far so allocated funding for the engineering so um so the town you know we've been actively speaking with uh Folks at the D we work through the EPA to try to get that Loop funded so that It ultimately connects um uh not only well ultimately installs not only the loop but also installs a portion of the route six uh water M um and if that should happen then that would reduce that $35 million number proportionally so um so we're hoping to hear something back on that soon um we're optimistic uh we're reluctant to guarantee anything without getting that pce of in front of us it's it's 100% but we're very optimistic we hope for the best all right again anybody other want to bring any public comments forward before we wrap up all right hopefully you answered all your oh I'm sorry one coming up there we go just so you know we we linked the page with a lot of the water and sewer with the facts and this presentation you could try getting it through the website I try connect it to it it's called Help Westport if not it's on the town web page go to the planning board go ahead K thank you Mr chairman Corin Peterson with the buzzer Bay Coalition so the all across buzzer Bay from you know here in Westport up to wam um in Falmouth and and on the vineyard so we work with towns a lot to pass these large Municipal Wastewater infrastructure projects CU sewer by far is the best way to protect your public drinking providing sewer and water is the best way to provide drinking water water clean drinking water for your residents as well as properly treated sewage um so I would say on behalf of the Coalition investing in this project is the single largest investment you can make for your to protect your public health as well as the protection and restoration of your river which is the livelihood of this town to add um to provide some perspective with respect to how other communities around Buzzard's Bay are funding these um I know we've heard a lot about the federal government should really step up and I AB we absolutely agree they should and they did through the bipartisan infrastructure law and through the arpa funding which dumped a whole bunch of money into what we call the srf the state revolving fund so there's a lot of money there for communities to borrow um that is not a grant the time with the 1960s and70s when the federal government was giving 80% grants for these large infrastructure projects are over we haven't seen that in decades what we're seeing out on the cape the $24 million in hyenas is the cape has what's called the Cape Cod water protection fund which is a tax on airbnbs this goes into a fund that is just for Cape for in barable County which provides grants to towns that do these large infrastructure projects we don't have something around here like that maybe we should consider approaching our state delegation to do a tax like that for airbnbs on tourism to provide the communities the infrastructure they need to service um the use of you know their communities with that said weham in uh spring of 2023 passed a $38 million um at town meeting to Sr authorization to borrow from srf to upgrade their wastewater treatment plant um the town of Maran has done this recently it's it's all through srf loans it's all through Community Based financing Sal just passed a $41 million and they're breaking ground in Yarmouth tomorrow at a for a $200 million project um and this is all coming out of srf and those aren't getting Direct Federal year marks I wish we all wish we were because if we could drive these cost down it would be better for all of us but I just wanted to provide some perspective on what's going on just clarify srf so a state revolving fund so when you're doing a water res project it's a low interest loan it's either 2% or 0% uh loan to the community thank you br okay you Mr D yeah I um I didn't want to on a lot of you have heard me speak several times but I just want to make a couple of points we weren't bashful we didn't hold back our the regional representatives for both our Senators in our state and our congressional representative uh were in the annex a year ago and we asked them for directly for direct Congressional uh money an earmark and um and and they they went away and we they knew the project we told them we needed uh you know the first payment of $30 million on what will eventually when we provide s and water in in our neighborhoods you know 60 or 70 million doll and we told them that we asked for the money and and and we kept contact with them and there was correspondence with with Jim and we met with them again this year yeah I didn't fly to Washington and I didn't knock on their doors but I've done that and and and and very seldom do you come away with money and yes they put billions of dollars it is true they put billions of dollars into the infrastructure in investment act but for water in sew those monies flow into the state revolving fund that's where we just get approved for $7.5 million um my colleague Jerry made an important Point like why why should we do this and why should what's is there a need obviously there is a need there's a public health need there's a there's there's a sanitation need in north and just out of no one's fault we have older homes and we have small Lots we can't bring our Lots into compliant this we have to help our neighbors here because they it's really impossible for them to help themselves you can't have can't have a 5,000 foot lot in a well in a septic system and your neighbor have a a 5,000 foot lot and and be 100t apot you just physically impossible so and and and we've known the need for 20 years it's been one of the priorities in the state in in our town master plan and and we have