Water & Wastewater Commission

FITCHBURG WATER & WASTEWATER COMMISSION MINUTES September 14, 2016 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on September 14, 2016 at the J.A. Provencial Water Treatment Facility Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 5:04 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 Vincent Pusateri, City Solicitor Jennifer Lambert Principal Clerk Water Office Members absent: Ron Lubianez Jeff Murawski, Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from July 13, 2016 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: No public forum comments were received. Item #3 Water Division:  Mr. Deline started the meeting off by discussing the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the City of Fitchburg and Ralph S. Baker. This MOU is in regard to the Watershed Land owned by the City of Fitchburg and is meant to establish terms and conditions for the approximately 205 acres of land that will be left in a wild and unmanaged state for a period of 30 years. The City of Fitchburg will accept a donation of $50,000 from Ralph Baker to replace revenues lost from timber harvesting. MOU was given to all commission members for review, and will still have to be reviewed by the City’s Legal Department and Mayor Dinatale.  Regarding the Mass DEP drought advisory that was sent out in August, the State recommends that we implement a ban on ALL outside watering. Mr. Deline updated the commission that he has spoken with Mr. Laakso and Mayor Dinatale regarding this situation and all agreed that the ban was not needed. The City has had a water use restriction in place since May 19, 2016 which restricts all non-essential water use between the hours of 9am-5pm. Fitchburg’s overall water usage is down nearly 30% from 10 years ago. People are just conserving more water. The City’s reservoirs are in good shape because of this.  Mr. Deline next talked about Fitchburg’s testing results for Unregulated Contaminants. EPA requires us to test our drinking water for contaminants that do not yet have a drinking water standard set by them. The results were sent out to water customers in early August and showed the contaminants that were found. The contaminants that were found however, are far below or within average level standards set by the EPA and are not harmful. Our drinking water is safe.  We have accomplished a lot in the area of hydrant maintenance John told the commission. We made it top priority the past couple of months with having the summer help. This time last year we had 50-60 hydrants out of service. We are down to 1 or 2 hydrants left to repair. Regular maintenance of painting and greasing the hydrants were performed. Flushing was put on hold with the drought we had this summer and with fall coming we will pick back up in the spring. Blow offs were also done.  John gave a quick update in regards to personnel. We still are down two people with Joey Pusateri being out on workman’s comp and one open position. We had recently filled the open position but that person decided to quit after just three days. Had a better job offer elsewhere which paid more. John informed the commission that because of the low pay rate, guys are coming and getting their licenses and then leaving for other cities or towns where the pay rate is higher. He would like to take a look at the CBA for Local 39 and see what can be done. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Jeff Murawski was not in attendance but did send out a memorandum to all commission members regarding DPW-Wastewater Division’s update for  tonight’s Water/Wastewater meeting. City Solicitor Vincent Pusateri who was in attendance read and discussed Mr. Murawski’s memo to the commission. See memo.  Motion to support the development of “Fitchburg Sewer Use Rules & Regulations” and modify the Code Chapter was granted approval.  Motion to modify the Code Chapter 147, Article VII “Charges & Fees”, under the authority of 147-35.A (7) to assess a standard fee to customers, associated with administrative impacts, who are either delinquent in reporting customer owned meters, or who fail to report customer owned meters, which are required and necessary for proper, equitable services billings to the customer was granted approval.  Lorraine Emerson, Chairman of the Town of Westminster Public Works Commission sent a letter to Mr. Healey, Chairman of Fitchburg’s Water/Wastewater Commission. The letter was in regard to Westminster/Fitchburg Intermunicipal Agreement for sewer service and to begin negotiating an extension of the agreement. The existing IMA is set to expire on March 13, 2020. Written response to the request is sought by Ms. Emerson. Item #5 Other Business:  Mr. Pusateri suggested that our next commission meeting be an executive session to which we can sit and discuss the Union Contract. Invitees to be included are, Mayor Dinatale, A. J Tourigny, Mr. Dinatales Executive Assistant, Bernie Stephens, Human Resources Director and City Solicitor Vincent Pusateri.  The next meeting is scheduled for October 12th, 2016 at 5:00 P.M. at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd., Fitchburg, MA. Meeting adjourned at 6:26 P.M.