Water & Wastewater Commission

FITCHBURG WATER & WASTEWATER COMMISSION MINUTES April 12, 2017 J.A. Provencial Building 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg, MA 01420 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday April 12, 2017 at the J.A. Provencial Water Treatment Facility Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 4:34 pm Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healey George Siener Others present: John Deline Jr., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski, Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Jennifer Lambert Principal Clerk Water Office Members absent: Joshua Champagne Mike Mclaughlin Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from last month’s March 8th, 2017 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. The Members present section was amended using the correct spelling for Mr. Healey’s last name. Item #2 Public Forum: Jeff updated the Commission on the status of Mr. & Mrs. Aldrich of 111 Highview St. After speaking to the Treasurer about a repayment plan, a draft has been prepared and provided to the customer for review and approval acceptance. The draft has been structured with a minimum payment due each month and if the customer chooses to pay more then that’s up to them. Item #3 Water Division:  John started off by presenting to the Commission his preliminary FY18 Water Division Budget. Very few changes, a couple of line items have been increased to cover overages and the Contracted services and Distribution System repairs have been combined into one line item because they cover the same thing. Also, increased Hydrant and Hydrant parts line item. Revenues are slightly ahead of what we projected. Our next rate increase goes into effect on June 1st. Mr. Laakso recommended adding two line items, one to cover the free water that’s supplied to the city and the other line showing it zeroed out. Mr. Healey agreed that it was a good idea since we are and Enterprise Fund. Motion to approve and recommend budget and send to City Council was granted by unanimous vote.  Regarding the 2017 Water Main Upgrade Project, plans are done and have been reviewed. We are waiting on Purchasing to review the contract documents and our goal is to have a bid opening the beginning of May and work to begin sometime after July 1st.  Flushing of the water system will begin next week or the following week. We will start with the low system and then do the high system. There are 422 hydrants in the low system and approximately 1100 in the high system. We did not get to do this last year because of the severe drought the State was in.  The Water Meter Upgrade Project is in the works. Nelson Mui, Business Manager & Nick Erickson our Engineer have been working on the RFP to have a consulting firm oversee the whole project. There is far too much involved for us to do it ourselves. They will help us select the actual metering system and will also be involved in the actual change over.  Mr. Deline updated the Commission on the MA DEP Annual Statistical Report and Unaccounted for water. It was completed the week before last and it basically states the difference between what goes into our water system and what we actually sell. The cities unaccounted for water is currently at 23% and DEP wants us to be at 10%.  John & Lenny informed the Commission that the Water Division has been looking into possible theft of water/sewer services. While going through maintenance reports, Water Division office staff was noticing that some accounts were exhibiting unusually low or no usage during a monthly bill cycle at locations that usage would be expected to be higher than that which was recorded. Water personnel have been scheduling appointments with owners of properties at which usage was considered to be lower than historically observed and/or expected. In some instances, Water Division personnel have found that meter seals have been broken and meter heads/electronic registers removed. In other instances, it appears that meter heads/electronic registers are being removed in between monthly meter reading cycle (and being put back on for a period from just before to just after the meters are read so as to avoid getting caught with a zero read). A couple properties have had the meters completely removed and a blank pipe installed in its place (the meter/electronic register is re-installed and sealed). The Water Division is able to profile some of these electronic registers (older versions of electronic registers do not have this capability) so when we go out to the property we can download the data and analyze (i.e., profile) the water usage. Newer versions of electronic registers, with profiling and tamper indicators, are being installed at  properties that meter tampering is suspected to ensure it does not occur again and, if it does, we become aware of it when we read the meter. The Water Division will continue investigating and analyzing accounts to identify any additional issues and all do its utmost to recover loss revenues via fines/penalties, billing for estimated usage, etc. The ultimate solution will be the near term project involving the upgrade of all water meters/electronic registers and reading system throughout the city. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Jeff also presented to the Commission his preliminary FY18 Wastewater Divisions Budget. Each Commission member received a copy of the budget. Jeff highlighted a couple of line items that he thought needed some explanation. Motion to approve and recommend budget and to City Council was granted by unanimous vote.  Jeff gave the Commission updates on the Construction projects. The SSU (treatment plant project) is currently underway with demolition as well as concrete work being done. Both the Beech Street/Hazel Street and CMH’s Separation (street projects) are also underway. Jeff also said he can provide schedule updates as to when and where work is currently happening. He will send a schedule out via e-mail.  The Wastewater Division received the legal opinion in a letter from the Fitchburg Legal Department at the tail end of March concerning the collection of past service fees owed to the City for water or sewer services.  The Westminster/Fitchburg IMA is currently in a holding pattern. Proposal has been received by Wright-Pierce for the CWMP. We have also received competing service proposals from the City’s On-Call Engineers Tighe & Bond and also Arcadis. Discussion and recommendation on CWMP proposals will be upcoming.  Lastly, Jeff informed the Commission the he is still working with City Solicitor Vincent Pusateri regarding “Infiltration & Inflow” developing provisions for City Code and also the City Code Chapter 147 “Rules & Regulations. It’s been a slow process because of conflicting schedules and work load in general but will hopefully get this rectified in the near future. Item #5 Other Business:  Next Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday May 10th, 2017 at 4:30pm. Meeting adjourned at 5:21 P.M.