enacted and we had this opportunity in which we had the right attitude among the leadership in the town and we had the recovery monies from Co so it isn't like you know this isn't a miracle we had a CO people died the federal government acted and put recovery monies for the towns to recover from the impact of Co we took those monies and and and created a design and we're going to put that design out to bid right now and what what are we doing with the bid we're taking that bid to chase the other Federal money in the loans so we used Federal money to come and Chase more Federal money and yeah it's the $35 million but that's that's that's the budget coming out of that will be whatever whatever we we get off the top whatever we get in Grants whatever we get in in and debt forgiveness is what they call a a grant when it's a loan all of that comes off the top and and what we actually borrow is is the local share piece so we we've acted and we have an opportunity and we have an opportunity that's really now and it's closing because those Federal monies flowed into a a program spread over five years we're in year three of those five years so the money train is leaving the station and you either get on now or the money train is gone so we have this rare opportunity to act there's no question that we don't act now so we could have acted 20 years ago we didn't we could not act now things are not going to get better you're going to act in the future the Third 35 is 65 you that's the way the world is so uh we hope you support this we've been working to support this uh I I'm going to vote for it and in my septic system works and my well works but I'm going to vote for it because it's the right thing for the town thank you Bob ask question Bob so the state revolving funds um that were approved that that was just for contract one what do you think the likelihood if um we we request the whole contract of that low interest revolving fund what do you think about the whole thing being funded by revolving you want the M yes sorry about that so we had discussions with mass D last week when when they changed our scoring than M and a few others to get us to qualify for the $7.5 million dollar to the srf um they indicated that they wanted us to come back right so next year we will reapply again they also gave us some indication that they may consider increasing it based on our current project so there is definitely an opportunity to get additional funding to srf It's Not Guaranteed at this time but they seem encouraged and they wanted us to go forward with it thank you very much okay and I I'd like to just add um the the first 7 A5 million at 2.4% will save us over a million almost 2 million versus the rate of three and a half three and 3/4% that's charged by investment bankers uh these days that's just the first section of the first contract we got two more so you know in the end if we had to do the state revolving fund financing we will save5 six7 million over the public market Mr thank you rob M here uh the first 75 million that you receiv receiv is that for you consider a contract one it is we filed last year for $7.5 million and you got denied twice correct pardon and you got denied twice we got denied twice for Mass works this is St revolving fund we initially got denied because our scoring was wrong when was that application put in that was a 2023 application for 2024 so it's the current one but we got on to the the zoom meeting that the uh the D held in in late January and they reviewed it and we reacted very quickly with a couple of letters and those couple of letters raised our score from 3:30 to 5:30 so the application that was put in for the $7.5 million was filed when it was filed last year I think August of uh 2023 gotta address that woman back there and a stage back there that doesn't like all the houses going up on Route Six if you approve Gateway that's approving all the houses they're resoning Route Six for houses that's what the zoning board is doing so if you deny gateway then that'll stop the houses there's a a a bylaw currently in place on Route Six where if you're knocked down your house you can't build another one correct go on the footprint right you have to keep one wall yeah there's there's methods to get around so so right now on Route Six you wouldn't be able to build any housing complexes right now the current law that stands in place but if you approve the gateway then they'll be building houses from 88 Bridge right into for River that's what the $7.5 million is for instead of body that's in the room anybody here from Southwest yeah I'm sure there must be a couple other than that the majority of people all here from the north right and so there's nothing in this for you I mean this this first phase is from 88 Bridge into four River this was supposed to be the trunk line when we had voted down at the high school this was for the the trun line of Route Six so the 7.5 million came in for the first phase and the application that put up what restrictions came with that money restri I'm sorry I didn't understand your question rest on the what it is is it's it's it's it's in that first contract area from whites to Route 88 right and we we went in for 7 A5 million that was the U the estimate last year the current estimate is about 8.1 so we're still we're still very close right right and so the mass Grant works that goes out in June correct that's due June 1st but we need that's that's an economic development contract we need a project and I've been working on the owner of Edgewater Apartments because he has two Edgewater Apartments he has land to build a third Edgewater apartment on on on the agreement of the $7.5 million what did