Wicked Local
Aging water and sewer pipes and a race to correct infrastructure issues before the federal government slaps a consent decree on the city has Somerville residents facing significant increases in water and sewer rates for the near future.
The Finance subcommittee of the City Council, meeting last week, was asked to endorse a 7% increase in water rates and a 10.5% increase in sewer rates as part of the budget planning season.
Councilors told city administrators to take $1 million from the Free Cash account to offset rate increases for those residents identified as low- or on fixed incomes.
In a unanimous vote of the subcommittee, J.T. Scott (Ward 2), Mary Jo Rossetti, William White, and Will Mbah, all at large, and Katjana Ballantyne (Ward 7) indicated the committee would not support the requested increases without attempts to mitigate the impact of the escalating fees. Lack of committee support could leave the proposed rate increase at zero, impacting rates in future y
HUDSON And then there were three.
The trio of finalists vying to become Hudson s next executive assistant were presented to the Board of Selectmen on Monday, two months ahead of the retirement of incumbent Thomas Moses.
Bernie Lynch, principal and founder of Plymouth-based Community Paradigm Associates, which was tasked with helping the town selection committee find Moses successor, introduced the finalists.
They are: Ryan Ferrara, town administrator in Boxborough; Thomas Gregory, town administrator in Spencer and Nina Nazarian, a consultant who has worked as town administrator in Littleton and Princeton.
He said after an initial pool of candidates was whittled from 33 to 17, seven applicants underwent a more intensive interview. From that process, the finalists were selected.