EFUD annual meeting, election set for May 8
April 12, 2024 | By Lisa Scagliotti Updated on May 2 with locations where paper copies of the annual report can be found.
2023 EFUD Report Cover. Courtesy photo
Waterbury’s water and sewer utility district will hold its annual meeting and election on Wednesday, May 8.
A municipal entity separate from the town government, the Edward Farrar Utility Distrtict has its own five-member governing board that oversees the municipal water and wastewater departments.
Three seats on that board are up for election this year and three candidates are on the ballot for those offices: P. Howard “Skip” Flanders for a three-year term, and Natalie Sherman and Rick Weston for two one-year seats. Although the filing deadline has passed to be listed on the ballot, others still may run as write-in candidates up until May 8.
Flanders and Sherman have served on the district’s board of commissioners since its creation in 2018. Weston is running to join the board for the first time. In October, former commissioner Lawrence “Lefty” Sayah passed away and Mark Alberghini was appointed to serve in his place until the annual election. The board’s other members are Cynthia Parks and Robert Finucane whose terms end in 2025 and 2026 respectively. The group meets monthly on the second Wednesday of the month.
The district’s annual report is dedicated to Sayah who served as a Waterbury Village trustee since 1996 and subsequently as a utility district commissioner until his death at age 84 on Oct. 30. A photo of him with his granddaughter is on the cover of the annual report with a dedication recognizing “his love of community and years of public service.” Inside a message from the commissioners honors Sayah along with a resolution passed in November by the board and the Waterbury Select Board.
The electronic version of the report is posted on the municipal website. Paper copies are available at the municipal office, Waterbury Public Library, and in several locations around town, according to town and district Clerk Karen Petrovic. Find them at: Northfield Savings Bank, VSECU, Kinney Drugs, downtown Post Office, Billings Mobil, True Value Hardware.
In addition to budget details for the water and wastewater departments, the report contains messages from the district commissioners and municipal manager Tom Leitz recapping activity by the departments over the past year and looking ahead to the coming year.
The 2023 Water Department budget was $2,191,820, according to the report. The proposed budget for the 2024 budget year, however, is $1,364,518. Leitz noted that the key factor in the lower budget for the year ahead is that the 2023 budget included $750,000 for the Blush Hill water line replacement project. This year’s budget does not call for any major capital improvements, he said.
The 2023 Wastewater Department budget was s $1,046,813, according to the report. The proposed budget for the 2024 budget year is $1,026,188. The drop in this budget from the prior year reflects a smaller contribution to a department reserve account in 2024, Leitz said. In 2023, $100,000 was put into a reserve account but to have a lower impact on rates this year, he said the contribution will be just over $28,000.
Two of the meeting articles ask voters to authorize commissioners to borrow funds for up to five years if necessary for improvements to the water and wastewater systems. Another article asks to authorize compensation for the commissioners for the next year. For their service, commissioners are paid $1,200 per year; the chair receives $1,450; the district treasurer and clerk receives $1,200 as well.
Recent rate increases
In their message in the report, EFUD commissioners address a recent increase in water and sewer rates that amounted to 17 cents per day for a single-family home using 75 gallons. The new rates represent increases of 6.5% for water and 10% for wastewater coming to an average total cost of $1.86 per day or $167.31 for a three-month billing period.
The new rates were put in place in the billing that went to customers recently without advance notice of the increase. Leitz said several ratepayers contacted him with questions and concerns about the change.
The commissioners’ message notes that utility bills for residential and business customers were lowered in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The district also instituted a grace period for bill payment and reduced penalties and interest rates for back payments.
The recent increase aims to return the charges to a level “to meet current expenses and avoid borrowing or reducing reserve funds that are used for emergencies,” the commissioners explain. Leitz said his recommendation going forward in 2025 would be to have rates match inflation.
For a comparison, the report includes a chart with water and sewer rates in Barre, Montpelier and Middlebury alongside Waterbury rates which are the lowest of all four communities. Commissioners also mention that they plan to schedule an open house later this year for customers to meet water and wastewater staff and ask questions as well as offer an opportunity for people to tour the plants to learn more about operations.
Highlights from the year
Other highlights for the district over the past year noted in the annual report include:
Impacts to the water and wastewater systems from floods in 2023 as well as a water line rupture and repair near Howard Avenue last April.
