Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes May 9th, 2018 J.A. Provencial Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA 01420 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday May 9, 2018 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 4:30 pm Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healey, Chairman George Siener, Commission Member Mike McLaughlin, Commission Member Joshua Bedarian Commission Member Others present: John M. Deline., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski., Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Jennifer Lambert Principal Clerk Water Office Members absent: None Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from April 11, 2018 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  John started meeting by presenting FY19’s Budget. FY19’s budget was given to Commission members to follow along. Clerical Union and Local 39 Contracts have been finished and signed, so numbers are accurate, and our FY19 budget is balanced. There was an increase for the indirect costs to the city. A chart of indirect charges was given to commission members comparing past years to FY19’s costs. Motion was raised to approve Water Budget and send to Mayor DiNatale and City Council. Motion carries and was granted by unanimous vote.  John next spoke about the Inline Turbine at the Narrows Rd PRV Station. As was mentioned at last Commission Meeting, the City was awarded a grant to do this project. The total amount of the project is approx. $362,000.00. The Mass CEC grant will cover approx. $78,357.00, and the MA DEP grant will cover approx. $200,000.00. The city will pick up the rest of the cost which will go toward redoing the building that’s already there, roofs and what not. We will have to work out a schedule with Weston & Sampson, and hopefully within a year or less we will have the turbine up and running. He also mentioned speaking to MA DEP about other potential Energy Efficient Improvements and Funding Grants like GAP Funding and Solar that may be available for future projects. With the city being part of a Green Community it would benefit us greatly.  Regarding the Water Main Replacement Project, John informed the Commission that work has just finished up on Brigham Park and Beacon St. They will next be working on Westminster Hill Road replacing a section of main between Castle Rd and Alpine Rd. We had to run a bleeder up there sometime last year to help with the continuous dirty water that customers were complaining about. This main replacement will allow us to remove the bleeder and hopefully improve the water quality in that area. Once they finish up there, we will have Park Street left, a small section on Jerry St., Congress Place and Winch St. We are hoping in FY20, after the water meter upgrade project, replacing another 15,000 feet of water mains.  Confirmatory votes were taken and approved for (1) The Conservation Restriction on a parcel of land approx. 29 acres located in the Town of Ashby and owned by Alfred C. Crocker and (2) The acquisition of a parcel of land approx. 26 acres located in the town of Ashby and owned by Mary Krapf. Both votes passed unanimously. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Update was given by Jeff regarding the SSU project. He informed the Commission that the project is 54% to “Substantial Completion” & 45% to “Final Completion” and that 60% of the Contract Price has been paid through the end of March. Our new cementitious coating “sub- Sub”, under the Painting Filed Sub bidder, is working out very well. Also our Treatment Plant Superintendent Mark McNamara, is very impressed in the operational performance of the new selector zones in the East Plants first Stage Aeration Tank and also its capacity and its waste load treatment capability for nitrogen and phosphorus.  Jeff next gave updates on City Code Chapter 147 & “Rules and Regulations” and also the (Lockout/Tagout Program Development. Regarding City Code, Arcadis (Engineers) will be providing us a draft revised ordinance around the 1st week of May and also an outline for proposed “Sewer Use Rules & Regulations”. Wastewater will meet with Arcadis around the end of the month to discuss and review comments on the draft ordinance. We also met out April 27th compliance deadline for our “Lockout/Tagout Program. This was our last item on our written warning and order to correct from our August 28, 2017 Mass DLS safety audit at our East Plant. This new program development will be valuable in helping is comply with OSHA safety standards.   The Commission was also informed by Jeff, that on Tuesday April 17th the “Sewer Rates Petition” was passed by City Council. The new rates will become effective in June 1st, 2018 and will be reflected in the water/sewer bills that are issued in July.  Lastly, Jeff discussed with the Commission his departments FY19 budget. Few minor changes from last year, including the line item for DPW Dispatcher which we are picking up 40% of the annual cost along with DPW, and the Water Division contributing also. Another change of course is the increase of indirect costs/fringe benefits paid to the city. Motion was raised to approve Wastewaters FY19 Budget and send to Mayor DiNatale and City Council. Motion carries and was granted by unanimous vote. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on Wednesday June 13, 2018 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 5:21 P.M.