Carver accounts for only half the water it buys from Middleborough, official says, as supply deal lapses
The board voted to send certified letters to about 30 customers with broken meters, giving them 12 business days to set a date for a new meter, and put off a plan to lien three long-overdue water accounts until Nov. 17.
CARVER Carver can account for only about half of the water it buys from Middleborough for the North Carver water system, the town's operations director told the Select Board on Tuesday, Nov. 10.
The board, sitting as Carver's water commissioners, heard the figure a day after Middleborough Town Meeting voted down a warrant article that would have let Middleborough's Select Board sign a water supply agreement with Carver and Bridgewater for more than two years. Carver's agreement with Middleborough has expired, town officials told the board.
The North Carver system serves 138 customers, homes and some businesses, and it does not take in enough to cover its costs, Operations and Maintenance Director David Siedentopf told the board. "It hasn't been right since it opened in 2011," he said. "It's not a true enterprise system." One board member said taxpayers are paying for the water that goes unbilled.
About 30 broken meters
Siedentopf said about 30 customers have water meters that no longer report, either because of age or because they lost communication, so those customers pay only a minimum charge. The system's operator left notices on their doors, and none of them answered, he said.
Asked what share of the water Middleborough bills Carver for shows up on customers' meters, Siedentopf said about 50%. He said he does not believe the system has a large leak, because a leak that size would surface in the road, and that he thinks most of the gap is the broken meters. The manufacturer recommends replacing meters every 15 years, he said, and the system is behind on that. He also said the town is checking whether a software problem at the outside company that processes meter readings has thrown off some figures.
The board voted unanimously to send certified letters, return receipt requested, to every customer whose meter must be replaced, giving each 12 business days to set a date for the town to come in. Siedentopf said he hoped to mail them Thursday, Nov. 12. Under the system's rules and regulations, the town can shut off water to customers who do not respond or who refuse, Siedentopf said. "Obviously not what we want to do," he said, adding that the town is trying to collect the revenue people should be paying.
Once the new meters are in, the town hopes to be getting good readings from about 120 of the 138 customers, Siedentopf said, but the next billing that would show the change is about three months away. Board members asked for a list of the commercial accounts among the 30, and one member said a future meeting should take up raising the minimum charge as a way to encourage holdouts to let the town in.
Liens on overdue bills
Treasurer and Collector Kathy Kay asked the board either to shut off water to long-overdue accounts, with a week's notice, or to add the unpaid water bills to property tax bills. The town's water rules allow a shutoff when a bill goes unpaid 14 days after a demand, she said, but Carver has not shut off anyone's water to collect a bill, and some customers pay after a demand while others do not.
Kay said seven customers still owed on bills that were outstanding on June 30, 2026. Four owe small amounts, mostly under $100, and have made recent payments, she said, while three have paid nothing since 2022 or 2023 and owed about $2,057, $1,300 and $990 as of June 30.
Kay said she understood Carver had accepted the state law that allows those liens, Chapter 40, Sections 42A to 42F, but could not confirm it. The board held off until the town confirms it, and one member said customers should get a letter and one more chance first. Kay said the decision is needed soon because the next tax bills are being prepared within weeks. The request is back on the water commissioners' agenda for Tuesday, Nov. 17. The board also approved, unanimously, the water charges billed for July 21 to Oct. 29, which Kay said ran late because her assistant was out on leave.
What Middleborough voted
Article 19 on Middleborough's fall warrant asked voters to authorize their Select Board to enter into an agreement "for the supply of water to the Towns of Carver and Bridgewater for a period of more than two years," under a 2012 state law. Middleborough agreed to supply North Carver after Carver dissolved the North Carver Water District, Nemasket Week has reported.
Town officials told Carver's board that the article failed at a contentious Middleborough meeting on Monday, Nov. 9, after members of Middleborough's Finance Committee opposed letting their Select Board sign a deal voters had not seen. They said Middleborough's town manager and a Middleborough select board member said at the meeting that Middleborough would not shut off Carver's water, and that the state Department of Environmental Protection would not allow it.
