Water & Wastewater Commission

FITCHBURG WATER & WASTEWATER COMMISSION MINUTES December 14, 2016 J.A. Provencial Building 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg, MA 01420 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday December 14, 2016 at the J.A. Provencial Water Treatment Facility Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 5:06 PM Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healy George Siener Joshua Champagne Others present: John Deline Jr., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski, Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Janet Morrison Jennifer Lambert Principal Clerk Water Office Members absent: Mike Mclaughlin Nina Nazarian Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from October 20, 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 The FY2017 -2018 Drinking Water Supply grant application. There are 4 tracts of land in the  Northern Watershed totaling approximately 90 ½ acres that are included in this application. A motion to authorize the application was granted by the Commission in unanimous vote. She also discussed with the commission the Wilen property in the Southern Watershed of Westminster. Landowner is willing to sell approximately two acres of land in Zone A to Mare Meadow Reservoir for land conservation. Land in Zone A is highly sought after, may work with the owner to potentially offer more. Ms. Morrison also spoke about Conservation restriction monitoring. The Forest Legacy Program requires this be done and a yearly basis. The city will work with a professor at Fitchburg State and monitoring will be done by Fitchburg State interns who actively have an interest in GIS mapping and land conservation.  Mr. Deline spoke about the city’s state regarding this year’s drought. Even though we have had rain the past two months the city’s reservoir levels are at about 80%. We are definitely better than where we were, and since the summer months have passed people are not using as much water, but restrictions do remain in place.  The water quality issue has come up again in the area of Shea St. We have received a few calls that the water is cloudy and dirty. The section of water main on which the ice pigging was completed to temporarily relieve residents of this issue ultimately didn’t work, but was worth a try. We have a hydrant running and also a bleeder in place. This section of water main is first on our list of mains to be replaced.  John updated us on the Hydraulic Study that Weston and Sampson did on our Narrows Road Pressure Reducing Station. We talked about moving it out of Westminster and down the road a bit and making two sub-stations. This will eliminate the Lacava Hotel pump station and also the Montachusett Industrial Park pump station. The pressure reducing station does need some rehabbing and also will cost to relocate, but the end result is we will be saving on maintenance and pumping costs.  Regarding our meter upgrade program, John informed the commission that he recently met with three different meter companies for presentations along with Missy (Water Operations Coordinator), Nelson (Business Manager), Nick (City Engineer) and Trevor (IT Manager). We will go through the pros and cons of each company and will move forward in making a decision on which company’s services best fit the city’s needs. We would like to stick with cellular reading, which is how we read the meters we have currently. Will most likely have company do the entire change out themselves, and would like to have everything completed in about a year to 15 months.  Lastly, we have good news regarding the outsourcing of water/sewer bills. Starting with the December billing, Global Direct out of Millbury Ma will be printing and mailing out the monthly bills. This is a great cost savings for the water/wastewater divisions. Item #4 Wastewater Division  Mr. Murawski updated the Commission on the status of Construction Projects that are in the works. The bids for the SSU project were received by the general contractors on Nov 16, 2016. Bid award is planned for January 11th, 2017. Construction has commenced regarding the Beech St/Hazel St project with work in progress on Pratt Rd @ Rollstone St. The CMHs Separations Project contract has been awarded to Blue Diamond Equipment and a preconstruction conference was held. Blue Diamond Equipment has done CMH’s separations before for the city.   Regarding the Sewer Rate Study, Jeff updated us that it has been stalled because we have not been able to gather all of the data for Tighe & Bond to move forward. Work is still in progress though.  Mr. Murawski also informed the commission that he is still currently working with Vincent Pusateri , City Solicitor to develop provisions regarding City Code/Rules & Regs on “Infiltration & Inflow”.  Kick off meeting was held with Westminster regarding the Fitchburg/Westminster IMA. Westminster is looking to expand their allotted capacity of flow. There are two points of entry from Westminster to the Fitchburg sewer system. In order for us to evaluate what they are asking for we will need to do Hydraulic model runs, we will be submitting them by the end of this month. Item #5 Other Business:  Mr. Laakso informed the Commission that member Nina Nazarian has resigned due to State Ethics Policy. Nina is Town Administrator for the Town of Princeton Ma, as well as a member of our Water/Wastewater Commission. The State Ethics Policy states that it is a conflict of interest because the city owns land in Princeton. We are now down two commission members. We will reach out to the Mayor’s Office and let them know to put the word out.  Next Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday January 11, 2017 at 4:30pm. Meeting adjourned at 6:28 P.M.