you agree on to get that money what what was the deal with that Jim hardnet please it's a sore Lo ah yeah but when you got the sewer Alan what did you tell them was going to be happening we told them we were going to build a sewer there's no there's no C but the two applications denied through Mass Grant where saying not enough points of interest that I understood this one here you're going to be building a sewer go ahead so so the sewer itself the project is all of roote six right it's not contract one phase one it's all of Route 6 $35 million this is just going to fund a portion of it all right if it's approved by the voters the whole Route Six is going to get constructed but we will get 7.5 million from srf funding to help pay for it and the rest will become from town loans so it'll happen with a 75 million that'll be used from the 88 Bridge into Fall River correct from Fall River to to 88 yes yeah cuz I was under the understand that this was a a trunk line project where this way in the end everybody here can tie in so basically from the 88 bridge to River that's it so Robbie this is just one portion of the funding right so the whole project is is is Route Six from FL River to d a portion of it is going to be funded to srf and the remainder of it is going to be funded if approved by the town through other sources so it's just it's just like taking money from One bank for one portion another bank from somewhere else Bas basically project is the same all over the money was put in for that little face 8 bridge and that money's arrived you know but I like whaton said he just went that one okay and I like what the woman said from uh Buzz Bay over there I think those two to get put together with the board and understand how to get some of his finances going she's constantly communicating with us and we appreciate it got and Tony sends us a few emails to okay thank you sir hi my name is SE live I've been here about 20 I'm sorry L Ling okay go ahead um so early on forgive me for not understand the exact terms but you said the pipeline coming through six uh was I'll call it early stages so it's going to have to be a larger trun Cline to support future is that what I was understanding um so my understanding there is if we're you know when it makes sense when you're doing construction um if there's a future use you want to oversize that trunk on yes so it makes you know it makes perfect sense to me that at some point um there will be additionally uh not just the residents are Route Six and the talking about but there's obviously going to be another big tit uh the lady in the back had a concern that's probably my concern which brought me out here I moved here at Westport um I like my small community um I have a property across from me that could you know it's a read the property of of one person um it could potentially be read the property of 16 people so um you know I just wanted to bring up that concern and knowing that I don't believe the Troke line will stop at six and is going to be bigger so from what I'm seeing this $7 million initially um there's an interest rate there it's a small interest rate but still a big number um if this trunk line is going to support more communities why are we a small community going to front this large um not different communities it be the the the neighborhoods if you will West just neighbor West yeah go right down Route Six and the stubs will be big enough to expand as you pass like Davis all the side streets it'll correct Steve could I could I answer so so we've studied this three times you know the the total nitrogen load of the town is is build out CoStar youo that's already been figured out so the trunk Line Design is to accommodate these neighborhoods that are in need that have the septic that it's going to need to be replaced so the total cost to replace all your septics versus what's going on right now burdened on each individual person and and it's not the end all it's not the fixs to the nitrogen and it's not the fix to something else that's came come in front of us the the past contamination so there's EPA money for grant money for that um so once we get the trunk line in the 3,000 plus homes that need service that's what this trunk line the trunk line we we're pushing for the economic benefit and the Redevelopment of Route 6 and we're going to we're going to recoup some monies from new new growth on Route 6 but the real benefit is the again I I I I need to emphasize this the public health threat and the environmental benefit to the river so that's what the that's what the design was and there's been three studies for this and and it would have been if if it had been built 20 years ago it would have saved a lot of people a lot of cost and what we're trying to do now is because the cost is going to triple and and and these systems that they're doing in now I I mean most of them aren't the best technology and and as the technology changes the D if you don't have water as the technology changes they're going to keep making you do it so sewer and Municipal sewer and water is the end off for it that's what fixes this stuff and and I believe I believe like what Tony said I think this the past money is EPA grant money for these type of neighborhoods and I don't know I I I would hopeing we we have a member of the Board of Health here um Phil Weinberg and he might be able to elaborate a little bit more on what this money is and what it'll be for these neighborhoods because we have one we have we have Railroad Park we have the Westport Factory we have this neighborhood we have Sanford Road and then we have all the houses around the pond so the pond is the backup drinking water supply it is a reservo