EFUD wins best-tasting water prize following a low-interest annual meeting
May 24, 2025 | By Lisa Scagliotti
At the table, Edward Farrar Utility District Commissioners Cynthia Parks, Natalie Sherman, Rick Weston, Bob Finucane and P. Howard “Skip” Flanders, with Municipal Manager Tom Leitz, recognize EFUD staffers at the May 14 EFUD annual meeting. Standing l to r: Anthony Millus, Grant McCracken, Kyle Guyette, Kenneth Ryan, Public Works Director Bill Woodruff. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Waterbury’s Edward Farrar Utility District recently was recognized as having some of the best-tasting water in Vermont, while its annual meeting and election captured the attention of only a handful of its residents.
After a surge in interest in 2024, the May 14 EFUD annual election and meeting returned to its typical turnout with just 28 voters casting ballots and fewer than 10 district residents attending its in-person annual meeting.
District Clerk Karen Petrovic reported the turnout during the meeting held in the Steele Community Room at the municipal building. The 28 voters represented just 1.8% of the 1,578 people registered to vote in the district.
There were no contests on the election ballot. Three of the district’s five seats on the EFUD Board of Commissioners were up for election and all three incumbents ran unopposed. Petrovic reported the results: Cynthia Parks and Natalie Sherman each received 27 votes, Frederick “Rick” Weston received 24. Parks won a three-year term; both Sherman and Weston won one-year seats.
As with Waterbury’s Town Meeting, EFUD elections are held via Australian or paper ballot; other questions are decided by those voters who attend the annual meeting in person.
Source: Waterbury Village and EFUD election results. Chart by Julia Bailey-Wells
The EFUD district is the successor to Waterbury’s former village municipality which was dissolved in 2018. The utility district was created as an independent municipal entity mainly responsible for the operation of the water and wastewater departments which serve just a portion of the overall area of the town. Village elections typically had low participation. Since the shift to EFUD with its narrower focus, its elections and annual meeting have had even lower participation.
One exception was the October 2022 vote to sell the property at 51 South Main Street, where Waterbury’s town offices and village police department were located prior to Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. More than 277 people turned out for that question, voting 208-69 to support the property sale to the nonprofit Downstreet Housing and Community Development. Downstreet currently is constructing a three-story apartment building on the site that’s expected to be completed in early 2026 with 26 affordable housing units for rent.
In 2024, the EFUD had its highest-turnout annual election when 144 voters cast ballots. While there were no contested races, the vote came during a time of heightened election interest given that voters rejected the Harwood Unified Union School District budget in March. The EFUD election took place in between the school district’s second and third budget votes last spring.
Meeting business
At the May 14 meeting, 11 members of the public were in attendance in addition to EFUD officials and staff; fewer than 10, however, were district residents who voted on business items in the meeting.
EFUD Chair Skip Flanders (right) presents Public Works Director Bill Woodruff with a signed copy of the 2024 EFUD Annual Report featuring Woodruff on its cover. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
EFUD Commission Chair P. Howard “Skip” Flanders served as moderator for the meeting. He spoke to salute Waterbury Public Works Director Bill Woodruff whose role includes supervision of the municipal water and wastewater operations. The 2024 EFUD Annual Report is dedicated to Woodruff for his nearly 40 years of service with the village, town and utility district. Woodruff’s family members were in attendance as well.
Woodruff then introduced and recognized district staffers.
Municipal Manager Tom Leitz recapped highlights from the annual report including work under way to extend water service in Waterbury Center from Guptil Road to Vermont Route 100 which will serve homes in that area including the 28-unit East Wind Mobile Home Park. Once that project is done, Leitz noted, the park will no longer use a well on site which should allow for several more homes to be added to the neighborhood.
Leitz noted that the district purchased for $10,000 land-locked property between Sweet and Barnes Hill roads that has water infrastructure on it, rather than rely on holding easements to the land.
New water service completed at the Kneeland Flats Mobile Home Park by the property owners includes electronic meters, Leitz said. The main EFUD system relies on in-person meter reading, and switching to the new technology would be very costly, he said. However, as the system grows in the future, it likely would incorporate more electronic meters, he explained.
Leitz discussed recent floods in 2024 and 2023 which did not cause significant damage to water and wastewater systems. “EFUD infrastructure made it through three floods in good standing,” he said.
