Somerville Finance Committee Meetings see revised Combined Sewer Overflow Plan

On November 30, 2025, in Latest News, by The Somerville Times

By Alyssa Buford

On November 19, the Somerville Finance Committee hosted a meeting via Zoom. The committee reviewed various mayoral, municipal, and citizen funding requests for property acquisition, staffing charges, interest payments, and resource loans.

Communications and Discussions

The first official item on the meeting’s agenda had been a conveyance of an early draft of the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Plan. The presentation, given by Infrastructure and Asset Management Director Richard Raiche, acted as an informal proposal to identify the thoughts of the counselors and answer questions after giving a 65-slide presentation at a previous council meeting.

“There has been some discussion with the board of directors on the MWRA (Massachusetts Water Resource Authority), the Charles Water Association has been very vocal about their desire for a higher and more costly amount of control,” said Raiche, alongside Counselor Jake Wilson, exploring the possibility of a final vote being delayed to December.

MWRA Loan

The second item, a direct request from Mayor Ballantyne, requested the appropriation of $407,090 from the reserved Water Enterprise to fund a debt service for an MWRA loan. The city can borrow from the MWRA short-term for a two-year period, and will have to pay additional principal and interest for long-term borrowing.

“We usually budget for this, but the paper from the MWRA to apply for the loan had come late,” confirmed Raiche. “They have a very good bond rating, and they’re able to offer this to communities immediately rather than have the other communities go out on their own, typically at higher interest rates,” Raiche continued

Interest payment for the acquisition of 90 Washington Street

Since the city’s acquisition of 90 Washington Street in 2019 via eminent domain, the city has spent $39 million dollars from the initial purchase plus supplemental expenses. Said expenses have resulted in $403,980 in interest payments, of which Mayor Ballantyne seeks to resolve via the reappropriation of “free cash” in an unreserved fund.

“We were warned this would happen, and are prepared,” said Counselor Wilson.

Appropriation of $100,000 for the Armory Revolving Fund

Another mayoral request called for a Community Benefits Stabilization Reserve to support the onboarding and tenant acquisition for the Somerville Armory. The city is converting the Armory building into a public community arts center with individual rehearsal, meeting, class, and performance spaces for local arts organizations and artists on a revolving basis at affordable prices. The matter was reported out of committee as of November 13th, but was ultimately presented by Somerville Arts Council Director Gregory Jenkins and Director of Economic Development Rachel Nadkarni.

“We reviewed varying rent prices throughout the city and are trying to find a mix of a rent structure that makes sense to support the arts community, but brings in enough money to create stabilization for our building,” stated Jenkins during the presentation.

According to both Jenkins and Nadkarni, the armory project would only need the reserve funds once and the arts center would self-sustain long-term. “What [the funding] will allow us to do is really line up all of our storeship support for the building in the form of maintenance, staffing, and onboarding new tenants, this funding will only be a one-time thing,” said Nadkarni.

Public Safety Education Costs

The finishing items on the agenda included the request and approval to expand $87,450 and $109,296 grants for public safety staffing within the fire and police departments. This motion was presented by the Director of Finance and Administration of the Somerville Police Department, Emily Wisdom. The grants, from the Massachusetts Office of Grants and Research, require a municipality to have a population of sixty thousand residents as well as “demonstrated need” as proof of police understanding. Somerville is one of ten communities in Massachusetts to qualify.

“Towards the holidays and elections is where there’s a spike in public safety needs, so the grant really helps to fill those gaps,” Wisdom said.

Additional items on the docket included outstanding invoices, the payout of SomerStat temporary and wage accounts, pedestrian access easement, and a grant for a maintenance license for 495 Columbia Street, freight charges, transfers to the police and school salary systems, and approval to pay various invoices.