Town Meeting votes to transfer Water Enterprise Funds due to deficit

Town Meeting voted to transfer $102,823 from the Water Enterprise Fund to cover an appropriation deficit from Fiscal Year 2025 during Fall Town Meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 21.

The town was required to allocate these funds by the Department of Revenue because the town had gone into a deficit in Fiscal Year 2025.

This deficit was caused primarily by the town purchasing a significant amount of water from the city of New Bedford, according to Town Administrator Cody Haddad.

Haddad previously stated that the town “purchased almost 50% of all of our water from the City of New Bedford last year.”

He noted, “We’ve historically purchased water from the city of New Bedford, just not to this extent.”

With several of Dartmouth’s 13 wells down and not operating, Dartmouth has had to outsource to New Bedford.

Haddad attributed this partially to the fact that several of Dartmouth’s 13 wells are down and not operating, noting that when Dartmouth’s wells don’t produce enough water it gets outsourced from New Bedford.

He noted that once the wells are operating again the town won’t have to purchase as much water from cities such as New Bedford.

Select Board member Shawn McDonald said the town could alternatively purchase water from Fall River instead of New Bedford, which would most likely be cheaper.

“Fall River is looking for customers to sell water to,” he said. “That’s another avenue that the town is looking down.”

One North Dartmouth resident noted that there was a discussion about three years ago regarding the wells that were supposed to be back up and questioned why they haven’t been operating.

Public Works Director Tim Barber explained that there had been a storm about two years ago while reconstructing the viable wells that set the project back because of run off and intrusion into the wells.

“We anticipate that a number of our wells that are currently down will be back operational by the end of this fiscal year, which will help us to meet the demand of the water in town,” Haddad said.

At Town Meeting some residents questioned how town officials will ensure there isn’t another deficit.

Haddad said that he, Finance Director Gary Carreiro and Barber are now monitoring the town’s budgets on a regular basis to “make sure that our revenues and expenses are equaling out.”

“Ideally we have a little bit more revenue than we do expenses so we can build routine earnings in that savings account,” Haddad said.

Nathan Silva, a member of the Finance Committee, said, “I’m glad to hear that the town administration has their eyes on it and is actively managing the situation, but it’s something that is concerning and that we should certainly keep an eye on.”