Selectmen discuss geothermal heat, water ban

Hudson - In a unanimous vote, the Hudson Board of Selectmen approved spending $30,000 for the design plans of the geothermal heating and cooling system at the Senior Center. The hope is that, by switching to the geothermal heating, the center will save enough money in heating costs within the next five to seven years to recoup the initial investment.

"This is an investment up front to have cost savings in the long run," Selectman Carl Leeber said.

In other town issues, Leeber voiced his concern about the current state of the water supply. He asked Executive Assistant Paul Blazar if the significant amount of rain that fell in July could lead to lifting the water ban.

"I realize that some of our problem is demand and we can only take so much water out of the ground, but we have had some significant rainfall," Leeber said.

Blazar explained that the levels from the test wells have just come in from July, when the majority of the water fell, and will be reviewed this week. Despite the rainfall, Blazar was not optimistic that the ban would be lifted.

"It is still going to be a fact of life from now on," he said. "The type of rainfall we have been having is not as helpful as you would think."

Much of the recent rainfall has either been soaked up by vegetation or has come down with such force that it immediately runs off into rivers. According to Blazar, the river level might be higher than usual right now, but it seven out of the last nine months it has been lower. The type of water that helps replenish local wells usually comes from melting snow. Much of the problem is connected to the fact that there are more people in the community using the water supply.

Frustrated by the fact that some residents have not been abiding by the ban, Leeber asked that if the ban is going to be the summer standard, the town could consider sending a mailing to all homeowners.

"I know in my family, we have been getting very creative collecting runoff water [that] our air conditioners to use ... Yet, there are a number of individuals at 12 p.m. watering their laws," Leeber said. "Not that I want all of our town residents to be water police, but we need to consider something down the line."

In other news, resident Claudinor Salomao appealed to the selectmen for assistance with issues he and other residents are having with Charter Communications, the local cable company. According to Salomao, residents have been required to pay $3.95 a month to rent a box to access Radio Television Portuguese International, which is a station that had always been free of charge and accessible without a box in the past.

Selectman Antonio Loura explained that six months ago when the stations were first realigned, he had several calls about this issue. After several hours on the phone with the cable company, he found that the residents did not need the box and that the station was still available free of charge.

"I was unaware that they were still playing the same game," Loura said.

With Verizon's fiber optic network nearly completed in town, the selectmen assured Salomao that with competition coming to town, the cable monopoly should come to an end along with the issues.

Blazar agreed to review the agreement and contact the cable company to further investigate the situation.