The replacement of a 2,000-foot water line connecting a reservoir on Blackberry Lane to the system. Voters in 2023 approved a bond of $750,000 for the project. Final work on that will be done this year including paving the roads in the affected Kennedy Drive neighborhood.
The acquisition of the Duxbury Moretown Fire District after receiving approval in 2023 from the state legislature. The fire district was created in 1995 for customers in the two neighboring communities on the Gallagher Water System to purchase water from the Waterbury village system. Waterbury later was contracted to maintain the Duxbury-Moretown system and manage its billing. By 2022, the district was unable to attract volunteers to serve on its board, prompting the request to join EFUD. The move did not cost EFUD money, Leitz said. The Duxbury-Moretown district actually included a transfer of a reserve account with about $85,000 saved for potential maintenance and repair costs to that system, he said.
State and federal grants to pay for extending water service from Guptil Road to the East Wind Mobile Home Park, additional residences along the route, ending at Vermont Route 100. A federal grant of $2,240,000 and a state grant of $592,600 will be used; the project is in the final design and permitting stage. The extension will allow for future connections to the system for commercial property along Rt. 100.
An update on the status of the water system for the Kneeland Flats Mobile Home Park says that the park owner has received grant funding to replace the water lines. EFUD is working with the property owner so that the upgraded system will meet EFUD requirements when completed, at which time the system would become part of the municipal system. The grant funding is a boon to the project after a failed proposal in 2022 that would have had the town of Waterbury pay to upgrade the system. EFUD voters that year rejected the plan which also would have required the utility district to turn over management of a revolving loan fund to the town. Leitz in his report notes the more favorable outcome that has transpired: “In a twist of fate, that decision resulted in a substantial savings for Town tax payers, as the funds for the upgrades at the park are funded through state and federal grants rather than local dollars.”
The district also held a ceremony in October honoring its namesake Edward Farrar, who died in 1904 in a construction accident while working on a sewer installation on Elm Street. A plaque honoring Farrar and his service was placed on his gravestone at Hope Cemetery on the 119th anniversary of his death.
An October ceremony added a plaque to the gravestone of Edward Farrar at Hope Cemetery. Left to right: EFUD Commissioner Natalie Sherman, Rev. Peter Plagge, Public Works Director Bill Woodruff and EFUD Chair Skip Flanders. Photo by Cheryl Casey
Annual meeting details
The utility district’s annual meeting and election format is similar to the town’s on Town Meeting Day. Voters who live within the utility district boundaries may vote on district elections by paper ballots from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the municipal offices. Voters may request an early ballot by mail or vote early at the town offices during regular business hours until May 7.
In addition, Petrovic noted that EFUD voters could cast an early ballot on April 30 when the Harwood Unified Union School District’s second budget vote is held at the municipal office from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Offering the EFUD ballots early could be a way to raise awareness of the utility district election and annual meeting, Petrovic said, as it typically gets very low participation from voters. Just 42 ballots were cast in last year’s election, which represented 2.7% of the 1,552 registered voters in the district in 2023. Currently there are 1,486 names on the utility district’s voter checklist, she said.
EFUD was created after the Waterbury Village municipality was dissolved in 2018. Since then, it’s annual May election has attracted only a handful of voters – just 16 in its first year in 2019 and a high of 44 in 2022. In its final four years, the village annual meetings had fewer than 100 voters participate in its elections, according to municipal records.
Turnout was particularly high, however, for a special EFUD vote in October 2022 when the district asked voters about selling the property at 51 South Main Street where the former municipal offices were located prior to Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. A total of 277 voters – 18% at the time – turned out for that special meeting and approved the proposed sale, 208-69, to Downstreet Housing and Community Development to build affordable housing. Construction on a 26-unit apartment building is expected to begin this year.
On May 8, in addition to the paper-ballot election, other district business items are addressed at an in-person annual meeting to be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Steele Room. The warning for that meeting (also included in the annual report) is short with articles to accept the district officials’ reports, approve compensation for the commissioners, and authorize the board to borrow funds if needed in the coming year.
Meeting minutes and agendas for the Edward Farrar Utility District are online under Boards and Meetings on the town website WaterburyVt.com.