There are several efforts Leitz pointed to that could help prepare the district for impacts of future flood, however. They are outlined in the annual report and include upgrading manhole covers, purchasing a heavy-duty pump and reinforcing walls of the wastewater treatment plant’s lagoons. Another proposal would include land near the wastewater plant in a hydrology study to determine if excavation of the open field could help mitigate flood impacts.
Leitz noted that one upcoming project that was scheduled for 2024 but did not happen is to address stormwater seeping into the wastewater system on North Main Street near the railroad bridge.
EFUD resident Tom Gloor asked several questions during the meeting including whether new local option tax revenue that the town government began collecting in 2024 might be shared with the utility district to pay for infrastructure investments. EFUD officials said that would be a topic to discuss with the Waterbury Select Board.
All of the articles on the annual meeting warning were approved by voice votes, including accepting the reports of district officials and increasing compensation for district commissioners and the district clerk. Commissioners said they should revisit the rates periodically to adjust for increases due to inflation. The new rates approved were $2,000 per year for the board chair, from $1,450 previously; $1,500 annually for each commissioner, up from $1,200; and $3,000 annually for the clerk/treasurer up from $1,200.
The voters also unanimously approved two questions to consolidate four reserve fund accounts into two. A property management fund with $122,180 and a utility capital reserve fund with $451,765 would be split equally into remaining water and wastewater capital reserve accounts which previously had balances of $1,075,240 and $76,101 respectively.
District resident and Waterbury Select Board member Roger Clapp asked if the EFUD commission might consider shifting property management funds to the town government now that ownership of park property previously belonging to the village government and utility district has been transferred to the town. The commissioners did not discuss the matter further.
Studying EFUD’s structure
The last question on the EFUD warning asked voters to approve a study to “evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of continuing as a separate and distinct municipal utility district, with costs paid for by district reserve funds.”
Leitz said the topic of potentially merging the utility district with town government comes up periodically, but no specific work has been done to assess the structure now in place since 2018 or alternatives. District and town officials would need information should they consider making a change, and a first step would be to hire a consultant to do a report looking at costs and benefits, he said.
Leitz said he would work with the commissioners to draft a request for proposals with the goal of hiring someone from outside of Waterbury with municipal government experience to do the evaluation. The charge would not encompass a process for making a change. “Let’s get the facts, just the facts,” he said.
The item passed on a voice vote with one no vote.
Best-tasting water
At Lake Morey Resort, Waterbury Water Department staffers Grant McCracken and Ken Ryan accept the Vermont Rural Water Association’s award for Best Tasting Surface Water in the State. Courtesy photo
The day after the EFUD annual meeting, Waterbury won a special honor at the Vermont Rural Water Association’s annual conference: its award for best-tasting surface water in the state.
The group met at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, where one activity was the 2025 Drinking Water Taste Test that “celebrates excellence in water quality across Vermont,” according to the organization.
“Water from systems across the state was judged based on clarity, bouquet, and overall taste. Judges were appointed by the Vermont Drinking Water Week committee and trained to assess each system’s submission in an unbiased and consistent manner,” the association explained in its announcement.
The entries were judged in several categories: surface water, groundwater, and non-community water systems. After several rounds of tasting, the judges chose EFUD for the Best Surface Water honor.
Putney Water System won the best-tasting groundwater category. Grand Summit Lodge at Mount Snow was deemed the best in the non-community water system category, and in the final “taste-off,” it was declared the overall winner, the association said.
In announcing the recognition of EFUD, the association said the award “reflects the district’s unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality, great-tasting water to the approximately 6,000 users it serves throughout Waterbury, Waterbury Center, Duxbury, and Moretown. This year’s recognition of the Edward Farrar Utility District and its passionate operators and staff highlights the dedication and professionalism they put into their work each and every day. Their efforts ensure that users of the system continue to enjoy some of the finest drinking water available in the entire state of Vermont.”
Water Department staffers Grant McCraken and Ken Ryan attended the conference and accepted the award. Afterward, Woodruff pointed out that, “We should also note that missing from the photo is Operator Kyle Guyette, who stayed behind at the treatment plant to make sure the great-tasting water kept flowing to our customers.”