Middleborough's Select Board can sign an agreement of up to two years without town meeting approval, Carver officials told the board, a point raised at the Middleborough meeting. Carver board members said they want to seek a two-year agreement while starting talks on a longer one, and to let the public see any agreement in advance. "We need guidance and we need to know which direction we should go in," one board member said. South Coast 360 asked Town Administrator Glenn Cannon on Saturday, Nov. 14, whether the town has reached Middleborough about a two-year agreement, and will update this story with his answer.
Studies under way
Siedentopf said the town has hired two firms. One visited the North Carver water plant the week before the meeting and is evaluating what it would take to bring the plant back online, including equipment, costs and revenue, with a report expected within 120 days. The other is reviewing Carver's water rates, comparing them with other towns and with what Carver pays Middleborough. Board members asked Siedentopf to set up a tour of the plant for the board before winter.
What happens next
The Select Board meets as water commissioners at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Meeting Room 1 at Carver Town Hall, 108 Main St., with the lien request first on the agenda. The meeting is broadcast live on YouTube and recorded by Area 58 Community Access Media. After that, the board's next regular meeting is Tuesday, Dec. 8, because the Special Town Meeting takes Dec. 1.
North Carver customers with a water problem can call the Middleborough Water Division at 508-946-2482 from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays, and after hours the Carver police non-emergency line, 508-866-2000, the town says. If neither answers, the town lists its Operations and Maintenance Department, 508-866-3425, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 7 a.m. to noon Friday. Questions about the system's transition go to the Town Administrator's office at 508-866-3401.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every fact in this story comes from the Area 58 video of the Carver Select Board and water commissioners meeting of Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, which we watched in full, and from the town's posted agendas for Nov. 10 and Nov. 17, the town's North Carver Water System page and the Middleborough warrant as the town published it. Speakers are named where they gave their names or the town's own pages name them; remarks from members the video does not identify are described as board members. Dollar figures are given as Kay said them, as approximate. We read the records on Nov. 14, 2026. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (7)
- Area 58 Community Access Media (YouTube, Area58_Carver): Carver Select Board, November 10, 2026Video of the full Nov. 10 meeting, Select Board and water commissioners sessions: Siedentopf's meter, leak, 50% and study remarks, Kay's commitment and lien request with the seven accounts and three balances, the unanimous certified letter and commitment votes, and the report on Middleborough's Article 19. Watched in full Nov. 14, 2026; time stamps in the evidence file.
- Town of Carver: Select Board and Water Commissioners agenda, revised, Nov. 10, 2026Water commissioners items: Oct. 29 commitment, lien request, meter replacement letters, unaccounted for water, Middleborough Town Meeting update. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
- Town of Carver: Select Board and Water Commissioners agenda, Nov. 17, 20265:30 p.m. request to lien unpaid water bills as of July 1, 2026; Meeting Room 1; next meeting Dec. 8. Posted Nov. 12. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
- Town of Carver: North Carver Water SystemWho runs the system, Middleborough Water Division daytime line, Operations and Maintenance and police after-hours numbers, Town Administrator's office. Read Nov. 14, 2026.
- Nemasket Week legal advertisements, week of Oct. 22, 2026: Town of Middleborough Fall 2026 Special Town Meeting warrantText of Middleborough's Article 19 as the town published it. Read Nov. 1 and again Nov. 14, 2026.
- Nemasket Week: Middleboro Town Meeting to discuss data center ban, school roof replacement, license plate reader banCredited in the story for one fact: Middleborough agreed to supply water to Carver after Carver dissolved the North Carver Water District. Read Nov. 1 and Nov. 14, 2026.
- Town of Carver: Select BoardMembers: Mark E. Townsend, chair; Dan Ryan, vice chair; Sarah G. Hewins; John J. Cotter; Jim Elliman. Read Nov. 14, 2026.