COA, Sewer Connections Could Be Spending Issues; Officials Hold Annual ‘Budget Summit’

CHATHAM – There were no surprises at a recent budget summit held among the town’s select board, finance committee, Monomoy school representatives and other officials, but several items were flagged that could throw a wrench into next year’s spending plan.

The future of the center for active living, the town’s council on aging facility, and rising concerns about sewer connections and drinking water were among the unknowns brought up during the Oct. 17 session.

The budget summit is held annually — this was the 12th — to review the town’s financial condition and set out parameters for budgets to be developed and submitted by staff at the end of the month. Other than a five-year projection, which is updated annually, no figures were given as to expectations for next year’s budget.

As usual, the town’s fiscal outlook is good, said Town Manager Jill Goldsmith. This year’s $49.7 million budget, which includes education, is expected to increase by less than $1 million, according to the projection. The town’s current tax rate of $3.57 is one of the lowest in the state, and the total property evaluation is $11.6 billion, a nearly $2 billion increase from the previous year.

“We’re at the highest valuation that we’ve ever been at,” said Alix Heilala, who retired at the town’s finance director the day after the budget summit. “Again, that shows the desire and the strength of real estate in town, which is one of our financial indicators.”

With the defeat of funding for a new center for active living at September’s special town meeting, officials need to consider engaging in an engineering study of the current facility at 193 Stony Hill Rd., board member Dean Nicastro said. The town’s seniors deserve a “serviceable” facility, which may not mean knocking the existing building down, but renovations the structure requires — including repairing the foundation, new air filtration systems, improving the meeting room — could be costly.

“I think we’re going to find additional sticker shock as to what it will take to bring that building up to par,” he said. “It ain’t going to be cheap.”

Board member Michael Schell said cost assumptions shouldn’t drive a decision on the facility.

“We should have the broadest, most open thinking about what to do with respect to the needs of our senior community,” he said.

Also likely to cause “sticker shock” is concern brewing about the requirement many homeowners will have to install grinder pumps in order to connect to the town’s sewer system, Nicastro said. Grinder pumps are required when a property is below the grade of the sewer line, and as many as 700 residences may require them, he said.

“It’s an expensive proposition for a lot of folks in town,” board member Jeffrey Dykens said. “People want to connect, but they’re balking at the $12,000 to $24,000 cost of these grinder pumps.”

The water and sewer advisory committee has heard from a number of residents about the issue, and is considering whether the town should underwrite the cost, said Nicastro. “It’s something we should start thinking about, because if the town is going to incur this cost, it’s going to be very expensive,” he said.

Finance Committee Chair Stephen Daniel also raised the prospect of new regulations lowering the acceptable levels of PFAS chemicals in drinking water requiring expensive treatment. The town spent millions on treatment when two town wells were found to have PFAS levels higher than those under consideration now, he noted.

Drinking water “quantity and quality” remain “a keystone concern for us,” Daniel said.

He also expressed concern over the departure of several long-serving department heads over the past 18 months, including the police and fire chiefs, DPW and finance directors.

“That represents a lot of brain drain,” he said. “I think institutionally we should be mindful of that and make sure we do whatever we need to do to get that covered.”

The regional middle school and Chatham Elementary School also need new roofs, but a replacement schedule is waiting for the state to restart its accelerated repair program, said Superintendent of Schools Scott Carpenter. The program, which helps fund large school capital costs, was put on hold when school building costs began to escalate after the pandemic. The district will apply for funding when the program starts up again, and then will bring the expenses to town meeting for the town’s share of the cost, he said.

Budget formation will follow policy directions and goals and objectives set by the select board, said Goldsmith. The board was scheduled to discuss its goals and objectives, as well as the center for active living issue, at its Oct. 31 meeting.

Goldsmith called out one of the “value statements” the board is slated to discuss this week calling for support of demographic diversity. She said she’s had discussions with the Martin Luther King Action Committee, a division of the Nauset Interfaith Association, and will dive more deeply into demographic diversity. This is likely a reaction to an incident last summer in which a local teen was charged in a racially-motivated assault of another teenager.

Department budgets are due to be turned in to the town manager on Nov. 22. The select board will receive the budget on Jan. 23, and must forward it to the finance committee by Feb. 27. The committee’s recommendations are due March 15 for incorporation into the warrant for the May annual town meeting.