City HallTuesday, November 10
Regional leaders push to give surrounding towns a seat on Springfield's water and sewer board
The Springfield Morning News team
If you pay a water or sewer bill outside Springfield, your town has no seat on the board that oversees the service. State Sen. Jake Oliveira and officials from Agawam, Westfield, Ludlow and Longmeadow pushed Monday to expand the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission's board from three members to seven. All three current members are appointed by Springfield's mayor.
“If our communities are helping to pay those bills, our communities deserve a seat at the table.”
The Senate plan would grow the board from three seats to seven
| Today | Measure | Senate plan |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Springfield-appointed seats | 4 |
| 0 | Regional seats | 3 |
| 3 | Total seats | 7 |
Sources: MassLive.com, Western Mass News
Springfield would keep the majority. Western Mass News reports four seats would go to the mayor's appointees and three to picks from a regional advisory board. Mayor Domenic Sarno opposes the change, and his September letter to lawmakers raised concerns about how costs would be shared. Oliveira asked the House-Senate conference committee negotiating the Mass Ready Act to keep the language.
The commission by the numbers
- $114 million
- a year in the commission's budget
- 250,000
- people the commission serves
- $131.28
- more a year on a typical Springfield bill, up 7.5%
- $31.5 million
- at least, in West Parish budget overrun
Sources: MassLive.com, WWLP
- Commission's paid lobbyist against the plan: $12,500
- West Parish PCB cleanup money in the bill: $5 million
- Advisory board: every customer town, plus the hilltowns
Sources: MassLive.com, WWLP, Western Mass News