Gloucester Chief Financial Officer Conor MacCorkle will present a preliminary finance plan for the mandated upgrades to the city’s Wastewater Pollution Control Facility during the City Council’s Tuesday, April 28, meeting.
The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Kyrouz Auditorium in City Hall, 9 Dale Ave. MacCorkle’s presentation will not be a public hearing but residents are invited to attend in person or virtually using the link on the City Council’s website.
MacCorkle said his presentation will be a preliminary discussion on the potential financial impacts of the project. He said he will be “going back to basics” and discussing bond issuance, what that means, and the financing options available to the city.
“It’ll mostly be through the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust, we’re also going to get into what this might do to the water and sewer rates, and the debt shift options available to the mayor and City Council,” MacCorkle said.
One potential debt shift option MacCorkle highlighted is an increase in property taxes along with increases in primarily sewer but also water rates, but no decisions have been made as of yet.
“That’ll be a big discussion the mayor and City Council will have to decide,” he said. “This is a preliminary conversation and it’s still very early.”
In 2023, the city entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection to end the discharge of under-treated sewage containing disease-causing organisms and toxic pollutants from Gloucester’s wastewater treatment plant into Massachusetts Bay.
To do that Gloucester needs to upgrade the pollution control facility by installing secondary sewage treatment. Under the federal mandate, the city must have the updated wastewater treatment plant operational by a 2028 deadline. The City Council unanimously approved a $206 million loan order for the work in 2024 and MacCorkle will outline the potential impacts on residents of that cost oon Tuesday.
The $206 million loan order is by far the largest bill the city has faced, according to MacCorkle.
“It’s a big number and we’re really going to have to get in deep and get into the nuance of it all before any decisions are made,” he said.
Staff Writer Bobby Grady may be contacted at 978-675-2714 or bgrady@gloucestertimes.com.