On Friday Worcester City Manager sat down with Spectrum News 1 to discuss the city's path forward now that all appeals in their case versus Holden have been exhausted. In 2022 a jury found that Worcester had overcharged the town of Holden for sewer services. In 2023 a judge ordered Worcester to pay Holden over $26 million plus interest. The total award to Holden is now over $35 million. 

When asked where things currently stand City Manager Eric Batista said, "Right now, basically, we have continued conversations with Holden in trying to find a resolution to the matter. Holden has pursued a process in which they have requested the courts to execute this judgment. And so our hope is that we can, as part of the conversations and communications with the town of Holden, our hope is that we can come to a resolution sooner rather than later because the interest continues to accrue as part of this process." Batista continued, "I think legally we wanted to explore all of our options and extend our options, which was appeal to the Appellate Court and appeal to the Supreme Court. We felt strongly that we had a case at the moment because we've never had a contract with Holden. Our contract was directly with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

According to Christopher Petrini, attorney for the town of Holden in this case there have been two conversations between him and the Worcester City Solicitor. Petrini added that Worcester offered Holden "$5 million to start to pay up and that was rejected by Holden."

Batista said that he'd like the Commonwealth to step in and help out. When asked if he's disappointed in how the state has handled this legal battle Batista said, "The Governor's office and the Governor and the delegation has been very open in conversations with us in trying to resolve this issue. So that's important to know. They have been consistent in conversations ever since I took office to try to bring a resolution to the matter, including trying to have conversations and bring communities together for future use agreement as well. I think there's things in our position where we feel as though there has to be an engagement with the Commonwealth in this process because the Commonwealth owns the pipes, right? They play a role in this."

Over twenty-five years ago the towns of Rutland and West Boylston were also a part of the same agreement Holden had with Worcester and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (Mass DCR) for sewer services. Batista said the city has not heard from Rutland or West Boylston regarding this matter and if he anticipates legal action from them. "Right now, we have not heard from those towns. Again, our engagement has been directly with the state and DCR and the Governor's office, not directly with the towns because our contracted agreement agreed upon agency. We have directly only contracted with the state, so that's been our engagement. But that's to the extent of those conversations with those towns."

In a statement to Spectrum News 1 on March 2nd Holden Town Manager Peter Lukes said, "The courts have spoken.  Their decision(s) ARE the settled outcome.  Worcester lost at trial, lost at the Appeals Court, and the Supreme Judicial Court refused to even hear the case.  The time for settlement negotiations comes BEFORE the final judgment (and appeals), not after. The Town of Holden is moving forward with enforcement of the judgment and award, as would be the normal course after the resolution of any dispute when the court has finalized their decision and the appeal process is over, as it is now."

Holden attorney Petrini added that the judgment is due "Right now. Every day payment is delayed an additional $8723.96 of post-judgment interest is added to the amount due." Petrini added that Holden will pursue collection options if the amount due is not paid.

When asked where the monies would come from to pay the award to Holden Batista said, "It would be a combination of things, right? We will look at our current financial standings in terms of our reserves. We will look at potentially any new use agreement moving forward. So there's a lot of different elements that we would look to try to resolve this matter."