Somerset Finance Committee Approves $17,596 Reserve Transfer, Hears Sewer Petition

SOMERSET — April 29, 2026 — Somerset Finance Committee hears citizen push to pause sewer plant overhaul and form Fall River regional district. The committee voted unanimously to approve a $17,596.24 reserve fund transfer covering three assessor's office shortfalls — a $912 longevity calculation error, a $6,127.29 NEARMAP software gap, and a $10,556.95 utility consultant overage tied to Brayton Point battery storage appraisal work — before spending the bulk of its April 29 meeting on a lengthy presentation from Steven Nassif, a Berkeley resident and citizen petitioner. Nassif argued that the Water and Sewer Commission's plan to rehabilitate Somerset's wastewater plant — estimated at $75 million in a May 2025 Wright-Pierce study but projected by Nassif to exceed $150 million by 2030 — was built on a flawed regionalization study containing roughly $80 million in errors, and that the town should instead form a regional wastewater district with Fall River. Two citizen petitions already signed and placed on the May 30 town meeting warrant would compel the commission to seek a one-year EPA permit extension and host a public side-by-side comparison of the two plans; Nassif said EPA Region 1 compliance attorney Jeffrey Cosworth told him the agency would look "very favorably" on a joint extension request. The Finance Committee took no formal vote on the petitions and faces an approximately May 20 deadline to submit recommendations on all warrant articles.