Mayor Wants To Purchase Aquaria Plant
- clifton heights
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dadof2 wrote: Another reason to contact your CC/CAL. Urge them to vote no on the purchase of Aquaria. The Water Commission (with Carpenter's input) can't manage the water system as is.
www.enterprisenews.com/news/20170418/how...-rates-for-next-year
"The Brockton Water Commission is holding its annual hearing meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Arnone Elementary School at 135 Belmont St.The meeting is in preparation for fiscal year 2018.
"Jordan said the Brockton Water Commission plans to discuss potential rate increases, which may be used to fund infrastructure maintenance and replacement efforts. A commission vote on the rates may take place at the meeting, said.
WTF- why, why, do we need to replace the meters so soon? WTF
"Another need, Jordan said, is to look at future water meter replacement work.We don’t want to do like we did it last time, the whole city at once,” Jordan said. “We’d like to spread it out a little over the years.”
We have 33 potential West Bridgewater residents on our side of town who will be happy to purchase this water if Meadow Woods on West Chestnut is built. Why not? They would be locked into septic systems if Brockton refused this insanity when the developers first applied for it.
I do not know enough about this topic yet. If cities and towns are already supplying their residents with water, what is the advantage of us buying Aquaria? Maybe we could bottle and sell - folks pay big bucks for this in grocery stores. Shoe City bottling? Guess I need to do my research. What I really do not understand is that they are researching rate increases for us to buy Brockton water ... when Brockton would own its own water? OK - that makes perfect sense.
<font color=BLACK>My name may be Clifton but I've never been a boy </font> <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">
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SUMMARY - Water Rate Hearing of April 19th:
The Brockton Water Commission held a public hearing last evening at the Arnone School. Approximately ten (10) residents participated and I was joined by my fellow Councilors Jack Lally and Anne Beauregard, Christopher Cooney, President and CEO of the Metro South Chamber of Commerce, represented the business community.
NO decisions were made.
The commission expects to forward to the City Council by the middle of May, recommendations for any water rate changes. At that point it is the City Council's responsibility to research and determine if any actions are required. I will keep you informed.
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Can't possibly live on what they leave me, which
isn't much.
Because of poor management they are driving
more and more people out. It seems to be their goal.
If we all sang the same note in the choir, We'd never have harmony
2/1/1938-5/4/2019
Rest in peace
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July 27, 1946 - April 4, 2018
Rest in peace.
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MT wrote: Scott, Ohh no, you won't be able to fill your pool or water your lawn.
I have neither but I soon will be listening to the lamentations of homeowners who cannot do either, AND now, have to pay an increase on their water bill and not get any water for it.
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Condon say's that he agrees that Brockton should buy Aquaria but admits that no one has looked into the costs of alternatives, such as MWRA.
From and accounting perspective, How can you possible agree to a purchase without and due diligence on alternatives? This would get you fired in the public sector. He's complaining that no one has given him funding to explore other possibilities, but he's not saying we need to look at alternatives.
If you have to spend $100k to confirm that a $78,000,000 purchase is a good deal, it's worth every penny.
From the article:
"Condon, the chief financial officer, said that he has not done analysis on alternatives to the Aquaria proposal. “Do you want to fund it?” Condon said. “I don’t have the money to do that.” Condon said City Council and Carpenter would have to agree on spending any money for the city to research other options."
brockton.wickedlocal.com/news/20170428/b...-sell-at-right-price
Light Travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. <br />We were born with two ears and only one mouth ... Think about it!
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I, myself, should have dug for a well yrs. ago because my back yard
used to be a stream according to the older neighbors history. I wouldn't
have to dig deep for sure. Even my Robins tell me so. They're forever
finding worms and made my home a permanent residence throughout
the years. They feel so comfortable they actually follow me around the
yard like a puppy on a leash. Lol
If we all sang the same note in the choir, We'd never have harmony
2/1/1938-5/4/2019
Rest in peace
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If we all sang the same note in the choir, We'd never have harmony
2/1/1938-5/4/2019
Rest in peace
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Scott wrote: I was under the impression that a study WAS done. That is why we entered into the contract with Aquaria in the first place isn't it?
You can't use a study from what was 15 to 20 years ago. Plus all of the assumptions they made in whatever study was done then turned out to be wrong. Brockton Doesn't need 15 million gallons a day and MWRA rates did not go up by a factor of 5 or 10 as predicted.
I think the real question about that study is: did the city pay for it, or did they use approximate numbers? Running 5 miles of pipes to Stoughton and associated costs such as permitting should be a number that someone can get a good approximation of for little or no money.
Light Travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. <br />We were born with two ears and only one mouth ... Think about it!
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"The Brockton City Council decided to postpone a meeting on the Aquaria proposal until July, after it was originally planned to take place this month. Several members of the Brockton City Council, including City Council President Robert Sullivan, have expressed opposition or skepticism to the city’s proposed purchase of the water plant. Sullivan told his fellow councilors that City Council accepted an invitation from the Metro South Chamber of Commerce to have several finance executive provide “independent analysis” of the Aquaria proposal. That came after Brockton Chief Financial Officer John Condon reached out to Sullivan about the chamber’s offer. Sullivan said a Finance Committee meeting solely dedicated to the Aquaria deal will be held during the summer, after the Metro South Chamber of Commerce completes its review of the proposal."
"Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter, who is trying to sell the City Council on Aquaria for the second time in a few years (first with an $88 million deal he negotiated in 2014), said that it could only be a benefit to hear what local business leaders have to say."
www.enterprisenews.com/news/20170509/bro...independent-analysis
Ok, I wasn't able to watch then CC Meeeting last night, so I'll wait until it's posted, but here are my thoughts:
I'm glad we are getting an analysis. JB, you called it. Just wondering can we be sure Metro Chamber will be completely partisan ? Nothing against them but would it not be to their advantage to recommend anything g that would enhance the Commercial Base? Maybe I'm a cynic
It would not have been good idea politically for the Mayor, IMO, to go through with an $80 million purchase when 300 School Department (including 189 teachers) are being laid off? Wouldn't the State wonder about the financial stability of the City? As part of the purchase the COB must request funding from State.
So, lets see what happens in July, I guess.
ETA: go to Win Farwell's FaceBook page. I hadn't seen it when I posted my concerns. He detailed some of the issues very clearly.
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www.enterprisenews.com/news/20170510/doe...uire-citywide-vote/1
" If the taxpayers of Brockton are going to be on the hook for $78 million to buy a water desalination plant, they should be able to vote on the deal, according to one of the city’s elected leaders. “It’s plainly wrong to disenfranchise the voters and not give them an opportunity to vote on this,” said Councilor-at-large Winthrop Farwell, about the mayor’s proposal for the city to buy the facility in Dighton. Farwell pointed to a state law – Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40, Section 38 – that states that buying a water source requires a city to get a 2/3 vote of its City Council and ratification by the voters at an election. “The statute is very clear,” Farwell said. “The Legislature included that provision so people would have an opportunity to determine their future. I don’t think you take that away from them.”
"Carpenter also said that a citywide vote is not legally required, and is inappropriate. “It’s not the way for us to govern,” Carpenter said. Farwell took a shot at Carpenter, saying it “takes a supreme ego” for public officials to think they alone should decide on such issues. Farwell didn’t say it was unlawful. But he said that the original Aquaria contract should also have been up for a citywide vote as well. The Brockton mayor added that voters would be able to issue their verdicts on the Aquaria deal in November, when the bi-annual citywide election is taking place."
“The voters have an opportunity at the ballot box in November, when there’s a vote for council and mayor positions,” said Carpenter, who is in his second two-year term. “I think the voters who think we’re not doing well with this will have a chance then.”
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- clifton heights
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<font color=BLACK>My name may be Clifton but I've never been a boy </font> <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">
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BTW, this also passes the buck off of the city council to the MSCC. If the council votes yes after MSCC approval, if comes back to haunt them. They wash their hands and say MSCC said it was a good deal. A chamber of commerce is not an organization set up to do due diligence on multi million dollar projects. Their charter is to promote business and adding water resources promotes business.
If for some reason, they come back and say its not a good idea, then its a really really really really bad deal.
Light Travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. <br />We were born with two ears and only one mouth ... Think about it!
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As the mayor of Brockton pursues a plan to buy the Aquaria desalination plant for $78 million, other elected officials representing the city are exploring another way to meet the community’s supplementary water needs.
It’s the MWRA, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
Members of the Brockton City Council said they plan to invite a representative of the MWRA, a public agency that already provides water to 61 communities, to attend a public finance meeting sometime in August to discuss the possibility of tying into the system. Brockton’s primary water supply is from Silver Lake in Kingston, but the city is under a longstanding state mandate to have a secondary source. City Council President Robert Sullivan said that given the controversial nature of the current Aquaria contract – now requiring an annual fixed payment $6.3 million even though Brockton hardly uses the desalinated water – he wouldn’t want to buy the Dighton plant without examining any alternatives.
“I think it’s really short-sighted for people not to want to dig into the MWRA, relative to the benefits, and relative to the financial costs attributed to that,” Sullivan said in a recent interview with The Enterprise. “To just say spend $78 million to buy this entity, which only has one customer and has only had one customer, is really not doing justice to the people that I serve.”
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- clifton heights
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2. The Metro South Chamber of Commerce is neutral as the business is set up as its own entity, albeit located in Brockton. Did they offer to analyze this with no or at a low cost? The Chamber has no authority to approve anything that relates to Brockton's government. Its members are comprised of a cross section of businesses in and outside of Brockton so this would appear to be a helpful task.
<font color=BLACK>My name may be Clifton but I've never been a boy </font> <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">
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- BrocktonDave
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Calculate what we've been delivered by the amount we've paid and the rate we've been paying is probably a hundred times higher than MWRA.
David R. Heidke
Steward of InBrockton.com
"A mile of road will take you a mile, but a mile of runway will take you anywhere..."
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- clifton heights
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<font color=BLACK>My name may be Clifton but I've never been a boy </font> <img border="0" src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0">
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