9/24/2018 BOARD OF SELECTMEN Minutes

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ti TO: Mashpee Board of Selectmen FROM: Andrew Gottlieb DATE: August 22, 2018 RE: Wastewater Implementation It is time. Our water quality monitoring has continued to show Mashpee's estuaries are among the worst on Cape Cod. Our consultants have developed a phased implementation program that relies on a combination of sewering and shellfish.We have signed an agreement with Sandwich and Barnstable where we pledge to do our fair share. Mashpee has fallen behind many towns (see Attachment C) who have taken definitive steps to fund their obligation to clean up their waters. Finally,we have not kept pace with the expectations our residents have to enjoy high quality water. It is time to begin what will be a decades long process to restore that which has been lost. Our previous consideration of the wastewater issue was doomed from the start by a focus on the overall long-term cost. It's a big number and was quickly dismissed as too big and that was it. I am proposing that the Board start at the beginning and commit itself to asking the voters to fund the first phase of the plan, the design and construction of a treatment plant at the Transfer Station and related sewers to advance the clean up of the Popponesset Bay system. Updated costs from GHD(see Attachment A) are$ $36,85 million for the design, engineering and construction of facilities required to implement Phase 1, an amount that will only grow if we continue to delay. The initial design work is being done and was funded by nitrogen mitigation funds through the Cape Cod Commission. I am suggesting that the Board honor its commitment to the community by voting to do the following: 1. Vote that it intends to implement Phase 1(see Attachment D Pink Areas) of the Town's approved Nitrogen Management Plan; 2. Place an article on the Spring 2019 warrant seeking the $2.4million for final design and engineering of the Transfer Station treatment plant and related sewers and to ask the voters to exclude the debt from Proposition 2 1/2 should hit be• rr►ed_necessaxy 3. Direct staff to develop,with the necessary support of outside consultants if needed, a finance plan (see Attachment B) by January 1, 2109 that uses all available sources of revenue,including but not limited to, local option hotel/motel and short term rental taxes,the use of betterments, establishment of rates and charges for users of the sewer system, the 3% infrastructure surcharge authorized by state law, 0% SRF loans, 25% principle forgiveness authorized by current state law, the state earmark of $3.25 million for wastewater infrastructure in Mashpee,and expiring debt service to create a plan that reduces to the greatest extent the amount required for a debt exclusion for the fundin of construction; ote o include a Home Rule Petition article for the 2018 fall Town Meeting that mirrors the special act approved for the Town of Barnstable that establishes a Sewer Construction and Water Quality Maintenance Fund.