Town Agrees to Buy Milford Water Company for $63 Million

MILFORD, MA — A $63 million price tag has been decided on for the town to purchase the Milford Water Company. The Board of Selectmen came to an agreement after a long executive session Monday night, Board of Selectmen Chairman Bill Buckley told Milford Patch.

"It took some time for the negotiation team, finance team and mediator to lay out the details," said Buckley. "As expected, the Board of Selectmen had questions and also provided future direction for negotiations with the Water company. With that said, there were no specific obstacles as the Board and Town Counsel had been meeting periodically over the past couple of years and were all well aligned."

The main goal, explained Buckley, was to determine if the town could buy the water company under the current rates and provide rate stability over time. The board decided it could do so, and voted on purchasing the company with a 3-0 vote. The vote hinged on a tentative agreement and schedule set to begin to include the Fincom in preparation for Town Meeting in March.

The target acquisition date is July 1, 2017, which is the start of Milford's fiscal year.

"Moving forward," said Buckley, "we intend to include the Chairman of the Fincom, Chris Morin, in all future executive sessions. In that way, the Fincom can come up to speed by working with the chairman as their liaison. I think that by proceeding this way we will be able to to give details and answer questions that might come up at town meeting."

Photo via Milford Water Company