Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes February 12th, 2020 J.A. Provencial Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA 01420 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday February 12th, 2020 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 5:01 pm Members present: Rick Healey, Chairman Nicolas Bosonetto, Commissioner of Public Works Steven Bodurtha, Commission Member George Seiner, Commission Member Others present: John M. Deline., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski., Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Jennifer Lambert, Head Clerk Water Division Absentees: Michael McLaughlin, Commission Member Joshua Bedarian, Commission Member Item #1 Approval of meeting minutes: Motion to approve minutes from January 8th, 2020 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  Drinking Water Supply Protection Grant - The grant has been submitted and approved by City Council.  Meter Upgrade Project- Approximately 3200 meters have been installed within the A section of the city with letters soon to go out for the B section of the City. Project is going smoothly except for a few minor glitches such as old iron pipe service lines that will need to be dug in early spring, customers that have not responded to final notice letters etc...  MA DEP ACO and Sanitary Survey Items – Response form was sent back to DEP signed by the mayor. Because of changes in regulations, DEP is requiring additional information regarding tracking. Instead of weekly logs, they want daily logs, along with SCADA system information etc...  Hydro-turbine Project – Bids have come in. We are receiving approx... $300,000 in grants for this project but will need to transfer $600,000 from retained earnings which has been discussed with the City Auditor who is fine with that. This will go to City Council next week and then Finance. Hopefully we will award the bid in the next couple of weeks. When turbine is in place, we will be generating $10,000-$15,000 dollars in electricity a year.  Water FY21 Annual Budget – Draft copy given to Commission members for review. Small discussion about electricity and chemical line items that are increased due to rising costs. Rate study may be in the very near future. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Fitchburg/Westminster Wastewater Inter-municipal Agreement – The current IMA was entered into agreement in March of 1995. The term period for the agreement was 25yrs and will expire in March 2020. The City is working on evaluations of the system (sewer system capacity) along with future sewer needs. This way we can negotiate a long term amendment to the Agreement. On January 9, 2020 a short term amendment was presented to the City Council to extend the term by 2yrs to allow for the completion of the CWMP. It was then referred to the City’s Property Committee and the Water/Wastewater Division. Motion was made to authorize the City to amend the IMA and extend the IMA to end on March 13, 2022. Motion carries.  Wastewater FY21 Annual Budget – draft copy given to Commission members highlighting minor changes. Small discussion on a few changes.  SSU Project- SSU Project- the SSU project is 100% to substantial completion, 97% to final completion and 99.2% of the contract price through the end of January 2020. For work completed over the last month or planned work for the month ahead please see attachment.  Combined Sewer Separation Project – Construction to start in the spring.  SSES, Phase 4 – Interceptor Sewer Evaluation – Moving forward on this project which basically involves looking for sources of infiltration and inflow and defects within our system.  Combination Manhole Separation Project – Close to getting a final draft of the bidding document for City review.  Siphon Cleaning Design & Bid, and Inspection Services Project – Still on going. With more combination manholes being separated, this type of work of cleaning will dwindle down quite a bit.  Misc. updates – Two presentations given in Boston featuring the East Plant. One being a virtual tour of the East Plant, and the other addressing Peak Wet-Weather Flows and Nutrient Limits at the East Plant. Also, volunteered time at the boys & girls club of Fitchburg and Leominster on 6th – 8th grade students on their “Future City Competition” that was held. The challenge was “Clean  Water: Tap into Tomorrow”…asking participants to identify a threat to their future city’s water supply, and design a resilient system to ensure a reliable supply of clean drinking water. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on March 11, 2020 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 5:49 pm