we we currently have the Board of Health putting septic systems within areas that aren't supposed to have septic systems so to help all those residents out there the only thing that fixes that cuz when when the D comes knocking on that they're going to need to go to clean water standards not not westport's Board of Health regulation so we're we're really trying to this trunk line is going to help the neighborhood we're not looking to to expand fill us up with Apartments I mean there's going to there's going to be some pocket stuff I mean Ru six you see where it's like it is now because there's a lot of wetlands and we're going to we're not going to be do it's not going to look like Dom hopefully we'll have some more restaurants because we don't have a we don't have a public water supply I mean we have on Route 6 right now we have private public Wells that are that are actually um they call them grandfather because they don't they don't have the correct cone of influence and and I mean that needs to be taken care of with the municipal water which we have one right now that we're trying to hook up with this ma Loop that the water main is 500 ft away from it it's a public well that's grandfathered because and when they say grandfather that means the septic systems in the core of influence so this is what we need to do when we need when we talking clean water and and one of the you know if they had bring the water main a long time ago then we probably could have kept going with the septics but at that the regulation changes sewer and water is the Endor next question all right thank you very much we're going to be wrapping up any other last minut a comment we want to thank the school department too we see several members of the school committee here thank you for setting up for us uh okay I see a gentleman coming I just still want to thank the school committee superintendent Auburn here uh we appreciate the set up sir I'm Joe Joe C from Arlington it's tough for me to feel the caring about the environment except for me to really feel the concern about like the four people in the small LS over around the pond and all that stuff but meanwhile they're going to have to pay $8 CCF for sewer $7 for the water I mean that's just I I could have gone and lived in f i GRE up from F I didn't live decid to move to fa because I didn't want to pay the water SE so why the hell would I want to have a a nice fattening for Fall River because they got to get their extra cash on it in Pap for it's I have you know my husband's my sewer uh I'm septic and well something that's all new so I I don't have any concerns that stuff but it's the altruistic oh we have to worri about these people they can't afford to put in their updated system but Meanwhile we're perfectly fine with them paying $16 a month per CCF for the rest of their lives so like if I want a fix income that that's that's a shock so I don't like the empathy and the compar uh compassion just isn't there for me I just don't understand all right we appreciate St Steve can I answer that question and please stay right there okay I'm going to give you a little empathy so there's a there's a house directly across the street there's an 80y old couple it's a one-bedroom house they just installed the D nitrification system because their system had failed and they just spent $42,000 they didn't get they didn't they didn't get a grp a grant or a loan at 80 years old they just spent $42,000 on one-bedroom denitrification system that's that's now they paid it fortunately they had the money because they didn't have an updated septic like you did they were on that small grandfather's law that all yes that's what's here that's the 3,000 houses that we need to tie in so the cost to those 3,000 houses that was a one-bedroom setic $42,000 this happened this year I live on gift Road what do you mean the rest of Westport so the rest if you're if you're on if you're on 60,000 feet it's not it's not the same situation see these these denitrification systems are site specific and and they're fix the problem of the small lot for us sir I'm sorry just for the record we need to C my name is gilar thank you Gil diar so so Gil um I I don't I'm I'm not sure how long it's been going on I said we have a person that tests the public wells in the water so um I'm asking those questions right now we do know that I I understand and we have questions to ask you know nice whatever you guys say I'm sorry I I don't mind you bringing up one point but the gentleman has the mic if you could come up after him I'd really appreciate it just give him his chop please to finish sorry Manny you're all set did you want to finish up yeah just one more thing so like I obviously we don't want to kick anybody out of the way home but like if you can't afford it just downsize your house to somewhere else I mean everyone else seems like no but everyone El essentially every house can I explain something to you no can I explain one folks please I appreciate it You' been doing great all night house like so my house had to get that stuff in because it failed so the next thing is just going to happen to those houses so it's the next person is just going to have to pay for the update and if they can't afford it then you know you don't buy the house it's not a financial possibility though we're talking about seniors that have been here probably for 50 60 years but Manny do you have anything no I I have a comment on because because there there's a well that's not going to help them if that's the case if they in the 80s I mean by the time this comes around well well you know what we're the only community in the whole state that isn't grandfathered until they sell their