Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes March 13th, 2019 J.A. Provencial Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA 01420 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday March 13, 2019 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 5:01 pm Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healey, Chairman George Siener, Commission Member Joshua Bedarian Commission Member Steven Bodurtha, Commission Member Michael McLaughlin, Commission Member Others present: John M. Deline., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski., Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Jennifer Lambert, Head Clerk Water Office Janet Morrison, Land Conservation Consultant Members absent: None Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from February 13, 2019 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  Janet Morrison provided the Commission with an update of the Quabbin Reservoir to Wachusett Mountain Forest Legacy Project (Q2W) in our Southern Watershed. This project has wrapped up and is now finished. This was a federally funded project and helped the City conserve approx. 246.3 acres of watershed land. Two of the seven properties are now City owned with the remaining five being Conservation Restrictions held by the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission.  John gave a brief update on the Water Divisions FY20 preliminary budget. Draft copy was given to Commissioners. No major changes with the budget this year to date. We are still waiting on a few numbers from Calvin Brooks, City Auditor to finalize our budget. Once I’ve updated the numbers I will email an electronic version to all Commission Member’s. Next Commission meeting we should have everything together to have a vote on it.  Update was also give to the Commission Members regarding the Water Meter Replacement Project. We have ordered our first batch of meters and electronic registers that we will have in stock for our employees to install. The water meter installation bid went out, and we did receive the bids last week. Low bidder came in at 1.273 mil. We are hoping to sign contract with them in the next few weeks. We also still need to finalize the gateway/antenna locations, and get the software installed here so we can read the meters. It’s a complex process making sure everything works with our Munis software. Next few weeks we will begin to send notices out to residents to let them know what’s going on.  Update to Commission regarding the Town of Hubbardston PILOT (property taxes). City Solicitor Vinny Pusateri and I have a meeting with the town’s Assessor on March 22, 2019. One of the main reasons for this meeting is that State owned land is being assessed at $2500 per acre whereas the City owned land is being assessed at almost $5000 per acre. We are looking to find out how they came up with these numbers and why our property tax bill when up so high. We can appeal to the State also if we don’t believe it is correct as far as the assessment. Will hopefully have an update for you at next Commission Meeting.  Pump Station Roof Project is moving along. Weston and Sampson have been out collecting all the measurements for the six roofs that we will be replacing. Hoping to go out to bid within the next few months, with work to start the beginning of next fiscal year. Two roofs that are on our items list and ACO from Mass DEP will be done first.  The proposals have come back from the engineering firm for our SCADA upgrade project. Nick Erickson, Engineer for the City of Fitchburg and I will be meeting on Friday March 15, to go over final numbers and make a selection. Design phase still needs to be done and also the bid documents need to be put together. We are hoping to complete all of this by next summer, hopefully the worst of the meter upgrade will be over so we can move forward with this project.  Lastly, the Commission was updated on The Narrows Rd PRV Station In-Line Turbine Project. The design phase is 50% complete and is well on the way to being 90% complete. This has been submitted to the State, and we should be going out to bid fairly soon. This will include redoing the roof and making other repairs inside the building. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  City Code Chapter 147 & “Rules and Regulations” update was given by Jeff. He informed the Commission that the Petition had been submitted to Council for the February 19th meeting, and was referred to Council’s Legislative Affairs Committee. We are awaiting the schedule of the next meeting of Legislative Affairs Committee for the hearing and presentation on the petition.  Regarding the CWMP, Tighe and Bond incorporated Mass DEP comments into the draft phase 1 report and continue to draft the phase 2 report. Within the next month they plan to finalize the phase 1 report, and will deliver a draft of the phase 2 report to the City for our review.  WWMP update- Jeff informed the Commission that a presentation to Council will be held March 19th and will include an overview of NPDES Permit along with State/Fed regulatory requirements for CSO’s. They will also review impairments to the North Nashua River and communities that are affected downstream from CSO’s. Analysis of flow and pollutant loads discharged from the East Wastewater Treatment Plant into the North Nashua River, and evaluation of proposed CSO controls along with a proposed implementation schedule will be reviewed by Council. Our first deliverable on the WWMP will be sent to EPA and Mass DEP on March 31, 2019.  The SSU project is 78% to substantial completion, 73% to final completion and 83% of the contract price through the end of February 2019. For work completed over the last month or planned work for the month ahead, see attachment.  Brief update was given to Commission regarding the “CSO 039, 048 & Clarendon St. Project”. Weston & Sampson completed round two of building inspections and they are developing a preliminary design report. They will also continue to prepare a private inflow removal policy for implementation by the City and review the CCTV inspections. They will also develop a preliminary design plan to coordinate with Unitil.  Lastly Jeff updated the Commission on Phase 4 of the SSES (sewer system evaluation study). Weston & Sampson will use CCTV, laser and sonar sensors to investigate the Interceptor which is the largest piece of the sewer system that leads into the treatment plant. Weston & Sampson has sub-contracted National Water Main Cleaning Company and Red Zone. They will be helping with the investigations and also with cleanings that are associated with the investigations. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on April 10, 2019 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 5:45 P.M.