Town Council Recap

Just a couple thoughts from last night's meeting:

• Apparently the councilors were treated to a photograph of a gunky pipe that was quite shocking. As they talked about it, Sean Grieg (I'm not sure what his title is, but I like to think of him as the water guru) said that the build up is the result of not having the ability to flush the mains. Not spending money on preventive maintenance and having it come back to bite us in the form of a costly project...well, at least we're consistent. I'm just glad that my drinking water isn't flowing through that pipe. 

• "I'm upset."-Mr. Carmichael.  Let me just say that I'm starting to really like Ed Carmichael. Last night, Dr. Hayes presented a request to use ~$56,000 in impact fees to the Town Council for the purpose of buying out the lease on the Elementary School modulars. This was on the agenda, after being pushed to the workshop session from the last meeting in order for the Council to have the opportunity to discuss it.  But last night they were faced with a legal opinion that everyone agreed was very vague. As Mr. Carmichael pointed out, there was time to work on this and he was upset that they couldn't give Dr. Hayes an answer. The Town Administrator really should have sought clarification from the attorney and the issue could have been resolved last night.  I will point out that most councilors seemed supportive of the school's use of the fees and they were just looking for clarification-I just wish that had been done in advance. 

• After a lot of talk about what they could and couldn't say and if they should or shouldn't talk about wastewater, our water guru Sean Grieg gave a presentation about sewer rates and the proposed wastewater treatment plant guidelines. I am not a water user and admit that this doesn't affect me and because of that I haven't given much thought to the water/sewer use rates. One thing is certain--they are going to go up and by quite a lot. Along with how Newmarket rates could go up, Sean presented a comparison of other towns' rates. I admit that sometimes I fixate on weird details, but what really struck me is that right now Durham is paying almost a dollar less than Newmarket and they are already discharging <8 milligrams per liter of nitrogen (one of two magic numbers that we are trying to reach per the EPA guidelines). Why are they paying less than us now and not faced with a multi million dollar upgrade in the near future? Because, according to Sean, they did it a long time ago and probably got state funding to do it. Sound familiar?