Water Fights...Holden

Holden officials fight over water issue

By Sandy Meindersma CORRESPONDENT

HOLDEN — Holden's unaccounted-for water has become a hot-button issue for Selectman Mark Ferguson, who says the figure has spiraled out of control. He also says town officials disregard their efforts to fix the problem.

"The town has been complacent for too long," Mr. Ferguson said. "The rate payers have shouldered the burden for this for too long, and I know we can do better."

Anthony Renzoni, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, called Mr. Ferguson's fixation on unaccounted-for water an attempt to control Town Manager Jacquelyn Kelly, and "hijacking the day-to-day operation of the town."

"Selectman Ferguson has been on a crusade to make local government uncomfortable for all those involved," Mr. Renzoni wrote in an email. "This, in my opinion, is an effort to discourage rational citizens from participating in local government, thus allowing Selectman Ferguson and his associates the ability to maintain some control."

Mr. Ferguson's fixation on unaccounted-for water has become tiresome to the board and to Ms. Kelly, who wrote a memo to then-chairman Robert Lavigne complaining about a hostile work environment and personal attacks by a member of the Board of Selectmen.

At an executive session March 17, Mr. Lavigne distributed the memo to the Board of Selectmen, and asked that it be returned to him after the session. Mr. Ferguson called Ms. Kelly's assertions baseless and childish, challenged the reason for the closed-door meeting, and then left, taking the memo with him — even after Mr. Lavigne asked for its return.

In April, the board voted 4-1 to file ethics charges against Mr. Ferguson, who responded with a complaint filed with the attorney general, alleging that the board violated the Open Meeting Law.

Both complaints remain unresolved.

At the board's most recent meeting on June 16, the selectmen voted 4-1 to disavow themselves from the comments made by Mr. Ferguson at the March 17 and June 2 meetings, to distance themselves from Mr. Ferguson's words and actions.

Neither the ethics complaint, nor the written complaints from Ms. Kelly, have served to curb Mr. Ferguson's zeal for the unaccounted-for water. He regularly brings up the topic of unaccounted-for water during selectmen's meetings, sometimes during the selectmen's speeches, and sometimes as a point during discussions about other matters.

Mr. Ferguson also has stepped away from the selectmen's table during meetings and brought up the topic as a resident during the citizens' address portion of the selectmen's meetings.

Mr. Ferguson has been ruled out of order, and the chairman of the Board of Selectmen has called an immediate recess on more than one occasion during the selectmen's meetings to silence Mr. Ferguson, when requests for him to stop talking were ignored.

Unaccounted-for water is the amount of water that is measured as going into a public water system, either through well pumping or purchase, but is not accounted for through metering or other measuring processes.

Unaccounted-for water can have a number of causes, including leaking pipes or hydrants, slow-running or improperly calibrated meters, hydrant use and flushing, and water main breaks.

Mr. Renzoni said that Mr. Ferguson and his "numbers man" — resident Ed Meyer — have exaggerated the amount of unaccounted-for water, claiming it to be close to 40 percent, when in fact, unaccounted-for water has never been reported at higher than 23.9 percent.

"We all know that the UAW hovers around 20 percent," Mr. Renzoni said. "Selectman Ferguson and his friends have inflated that number on occasion to sensationalize the problem. This campaign of misinformation has not fooled those of us working to resolve the problem."

Mr. Meyer said he and Mr. Ferguson have repeatedly offered to meet with Ms. Kelly and water and sewer officials to discuss their concerns, but Ms. Kelly has refused to do so.

Ms. Kelly said that meeting with Mr. Meyer and Mr. Ferguson is not necessary, since Mr. Ferguson's suggestions to improve the unaccounted-for water are already part of a five-year plan that the town's Water and Sewer Division is currently implementing.

The Board of Selectmen is not planning to meet in July, and a meeting will only be called in August if necessary.

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Holden works to resolve water problems

 

Holden water and sewer workers John DiPerrio, left, and Justin Pedersen repair a broken fire hydrant in town. (JOHN FERRARONE)

By Sandy Meindersma CORRESPONDENT

HOLDEN — There is no town official who will deny that the town has a number of water problems, from its rapidly increased water and sewer rates, to the amount that is pumped but goes unbilled. Some might say that most, or even all, of the town's political infighting can be traced to arguments about water.

