Water & Wastewater Commission

FITCHBURG WATER & WASTEWATER COMMISSION MINUTES July 13, 2016 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on July 13, 2016 at the J.A. Provencial Water Treatment Facility Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 5:02 PM Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healy George Siener Nina Nazarian Michael McLaughlin Joshua Champagne Others present: John Deline Jr., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski, Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Jennifer Lambert Principal Clerk Water Office Members absent: Ron Lubianez Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from June 8, 2016 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: No public forum comments were received. Item #3 Water Division:  Mr. Deline started off the meeting by passing out a packet with information regarding the Capital Improvement Plan for FY17, FY18, FY19 & FY20 Water Division. May have to borrow some money for the River Street project, because it was not in the plans. He also mentioned the upgrades that will need to be done at the Lacava pump station which provides water to Great Wolf Lodge. The new meter installation project may start sooner than expected. Older meters  have been found to work some months and other months give no reading. The front office has been going through non-usage reports and have set up appointments with the meter room and the homeowner to go and check the meter. Meters have been found to be dead, or cracked in which case we replace.  Mr. Deline spoke to the Commission about the recent new hires. The last of the 4 new hires will be starting on Monday. The three that we hired so far are working out real well and are very enthusiastic. One of them has his distribution license and backflow license and all get along well with current employees. We have two hires for summer help that are helping with maintenance at the reservoirs, and also greasing and painting hydrants. We also have two interns from the Boys and Girls club that are helping the summer help.  Regarding the issue with the Oak Hill Tank, Mr. Deline informed the Commission that the leak seems to be the tank itself. We have lowered the operating level by a couple of feet which has greatly reduced the leakage. There seems to be several small cracks in the tank, rather than just one large crack. The tank was built in 1962. We are not losing a lot of water because of this. Tank will need to be taken out of service to be fixed. The tank is mainly used for fire protection.  Hydrant flushing and maintenance of the hydrants is ongoing. Former employee Mattison Darton was our hydrant guy. We will be training the new guys on hydrant maintenance and flushing within the next couple of weeks. Hydrant flushing is important for water quality and also for fire safety. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Regarding the SSU Project, Mr. Murawski informed the commission that the GC’s and SC’s prequalification is being finalized and will be provided to Purchasing. Also, the city feedback on draft bidding document was provided to Wright-Pierce from WW, Legal and Purchasing.  We have executed an agreement document with the closed mill (Fibermark/Crocker/Neenah Paper) new owners whereby the property owners will remove private property sources of inflow from the sewer system. Drafting correspondence will be sent to Munksjo Paper. The purpose of this correspondence will be to discuss removal of the I/I form the sewer system.  Mr. Murawski also talked about the Beech Street/Hazel Street and Combination Manholes Separation Projects. Both projects have had their bidding dates set. Bids for the Beech/Hazel project will be received and opened on Thursday, July 28. The Combination Manholes Separation bids, will be received and opened on August 11th.  A kick off meeting was held on Friday, June 24th with Wastewater management team, City Auditor, City Treasurer, DPW Civil Engineer & Tighe & Bond to discuss the sewer rate study.  A kick off meeting is scheduled for Tuesday July 19th to discuss Asset Management. Item #5 Other Business:  Mr. Murawski passed out and discussed with the commission the revised Sewer Abatement Policy. Motion to approve was granted. The next meeting is scheduled for September 14th, 2016 at 5:00 P.M. at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd., Fitchburg, MA. Meeting adjourned at 6:00 P.M.