The Marion Water & Sewer Regulations Review Committee met on Thursday, December 4 to discuss the now-deferred Citizens’ Petition Town Meeting article regarding secondary water meters.
The committee was created by the Select Board in July for the purpose of reviewing, assessing, and recommending updates to the town’s regulations regarding sewer and water services. For their 11th meeting, having generally met three times per month since their first meeting in September, they dedicated most of their time to a discussion on the Fall Town Meeting’s Citizens’ Petition submitted by Andrew Daniel for the creation of secondary water meters to split usage tracking between sewer and water. Vote on the article was postponed, per vote, to the 2026 Annual Town Meeting in May.
Town Administrator Geoffrey Gorman began by stating the purpose of the committee’s meeting was “to review the impact of the November 20, 2025, Special Town Meeting Citizens’ Petition article calling for secondary water meter inclusion into water regulations. These impacts should include, but are not limited to, the effective changes on sewer and water enterprise accounts over the next five years.” From that, they also sought to discuss ways to effectively implement the proposed policy into existing regulations to have recommendations for the Select Board by January 6, 2026.
One of their first discussion topics was billing for the secondary meter and the frequency of such. Select Board member John Hoagland said yearly billing “would be an administrative nightmare” with Gorman recommending quarterly billing, or every 90 days. They also talked on the town’s billing software, saying it is “really, really difficult” and will potentially offer its own difficulties in this process.
Being the first post-Town Meeting discussions regarding the secondary meter petition, there was a lot of ground to cover. Of course, this is all ground-laying work in preparation for the town’s next Town Meeting in the spring and another vote on the petition.
The next meeting of the Marion Water & Sewer Regulations Review Committee is scheduled for Thursday, December 11 at 3:00 pm in the Town Hall Annex, 14 Barnabas Road.
Marion Water & Sewer Regulations Review Committee
By Sam Bishop