Water & Wastewater Commission

FITCHBURG WATER & WASTEWATER COMMISSION MINUTES April 13, 2016 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on April 13, 2016 at the J.A. Provencial Water Treatment Facility Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 4:58 PM Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healey Ron Lubianez George Siener Others present: John Deline Jr., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski, Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Janet Morrison, Member of North County Land Trust Nina Nazarian Members absent: Michael Mclaughlin Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from March 9, 2016 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: No public forum comments were received. Item #3 Water Division:  Janet Morris of the North County Land Trust discussed the proposed FY17 Water Supply Grant Application. The application is for conservation of 3 tracts of land in Ashby. She asked that the commission recommend to the City Council approval of the grant application for the Northern Watershed so it can be sent to the state. Council does not  need to vote on the expenditure of funds at this time. If and when the state approves the grant we will come back to ask the city to vote to expend funds. Motion to approve said grant application and send to city council was granted.  Motion was raised to recommend acceptance of the conservation restrictions acquired with Forest Legacy funds for 3 tracts of land in the Southern Watershed. Motion to approve was granted.  Janet also asked commission to authorize the reimbursement of $1500 of the $4500 appraisal fee that land owner(Chernoch) will have to pay upon acceptance or conveyance of the conservation restriction in Westminster. Motion to approve was granted.  Mr. Deline discussed with the commission the Lacava Pump Station which supplies water to the Great Wolf Lodge. The pump station is approximately 25 yrs. old and is need of repair. Upgrades to the pumps and the controls would greatly improve efficiency.  Mr. Deline also spoke about the River Street MassWorks Project Grant. He will be speaking to Larry Cassasa and Dick Sarasin about borrowing money for water main infrastructure improvement on River Street. Upgrades to the pipes are greatly needed for fire protection safety, and also to eliminate deadlines that are going nowhere.  FY17 water budget was talked about briefly by Mr. Deline. He stated that it does not differ much from FY16 water budget. He pointed out that David Berger is retiring in February so he increased the Distribution Systems Manager salary about $14,000 to hire and train someone before David leaves. Made some adjustments in expenses by moving a few things around like the distribution repairs. We are also looking to save money by outsourcing the monthly bills. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Mr. Murawski started by informing the commission about the ongoing projects that are in the works with Procurement, like the SSU(Secondary Systems Upgrade) Engineering for bid of construction & post construction, the Beech/Hazel project and the CMHs Separation project. He also let the commission know about the Wastewater On-call Services contract that will expire in May of 2017 and the On-call Engineering contract for the DPW, Water/Wastewater divisions that will expire in October of 2016. These items will also land with Procurement in the near future. There are no active construction projects as of now, but we are coming into the phase being it springtime.  Mr. Murawski also discussed with the commission the city’s Consent Decree, and what the SSES (sewer system evaluation survey) is and what its purpose is. The system as of now has too much infiltration/inflow from defective sewer pipe joints, breaks, manhole defects, rainfall, sump pumps etc. that is flowing into the system which reduces the capacity and capability of the system. He gave the commission several informational packets regarding the city’s code for sewers, guidelines for performing and upcoming changes to Infiltration/Inflow Analyses and SSES, he also gave the commission a copy of the Consent Decree.  Brief discussion about the FY17 Wastewater draft budget was held also. Mr. Murawski pointed out a couple of changes in the line items but informed the commission that there wasn’t much change from the FY16 budget for wastewater. Item #5 Other Business: None The next meeting is scheduled for May 11th, 2016 at 5:00 P.M. at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd., Fitchburg, MA. Meeting adjourned at 6:54 P.M.