house because the because the Board of Health created a regulation and they tell them they got to replace them in 2 years and they sent people this flyer in this neighborhood so when you changed your septic you bought the house right it was already it was somebody already cuz they were selling the house okay so these these people who bought the houses in 50s and 60s like everybody else in the state is grandfathered as long as it isn't a public health threat if it's a public health threat it can be and if you have sewer in area it's a minimal repair until sewer comes by so they're mandated from the Westport Board of Health and they just well they just did them gave them a little bit of an extension but I don't I don't think these people are any different than anybody else in the state and if that setic is not a public health threat they should have they should be able to stay in their house as long as they want yeah but they can't afford the maintenance for a house then I don't understand like if so if my house is all R away I can't what am I going to live in a tent the yeah so so that's all right just yep have a developer come in buy it flip it and take all the equity out of the house put a septic in all right I mean you I we appreciate you having the guts to stand up and say it because there are obviously people that probably have the same thoughts and and at least we have an opportunity to address it okay but I'd really like to move on to the next person thank you buch try to stay under control please so the thing is is that if you look at the average age of the people that are in this town I mean you start looking at my parents other people uh I feel bad for them that they have to be sometimes forced to spend this money but apparently simple math doesn't work so $16 a month or if it's $80 a month it's still better than 40,000 for a for a single single single bedroom household versus some of these houses that these people are having to take reimburse mortgages on to pay for their medicines to live and apparently they should just go live in the street River so that's that is completely not the Westport attitude so maybe that should be brought back somewhere else so I'm going to say this very simply it's not easy for none of us it's a lot of questions this but we have to I have no horse fin race first of all I do not have a propert any in this area and I'll eat it because I watch my parents every month suffer to see how they would stay in their house and it's the world's worst thing so if they can go somewhere else then maybe you ought to join because I tell you right now that's a  all right thank you that's not the first time you mention that that concerned about think they and uh I said it's not the first time Mr Manny mentioned that he concerned about this neighborhood I mean I've been here only 6 years I live exactly across the street from here I mean my septic looks fine my my my water works fine and now the question is how much am I paying for the stock how much do I have to pay if this happens um if the when the water main comes by your house the water and the store no listen when the water M comes by your house you will pay zero okay I have to pay for the if you need a well new well you have to pay for a new well right you pay for the electric to run your well regardless I don't want you have to run it to my property regardless I know how that work I know how that works I do that to live now my question is I'm going to put the P how much is it to R the stop to the property line I have to pay it bring if I don't want to orun not not to the property line to your house from the property line to your house let's clarify you're going to pay a betterman for the stuff being there of approximately $10,000 at this point are you asking from the stuff to your house or just for the stuff it's not $10,000 I know it's not the other thing is what you're telling me is you have a fully compliant Title 5 septic system saying can I just finish I'm saying this is all nice and pretty for everybody else but thing that I don't think got concerned is the homeown you know you guys just keep increasing that the tax is up and up and up to a point that we're not going toble to for simple as that okay that's my question all right thank you oh sorry go ahead I just have a question about the laws right now right now could somebody purchase a piece of land on Route 6 and build a ten house no well they did so I just want to be clear so no they can't if we do this they can I just yes or no Gateway District can if you vote it down at town meeting they can't so in 5 years Route Six could possibly look like Eastern AV Fall Run since that's what we're doing right it could right we would be able to put up ten buildings we could throw a McDonald's right in the middle maybe like an apple bees that's what would like it could do that if this comes right now if it doesn't come that cannot happen but if it does again there's there's zoning going before town meeting and we've had a lot of meetings with this so you need to go to town meeting and understand what those articles are and that's that's what they're doing they they're creating zoning because of the situation and again we're trying to look to responsibly redevelop Route Six okay but nobody could actually do it if we didn't have this because nobody's going to pay for so this ties right in way thank you again just want to start out uh I I have family that's been here since 1899 you know we've been here for 125 years uh small farmer you know uh I'm for this I live down the street I heard about P fazin up here um when I bought my home my setic in the front yard and my sewers in the backyard um it's from 2018 somewhat