Selectmen discuss MWRA money, Town Common rules and Fire hirings

Last week, the Norwood Board of Selectmen met and discussed a myriad of topics in a three-hour-power session.

The Norwood Record covered the Flock Safety camera discussion, which can be found at https://gvimes.link/flkrcrd, but to do that in the available space required the loss of of all these other discussions that took place during the meeting.

The biggest topic of discussion was that of the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) recent release regarding an upgrade to the combined sewer outflow (CSO) proposed upgrade project.

Basically, many older sewer systems are used as stormwater overflow systems, meaning that when there’s too much stormwater, raw sewage drains into the Boston Harbor. The MWRA plan is to improve those systems so that it takes more rainfall to overload the system. The full details of the plan can be found at https://gvimes.link/swrovrflw

The issue is that while Cambridge and Somerville are the municipalities where the improvements will take place, the entire MWRA system will pay a portion, with 60 percent of the total estimated $1.3 billion being paid by Cambridge and Somerville, and the remaining 40 percent paid by all other ratepayers in the MWRA.

The money would be borrowed and would cost the Town about $32 million over the lifetime of the debt (2029-2070). Selectman Bob Donnelly said the MWRA had a less expensive plan, but is not moving forward with that. He said the Board has drafted a letter citing its opposition to the plan asking the MWRA to go back to the less expensive plan, or, failing that, redistributing the cost away from the communities not seeing a great benefit from it.

“It’s kind of snuck up on everyone,” said Town Manager Tony Mazzucco. “I called about eight or nine of my other colleagues (town managers) and one was aware of it; the others had no idea. Just by way of quick example: I grew up in Randolph; Randolph, Holbrook and Braintree share a water treatment plant and they use the MWRA for their sewer treatment. They’ve been going on a decades-long plan to replace their water treatment plant. Randolph was unaware this will cost them more than the water treatment plant. This will cost us (Norwood) almost double what the water tower costs. When it’s fully burdened, this will be larger than any investment we’ve ever made in our water or sewer system, for a very, very minor enhancement. And no direct benefit to us at all.”

The Board is still asking residents to speak out on their views of the plan at https://gvimes.link/csocmmnts

Mazzucco said an opposition letter template will be on the Town’s website soon.

Also discussed at the meeting is the reduction of the planned $2 million for capital projects to $700,000. Donnelly said the idea behind this is the fact that the Town has been running an operational deficit for the last three years and has been using free cash to supplement that budget. Free cash is generally used to pay for most one-time capital projects, and so the idea is to reduce the spend to leave more free cash for what’s needed in the budget.

This is thought to be a one- or two-time issue, as the Town will soon need to vote on an operational budget override – a tax increase beyond the 2.5 percent allowed by state law without a vote – in the next couple of years.

Donnelly said the sidewalk repaving project for $630,000 has been deferred, along with a $45,000 snowblower for the Norwood Memorial Airport, masonry repairs for $90,000 at three schools, the carpeting at the public safety building for $65,000, $15,000 for a Civic Center wait room air conditioner, fire gear for $325,000, taser replacements for $50,000 and a new animal control vehicle for $80,000.

Also at the meeting, Norwood Fire Department (NFD) Chief Tim Bailey came in and discussed the department’s recent staffing push as a result of the Public Safety Override passed by May Town Meeting.

“We received 37 applications to date; we did a whole bunch of interviews,” he said. “We have nine in process to be hired. So nine of the 13 new firefighters we will hire are in the process.”

Bailey said the plan is to have them on staff by mid-October. Bailey added that getting the station ready for the new staff has been a challenge.

“But we are working through that, and we think we have a good plan to make that happen,” he said.

Bailey also said there was some hope for the new vehicles the Town ordered to replace the aging fire fleet, which frequently breaks down. He said the new ladder truck – which readers may remember was out for repairs for a month earlier this spring and was replaced by a generous rental from the Walpole Fire Department – is now estimated to be coming in the spring of 2029 and not the fall of 2029, as previously expected. The new ambulance is expected in the fall of 2028 and the new engine next summer.