Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes October 9th, 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 October 9th, 2019 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 4:58 pm Members present: Rick Healey, Chairman Nicolas Bosonetto, Commissioner of Public Works George Siener, 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 Jennifer Kelly Lachmayr, PE Arcadis Alexander Misiaszek, PE Arcadis Absentees: Joshua Bedarian, Commission Member Item #1 Approval of meeting minutes: Motion to approve minutes from September 11, 2019 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  Presentation of SCADA system upgrades was given by Jennifer Lachmayr and Alexander Misiaszek from Arcadis. Project goals include upgrades to the aging infrastructure of the WTP (Water Treatment Plant) control systems at both Falulah and Regional plants. Upgrades to our 14 remote sites as well as Telemetry. This will meet challenges of regulatory reporting and also support increased Industry Complexity. This Project will not be a cheap one, low cost estimate is looking to be around 2.3 mil with a high cost of approx. 2.8 to 3.7 million. Meeting scheduled for tomorrow 10/10 with Commissioner Bosonetto along with Courtney Lamoureux, Business Manager to discuss possibilities.  Water Rate Revenues- We seen a decrease in water rate revenues this year by a few percent. Leominster recently called to see if we were seeing the same trend. This past spring was very wet, customers are not watering lawns yet, washing cars etc. We saw a little rebound this past August, but still not as much revenue as last August even though our rates are a little higher. We will have to keep an eye on it. In total, we are down about 4% from last FY. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Sewer Ordinance, and Sewer Use Rules & Regulations update was postponed by Jeff until next Commission Meeting in November. Information was still being gathered for Commission Members questions that had arisen from our last meeting.  SSU Project- the SSU project is 100% to substantial completion, 94% to final completion and 97% of the contract price through the end of September 2019. For work completed over the last month or planned work for the month ahead please see attachment.  Combined Sewer Separation Project (CSO 039, 048 and Clarendon Street Project- This project is moving along. City council Loan Authorization has successfully passed. Application for SRF funding program has also been passed in to MA DEP. Within the past month, Weston and Sampson has continued on the preliminary design report and also finalized the private inflow removal policy.  SSES, Phase 4 – Interceptor Sewer Evaluation – Amendment work was completed for heavy cleaning & inspection of the sewer under the Westminster St. bridge. Weston and Sampson will continue to review the CCTV inspections conducted by Red Zone Robotics.  Combination Manhole Separation Project- We’ve got approx... 170 combination manholes existing. This was a hot button item with EPA when they did their 3 day audit of us back in December. Weston and Sampson had developed a probable construction cost estimate of 3 million dollars to separate approx... 150 combination manholes. We will have to decide if we want to do this in a phased approach or tackle it all at once.  Siphon Cleaning Design & Bid, and Inspection Services Project-Weston and Sampson has submitted the final contract document. We will need to review it before moving forward.  Miscellaneous Update- Presentation to the FPS 8th Grade Students on Weather, Climate and Climate Trends in Mass will take place during STEM Week 2019, on Friday October 25th. Participating schools include McKay Arts Academy, Memorial Middle School along with Longsjo Middle School. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on November 13, 2019 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 6:17 P.M.