newer um my thing is that I don't want to spend 450,000 to replace my septic if it does happen to fail for some Ben reason or have to put a new well in that's going to cost me exponentially more than what these fees are I understand all the time they're going to increase more and whatnot uh but I do know that with us doing this we can kind of change our taxing situation where the commercial and residential are going to be a different taxing capability in the future at some point we might be able they could be correct now on side of that I also have family that have small businesses you said uh was it last night or the other night at s board meeting about the farm is being considered a small business you know so if we increase the tax on that it's going to go on them also I also you know I I struggle with both of that you know because I just feel like these businesses on Route Six they'll change that extra tax money or just go on to your meal or whatever it may be um where I feel as a farmer nobody wants to pay $10 for a half pack apples right now you know so to me um you know definitely going to be struggle but I think this is going to be a little better of an option than making these elderly in town pay4 $50,000 with $1,000 a year maintenance fee that's not guaranteed after two years the woman across the street told me that electric bill went up $50 a month and then also with the stuff coming up the D they going to tell you have to do it you know and that's another that we're going to have definitely a concern that's why we're all up here ma'am hi I'm a state road property owner can you just say your name for the record sure Bianca Carrero bi Carrera um so exciting project but I'm still not 100% sold on it and I think I have some questions about the V fees is that just a route property it's $10,000 to run the trunk down Ro betterment is if they leave a stu to your property going by you have the option of not getting it the $10,000 is 20% of the overall cost of the project the town is covering the other 80% that's what we estimate it's not going to be exact so once the these tiin take off up the side streets Washington Street for example all of those Property Owners will also be paying $110,000 as well Roger could you explain how how the benef works and how they pay over time so the the $10,000 the ioc recommended to the board of selectman that approximately $10,000 be a cap for which referred to as an equivalent dwelling unit forget about that think of it as one single family home okay vdu um so the idea is that if you have a single family home along Route Six and SCH becomes available doesn't mean you have to connect but if it becomes available you are automatically charged by law we have to charge that vment to that property okay I'm sorry to interrupt is that that 10,000 is number of unit okay exactly exactly so that's Ro six properties 10, properties right unit if it's if it's a bigger got a duplex got it so exactly so if you have a duplex you get charged two units for 20,000 and if you own a commercial property at one of our last Mee meetings it's very convoluted to explain even if you do it understand it but one of the last me I think the presentation going be put on on the Tom website will talk about how if it's a nonresidential property so commercial industrial that kind of thing the math that's applied to those type of properties and the short answer for that is starts to look at the land mass or the land area I should say okay so I think the answer to my question is no so the people that are up off of all these are not going to be paying $10,000 no because the sewer line is not running past their homes but we when the gets when the SE gets to them here you go go the town the town has proposed to adopt a a betterment policy okay so that when when we if when we s all of the north Westport soore District we bring the soord down the side street the betterment policy will apply to them equally $1,000 per unit roughly is that going to offset the cost that we put out is that going to off offset the $6.5 million that you'll look at for RO sixty owners to pay that that upsets the cost when we put the SE in that street so you think it's going to cost $50,000 to run a line down a dead end road that has five houses on it I don't think it does I don't I don't I don't know I don't know what I don't I mean for example I live on Route 6 and the Dead End Road so there are three other houses on the Dead End Road I'm paying 10,000 to run it by Route 6 and those property owners are not going to pay $10,000 and their property is going to be improved just like ours the value is going to increase just like ours is and we're paying the bill is your house on Frontage on Route Six it is all right she has a frontage on Route Six it's a little different yes but but only they would only they would only pay the vents when the sewer gets in front of their I don't seem to have that when able to connect because I'm on Route Six so I'm paying the 10,000 to run it by I'm going to give all my neighbors the option to tie in at a fraction of the cost you want me to pay $10,000 lean my property for 20 years on top of the vment fees I have to pay your other three categories of town wide fees as well you're going to increase my property value which means you're going to tax me more on top of it if you can't convince me to fund this project and I think it's a fabulous idea but I'm not going to put the whole bill for us you're going to have a hard time look at the people that are here in your audience we we understand we we're going to have a hard time maybe you should try to find the grant that's going to help us pay the $6.5 million that you need us to run