The town's water woes came to a head in the fall of 2010, when the state Department of Revenue refused to allow the town to set its tax rate, due to the inadequacy of the water rates, and the fact that the enterprise fund was operating with a deficit of more than $40,000.

An emergency rate hike was made effective Jan. 1, 2011, a surcharge was added to water bills to pay back the town's general fund for the operating deficit, and a rate analysis was conducted.

As a result of the rate analysis, a new rate plan went into effect July 1, 2011, that includes a monthly infrastructure charge of $23.09 for all users. That rate structure is still in effect, and there are no immediate plans to revise it.

Mark Elbag Jr., the town's water/sewer superintendent, said that since the new water and sewer rate changes, the Water and Sewer Enterprise Reserve Fund has increased from $109,000 at the end of fiscal 2011 to $1.4 million at the end of fiscal 2014.

"The infrastructure charge covers our fixed costs: salaries, benefits, building and billing costs," he said. "We have been able to establish rate reserves for both water and sewer, which is supposed to be equal to one month's operating expenses."

Mr. Elbag said that nearly $800,000 of the reserve increase was due to one-time connection fees associated with new building projects in town.

The infrastructure charge has drawn the ire of Selectman Mark Ferguson, who says single-person and two-person households, often elderly residents on fixed incomes, are paying more than their fair share for water service.

Town Manager Jacquelyn Kelly said the infrastructure charge allows the Water and Sewer Division to make capital improvements to the water system; establish an emergency reserve fund; and take steps to reduce unaccounted-for water.

Unaccounted-for water (UAW) is one of two standards used by the Department of Environmental Protection to measure the performance of municipal water suppliers. UAW measures how much water goes into the water system, but is not accounted for in service meter readings. Residential gallons per capita per day (RGPCD) is the second performance standard.

In calendar year 2013, Holden's UAW was 23.9 percent, significantly higher than the DEP target standard of 10 percent. The town's UAW has increased steadily since 2009, when it was 11 percent; in 2010 the UAW was 18 percent and it was 21 percent in both 2011 and 2012.

For purposes of comparison, the town of Northboro had UAW of 3.1 percent in 2013; neighboring West Boylston was at 8.7 percent; Rutland had 26.6 percent UAW and Shrewsbury's UAW was 9.7 percent.

Mr. Elbag said a number of factors affect the UAW percentage, including the amount of rainfall, water main breaks, hydrant leaking and flushing, and the amount of water used in fighting fires.

Selectman Mark Ferguson has repeatedly made an issue of the unaccounted-for water at selectmen's meetings, demanding that the town take steps to reduce the UAW percent.

Mr. Elbag's Jan. 18, 2013, memo to Ms. Kelly, who was then the acting town manager, delineated 12 different ways the Water and Sewer Division already had begun attacking the UAW problem, including flushing hydrants throughout town, a leak detection analysis, re-calibrating the meters at all water sources, replacing or repairing leaking hydrants, re-checking the seal on all hydrants after they have been used and replacing aging water mains.

At the March 17, 2014, meeting of the Board of Selectmen, then-chairman Robert Lavigne asked Mr. Ferguson for his suggestions on how to reduce the amount of unaccounted-for water in the town's system.

Mr. Ferguson's suggestions: recheck hydrants after use, audit customer billings, analyze customer water usage and monitor well production. They were all steps that the Water and Sewer Division had already undertaken, or that were in the department's plans, to reduce unaccounted-for water.

The town recently received a grant for sectional flow monitoring in town, and as a result of that analysis, further leak detection work is planned for the Salisbury Street and Jefferson sections of town.

"There is no silver bullet," Mr. Elbag said. "We are correcting the leaks we have identified."

Ms. Kelly said that beginning in fiscal 2014, the town is conducting a water main replacement program that began with some smaller streets, and will move to Shrewsbury Street and Doyle Road this year, followed by south Main Street next year.

"We haven't been able to do the water mains in years, because of the problems we had with the budget," she said. "But our plan is to spend $3.7 million on replacing water mains in the next five years."