The crux of the problem concerns the water supply for Housatonic, a village within greater Great Barrington.
“Some of the residents of Housatonic have a private water company called Housatonic Water [Works] Company, and especially in the summer, the water is not clean," explained Great Barrington selectboard chair Stephen Bannon. "It's very dark, and you can't drink it, you can't cook with it, you can't bathe in it. And this has been a very long-standing problem that the town has been trying to correct but not succeeded so far.”
Tonight’s special meeting will see the town respond to a two-pronged plan to solve the problem by buying and consolidating the entities that oversee water in the Great Barrington community.
“We needed to address how we can have a long-term strategy and a better operation with the combined assets of HWW and Great Barrington Fire District, which is also known as the water company, Great Barrington Water Company," said Great Barrington resident and former finance committee chair Sharon Gregory, who is behind the two petitions. “They have said in response to the selectboard that they're not interested in buying HWW and they don't have the capacity to do it. So, I thought, okay, how can we do this? If the town bought GBFD and kind of elevated the prudential committee to oversee both water companies, then they don't have to purchase HWW, but we would have the best of both worlds. I am concerned that we don't own either water companies.”
Gregory’s proposal takes the form of two articles on the special town meeting warrant. Under the first, Great Barrington would buy the Housatonic Water Works Company for an amount not to exceed $2.3 million. The second would have the town buy the Great Barrington Fire District for no more than $2 million.
“It's going to be better in terms of saving money so that we aren't creating two duplicate infrastructures, management, and all the duplicate locations and people," Gregory told WAMC. "We would save money because Housatonic Water Works, for example, would be eligible for the low-cost rates and longer terms for borrowing, because we have to borrow a lot of money to fix everything. We would have a good strategy developed without having to suboptimize what decision making is for the two companies. When they make decisions, they're thinking about, yeah, Great Barrington Fire District, where could we find water, a second source within our territory? That's really not addressing the Great Barrington water needs, and I think the combination of the two, from a managerial and planning perspective, would be a huge benefit for the town.”
Gregory says her own expertise in finance as well as her research into state law lends credence to the plan.
“I've studied maybe 10 or more of these acquisitions, and what's really interesting is, the backstop is that they gave an option if there were a difference in the buy and sell prices and it couldn't be resolved, they allowed the town to go to a special process applying to the state Superior Judicial system, who then appoint three commissioners to decide the final price," she said. "And I went, yeah, I mean, most acquisitions can go back and forth for years, but this really expedites things.”
Both petitions require a 2/3rds majority to pass.
Bannon says Gregory won’t find support for either article from him or fellow members of the selectboard.
“There are two members who are from Housatonic, who have made very clear that they are against this," he told WAMC. "I will speak against it also. The selectboard have worked hard, it's taken a long time to do their due diligence, and we've hired a lawyer to start negotiations with Housatonic Water Works. And this seems redundant at best, and maybe there are some other problems, legally challenging, some of the wording of it, so there really isn't a reason to do this, and it may actually make things more difficult for the selectboard.”
Whatever the result of the vote tonight, Bannon says it will not be the final word on the matter.
“If, in fact, we came to – we, being the town – came to agreement with Housatonic Water Works, that would require a town meeting vote to approve a purchase of the company, approve the money transfer, etc." he explained. "So, this is going to end up at a town meeting again if there's an agreement. Now, the Great Barrington Fire District would be the same thing. But as of right now, the Great Barrington Fire District does not have any problems with their water and nor with their infrastructure, and I think that it's safe to say that one of the things the selectboard is worried about is biting off more than we can chew, and let's fix the one that's really a problem, which is Housatonic Water Works.”
Great Barrington’s special town meeting is set for 6 p.m. at Monument Mountain Regional High School.
