The Board meets on the first and third Monday of each month. Meetings begin at 1:00 p.m. and are held in the department conference room at 65 Lafayette Ave, Littleton. Board meetings are open to the public and time is allotted for public comments at each meeting.
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The regularly scheduled business meeting of the Littleton Water and Light (LWL) Board of Commissioners (BOC) began at 1:07 p.m. on Monday, November 17, 2025, in the LWL conference room. Present were Commissioner Peter Cooper, Commissioner Ross, Commissioner Linda MacNeil, CEO Lori Hogan, Operations Manager, Justen Elliott, and Accounting Manager Tammy Talotta.
Public in attendance – BG Fraizer
MINUTES REVIEW:
The minutes of November 3, 2025, regularly scheduled Commissioners meeting were reviewed. Commissioner MacNeil made a motion to accept the minutes as amended, seconded by Commissioner Cooper.
The vote was in favor of the motion 2-0-1
APPOINTMENTS: None
CUSTOMER & PUBLIC CONCERNS:
Mrs. Hogan outlined the LIDC request. The requirement will be that the customer funds a capacity study and that they will be subject to the commercial water rates and policies.
OPERATIONS MANAGER:
Mr. Elliott outlined that the annual inventory will be perform December 1 – December 12, 2025 with the auditor test counts being held on December 16th.
The crew has completed the Town Christmas decorations including the spheres and tree lights. They are ready for the lighting ceremony.
A heater has been installed by Dead River at the Brickyard well building. We are getting an updated quote on work needed on Line 30 and the South Street Substation insulators.
Two-way radio has recommended adding a repeater at the top of Mount Eustis. Right now, it’s our plan to abandon the communications building at Mann’s hill. This building contains radio equipment for DPW, Littleton PD and LWL. If we remove our equipment, we’ll switch the meter over to the Town and they will need to address the broken backup generator.
The water crew is cleaning the sand in Filter 1 at the Gale Intake SSF. They completed a lead joint repair on the transmission line behind the Detox Center in Bethlehem. We’ve been made aware of a sewer break on Mann’s Hill. DPW located our water line during their dig.
CEO & TREASURER:
Mrs. Talotta presented the financial statement for the period ended September 30, 2025. She highlighted the large increase in Accounts Receivable for electric due to late payments by the Littleton Regional Hospital. For September, the financial result came in on plan. Therefore, looking year to date we are running $170,000 under plan.
Mrs. Hogan has filed the renewal of the transmission agreement with National Grid.
Mrs. Hogan noted that LWL will be participating in the Christmas Parade on November 28, 2025. This will be the first time in more than 6 years that we’ve had trucks in the parade. Two employees are using the new volunteer program to allow this to happen.
The annual Christmas party will be held at Tall Provisions on December 17, 2025 at 12:30pm. We hope this will enable Mr. Furtek to attend after his return from leave.
A review of the status of the warrant article for the battery storage project was discussed. Specifically, the discussion centered around an email from Town Manager, Troy Brown. Mrs. Hogan requested a motion to request a warrant article be added to the Town warrant for the battery storage lease of town land.
Commissioner Ross made a motion to authorize Mrs. Hogan to request the selectboard include the battery storage on the warrant, seconded by Commissioner Cooper.
The vote was in favor of the motion 2-0-1
Mrs. Hogan presented research on land owned by Littleton Water & Light. Mr. Hadlock had previously provided evidence that all land needs to be owned in the name of the Town of Littleton. Mrs. Hogan will hire an attorney to research and propose a solution to be compliant with this issue.
The proposed water rates for 2026 were reviewed and discussed as recommended in the Water Rate Study conducted by Horizon Engineering.
Commissioner MacNeil made a motion to implement the proposed water rates for both residential and commercial as presented, seconded by Commissioner Cooper.
The vote was in favor of the motion 3-0-0
There was a lot of discussion related to the communication of the water rates to the ratepayers. Commissioner Cooper recommended a change to the proposed press release. The change will be made and sent to both the Caledonia and Courier in December, 2025.
Mrs. Hogan discussed the recommendation made by DES related to the three galvanized main lines that are part of our public system. These lines are 2” and serve less than ten customers each and therefore have been approved as a service line in other towns. The request can be made but they would need to be replaced with 2” copper and cannot be increased in size as the requirements outline like kind replacement with proper materials. We will continue with the approval process during 2026 and anticipate the work to be performed in 2027.
Mrs. Hogan opened the annual budget hearing and presented the updated version of the operating budget and the energy comparisons to ENE for 2026. A few changes recommended to transmission, capacity and energy. The changes sum to approximately $350,000 and tighten up the budget in comparison to prior year.
Commissioner MacNeil made a motion to approve the operating budget as amended, seconded by Commissioner Cooper.
The vote was in favor of the motion 3-0-0
Mrs. Hogan presented the second version of the capital budget for 2026. We reviewed the balances in the Capital Reserve accounts and discussed the priorities of Well B and the Lafayette Substation. Management will continue to research and refine the estimates presented with approval deferred to the next meeting.
ENE has presented a summary of open positions for 2026 with current market rates. Mrs. Hogan recommends that we close these open positions in the next few weeks when we anticipate a small dip in rates. The buy will be approximately $325,000 but will bring the hedge % to the proper level during critical times. Mrs. Hogan will email a summary for approval to move forward and we’ll ratify the contracts at the next meeting.
Additionally, ENE is working toward renewing our MPA with Morgan Stanley and creating a new relationship with Shell. They have both been competitive in the market and this would provide us with more diversification in our hedge portfolio.
GENERAL / OTHER BUSINESS
There was general discussion about the industrial park. Noted the change in ownership of the Swan’s location.
Commissioner MacNeil made a motion to approve the operating budget as amended, seconded by Commissioner Ross.
The vote was in favor of the motion 3-0-0
The meeting was adjourned at 2:34 p.m.
The regularly scheduled Commissioner’s meeting is held twice monthly on the first and third Monday, at 1:00 p.m., in the Department’s conference room.