the trunk line down Route 6 I can tell you we are trying to find those things well let me know when you come high and low can I again [Applause] um as as we've been going through this um I I've said that talking we kind of I think we jumped the gun a little bit on betterments but I've always been in favor of a commercial betterment but these residences as this the EPA money for p is coming in I think there's going to be some kind of savings there and i' I'd like Phil Weinberg to come up and speak a little bit on the past contamination stuff if he knows anything about that epba money you did you did write that letter that I'm not sure if it went out into the paper yet but I heard it was going to see if if there's any kind of you know on the residential end because I I mean if you're on Route 6 we have some people here on Route Six that they they have they next to the public well that's contaminated I mean so we have you know we have we know the water's going by there for free with the p regulations what's happening with sewer because we know it's sewer and water so I'm not I don't Phil weberg I'm the vice chair of the Board of Health um I'm not sure about what the letter that you were talking about the letter that I got or the memo that I got from uh the Department of Environmental Protection um summarized uh all the sites in West that was now being investigated by D because of um this P contamination does everybody know what p is does that mean anything to anybody okay so um so it has been discovered that this big group of chemicals which has this anacronym of pfas because there it's a whole family and is in of products that we use every day because it had these waterproofing it had all these um attributes that went into Furniture went into skin cream went into firefighting foam went into you know everywhere uh nonstick um cookware and um and it all ended up in various concentrations um because everything we washed went down the drain in Westport went into our septic systems and ended up in the groundwater and it ended up that we're drinking it um and it and it takes minute very very very small quantities to um have very potentially harmful effects uh to our bodies um and this has just been uh discovered and investigated over the last several years Massachusetts took a leading role in establishing a limit um that if you had this limit in your water then the water needed to be treated so um right now uh D Department of Environmental Protection um and their uh hazardous waste unit um has conducted a series of Investigations um in in the town to identify uh Wells that have contamination Above This threshold limit and um I have the letter with me so um and there are some um there are some properties um along Route 6 um the not prop saying there as the Grace Church which is near yeah which is near Sanford and Briggs Road um has a very high level of it and there are some uh private Wells nearby that are um are also beand so right now G is both investigating and where they find um unacceptable levels have been providing treatment to these communities you can treat your well um to get it to get it safe but the reality is that we don't know what the quity of water is uh wellwater in our town in any significant way the only reason that the department uh the Board of Health happens to know that is that in situations where someone has to um replace their septic system and their septic system is less than 100 ft from either the well on their property or their neighbor welds they have to test the well and and we get that information and um and if there's a problem uh with the well that is the concentration of a whole another set of chemicals that the state has set is safe drinking water then we send out letters to people and say your well I don't know if anyone's ever got one in this room it says your well has been contaminated it's not safe to drink you need to we're advising you to do something about it you could treat it you can uh drink bottled water there are a number of areas in this town where people live on bottled water right yeah um and there's nothing you can do about it really because you have to use your septic system and it's going to go in the groundwater it's going to get picked up by your wells and there are hundreds of those in town even just in the small universe that we have that we get records for but there're probably six to 7,000 septic systems in town and except for a handful everybody is on um is on septic systems I'm not saying everybody's well is contaminated okay I'm not saying that um but uh one of the advantages of the project that we're talking about there is that you're just removing that risk because you're getting clean treated water and we are exporting uh the sewage into uh another community to be treated so um so it is an extremely comprehensive solution you know to a problem which is probably deeper than we actually realize just based on the data that you know the information that we have and um and it's terrible that it costs so much I mean because it's so basic and I think everybody understands that um and as a member of the Board of Health there's uh what we're trying to do is uh you know balance uh what we feel is Our obligation to protect Public Health in the environment um and you know with with the cost and so we work really hard to uh to develop alternative financing you know lowcost loans um I personally was really involved in um getting the tax credit increased um so there are to do this economically it is not as if you necessarily have to just have $40,000 in in the bank or go out for a a 6% loan there are other ways to get there but uh seven so that's one of the reasons that the board has you know