Water & Wastewater Commission

FITCHBURG WATER & WASTEWATER COMMISSION MINUTES October 20, 2016 J.A. Provencial Building 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg, MA 01420 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Thursday October 20, 2016 at the J.A. Provencial Water Treatment Facility Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 4:47 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 Vincent Pusateri, City Solicitor A.J. Tourigny, Chief of Staff to Mayor Dinatale Bernie Stephens, Human Resources Director Nelson Mui, Business Manager Ralph Baker Janet Morrison Jennifer Lambert Principal Clerk Water Office Members absent: Ron Lubianez Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from September 14, 2016 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: No public forum comments were received. Item #3 Water Division:  Janet Morrison our Land Conservation Consultant spoke to the commission about projects in the works and potential grant parcels on approximately 9 tracts of land in the Northern Watershed. The Northern Watershed DWSP grant application is due by December 6, 2016. The goal of conservation restriction is to protect the forest and land around the watershed area. Janet also talked about the proposed tract addition of the Lane property in Westminster Ma. This is part of the Southern Watershed, Quabbin Reservoir to Wachusett Mountain Forest Legacy Project. Janet also passed out maps of the Northern and Southern Watersheds.  Ralph Baker spoke to the commission about the MOU (memorandum of understanding) between him and the City of Fitchburg regarding his donation of $50,000 to the Water Enterprise to protect approximately 205 acres of land for 30yrs. A motion to approve the MOU and send to City Council for final approval was granted.  Mr. Deline spoke about the State of Massachusetts Drought Advisory, specifically regarding the City of Fitchburg’s watershed. He explained that there are five stages of drought, normal, advisory, watch, warning and emergency, and that the City is in a warning stage. This means that when restrictions of water use normally expire on Sept 30th each year, we are to keep restrictions in place until the state lifts the warning. With the summer months over, usage is down and Fitchburg is in pretty good shape. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Mr. Murawski updated the Commission on construction projects such as the SSU project. A prebid meeting was held for prospective bidder on October 6th, the subcontractor bidding will be held on October 25th, and the general contractors bidding held on November 9th. Project award tentatively planned for January 11th 2017. The Beech/Hazel Street contract was awarded and executed, and a preconstruction conference was held on October 4th. A preliminary construction schedule should be received within a week or so. The CMHs separation project contract has also been awarded and executed. A preconstruction conference will also be held in a week or so.  The Sewer Rate Study is currently in progress as well as the Asset Management Service Support. Mr. Murawski added that the Wastewater Division has recently applied for two grants that could potentially offset as much as $50K from the costs of engineering services fees and the AM software procurement, development, implementation and training costs.  Work on City Code Chapter 147 & “Rules and Regulations” are ongoing. City Solicitor Vincent Pusateri is helping with getting the code amended.  Mr. Murawski spoke about the ongoing issues with the Paper Mills (existing & former). He has recently visited all sites and is continuing discussions with Mill representative’s .We are pursuing having the roof water and storm water redirected at the former Munksjo Paper Mill. We also  are looking to redirect Caraustar’s Industrial meter flow that’s going to the west plant. If this can be done then the west plant can be shut down and no longer function as a pumping station, which would intern save on maintenance costs. There sewer services contract may have to be amended.  Mr. Murawski next spoke about the manual meter reading delinquency and is looking for resolutions. We are dependent on them to read that meter and provide us with the figure, so we can bill them. In Caraustar’s instance, they were delinquent in providing us with that info, and it resulted in a very high sewer bill where they were over charged. We are looking into different metering such as a radio read. John mentioned for now that we would have the meter room check these reads since they have to get reads on compound meters anyways. Jeff mentioned the idea of maybe having a delinquency fee added if the customer neglects to call in the info.  Work with City Solicitor Vincent Pusateri on the “Infiltration & Inflow” to develop provisions for the City Code/Rules & Regulations to comply with NPDES, State Regulation and the Consent Decree is ongoing.  Mr. Murawski also informed the Commission that the letter from Fitchburg W/WW regarding the IMA between Westminster/Fitchburg has been acknowledged by the DPW Director of Westminster. We are waiting to hear from Westminster representatives on a proposed meeting date and time. Item #5 Other Business:  Executive session: Collective Bargaining Issues/ Local 39 and Local 888 - Minutes to be reviewed when contract negotiations are over.  Mr. Laakso informed the Commission that member Ron Lubianez will be submitting his letter of resignation to the Mayor and will no longer be able to serve as a Commission member due to health reasons.  Next Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday November 9, 2016 at 5:00pm. Meeting adjourned at 7:12 P.M.