Great Barrington — The town is very slowly moving forward in the process of possibly purchasing the long-troubled Housatonic Water Works.
Back at the Selectboard meeting on December 12, Selectboard Chair Stephen Bannon announced that the town would investigate acquiring the company. Bannon said at the meeting that the board instructed Town Manager Mark Pruhenski to conduct a study on what the potential costs would be for the acquisition and operation of HWW, along with the potential revenues, expenses, and capital needs for the water system that would be operated on an enterprise fund basis.
At the Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday, January 17, the committee unanimously approved a reserve fund transfer request of $20,235 to the contracted services line item of the fiscal 2024 budget to fund the remaining balance of an engineering services proposal and financial evaluation. Pruhenski said that the total cost of the study is estimated at $26,235.
At the January 17 meeting, Pruhenski said that the town has hired DPC Engineering from Longmeadow and Harwich Port to evaluate the potential operation and acquisition of HWW. “It’s a company that the town works with quite regularly,” Pruhenski told the committee. “The information that we hope to receive from this study would allow us to present the question [of the town acquiring HWW] at a town meeting if the Selectboard wishes to. Without this information, I don’t see how we would be able to pursue a purchase.”
Pruhenski said that the town is interested in estimates of projected revenues, expenses, capital needs, and user fees for a period of five years. “DPC Engineering is very familiar with the HWW system as they previously assisted us with a capital needs study for the water system,” Pruhenski said. “The study will take about four to six months to complete and it will conclude with a public presentation. I did ask [DPC Engineering representatives] whether getting information [from HWW] would be a challenge. They told me that they already have quite a bit of information on HWW that they need and the information that they don’t necessarily have at this time can be acquired through other means, so I don’t anticipate any hiccups in the process.”
Back in late June, HWW filed an application with the state’s Department of Public Utilities requesting a 112.7 percent overall revenue increase. Pruhenski told the Finance Committee that the DPU rate case is still ongoing. However, Pruhenski said that “there is a conversation happening between intervenors right now about a potential settlement at some point, but it’s very early on in the conversation.”
According to the DPU’s website, on December 11, attorneys for HWW and from the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General and the towns of Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge all filed a joint motion to suspend the evidentiary hearing schedule in the rate case for all parties to negotiate a settlement. The joint motion notes that the deadline for a settlement agreement would be February 29.
According to the agenda for the Selectboard’s regular meeting on Monday, January 22, the board is scheduled to go into an executive session “to consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real estate” regarding HWW.
In other business at the Finance Committee’s meeting: Pruhenski said he has been working with department leaders to prepare the first draft of the town’s fiscal 2025 budget. He said that a presentation of the first draft of the budget would be made on Tuesday, February 6.