supported this and I think this got mentioned before and then I'll stop talking which is that I also agree with the perception that um that DP will come back again with the requirement that everybody who has a septic system put uh this nitrogen reducing technology on or that the town has to enter into a 20 year agreement with the state to reduce all the nitrogen that's equivalent to that if you put those Advanced systems on which is means we're going to have to put in sewer plus all those other systems so we're taking a big step to avoid that and I'm hopeful that um when the Board of Health pushed back against G and was able I don't want to say we single-handedly you know got them to suspend making that requirement on West but I think this having this project moving forward if they came back I think would be a long would be a very compelling argument just to say back off we're doing what we're supposed to be doing and let's just see how this project unfolds before you require everybody else in town to Pony up um because maybe we're going to fix this problem because the most contaminated portions of the East Branch River has been mentioned is at the head of you know at the head of Westport which is where CES pools are concentrated and uh where the water testing that has been happening for I think decades in the town has shown that if we can reduce the concentration of of contamination there that we may be able to meet the state standards and that problem go away okay so thanks Phil we appreciate you filling that in all right uh we're almost up to the time that we said we take here uh again important dates April uh 9th election the question will be on it uh May 7th May 7th will be town meeting it's important to note that at town meeting somebody can stand up on the floor and modify the question so in other words if we're going to town meeting asking for 35 million could has to be reduced they could change some of the wording so everybody needs to be aware of that if you care about the project you need to be there to to voice uh your opinion or to vote for or against it okay all right anything else to add if not I'll take a motion to J I make a motion to St we' like I'm sorry Mr th no worries no worries down here so very briefly I came to this committee about I came to this committee about a month ago when I was appointed so first off I would like to applaud the work that's been done put this project together I would like to follow up with what Mr Weinberg said about the D coming back later on and possibly trying to put that mandate on the town Town once again that is not going to go away anytime that any elected official any elected body any committee is asking the town to spend more money on your tax bill it better be for a good reason this is for a good reason because what this project does is give Westport back a level of control that unfortunately has been seated to either State mandates on I mean the for the Westport school committee is being choked by unfunded State mandates it doesn't matter your polit your political persuasion I think just about everybody in this in this room will agree that the federal government and it's many cases the state government have their uh funding priorities all out of whack the bottom line is this project is the single most important project for Westport not only in terms of economic development but in terms of making sure that every single person in this town is able to have clean drinking water yes it is it is absolutely another cost but you know what we have to look at is this going to be a cost right now that we can afford or are we going to come back and get slammed with more unfunded mandates that take a that that uh like like Manny was talking about here take our our most vulnerable residents and make them spend $ 40 $50,000 on systems that may or may not actually solve the problem so just wanted to leave it at that and thank you Mr chair thank you foring I appreciate it I got one more thing just one more thing go so I'd like to thank Phil for getting up and saying that um so the thing that we do have in Westport is we're very fortunate that forever has the capacity for for to take our sewage so we we don't have to build this to treatment plan we're only worrying about building the pipe infrastructure that we should have done 20 years ago when it was we probably could we would have had to pay for it by now but um the only thing that will fix this past contamination stuff is the expansion of our Municipal Water System and that's what we need to do so when the D says they're going to come in and they're going to give you a treatment for system for your well that's not an end all fixed um the municipal water is and and we've had we have some issues that we had to get what they call an inter transfer an interbasin transfer permit so that means the water coming in has to go back out to the where it came from it can't be so that's why we need sewer and water but we do need to clean drinking water is the most important thing we need to push to extend the municipal water system that we have that was installed 30 plus years ago for the same exact reason and we've done very little so that that's what we need to do we need to concentrate on clean drinking water right thank you Mr Mado do you have signs available for people if they want them all right if anybody's interested in getting a sign to help the cause Mr Mado back there m all right I'll entertain a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn do I have a second second seconded by Mr Kino all in favor everybody for any again unanimous thank you thank you everybody for helping put this on thank you for showing up people appreciate it