Water & Wastewater Commission
Regular MeetingFitchburg, MA · January 13, 2021
Minutes
Water/Wastewater Commission
Meeting Minutes
January 13th, 2021
J.A. Provencial Building
1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA 01420
A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday January 9th,
2021 via Zoom and FATV.
The meeting commenced at 5:04 pm
Members present: Rick Healey, Chairman
Steven Bodurtha, Commission Member
George Seiner, Commission Member
Nicolas Bosonetto, Commissioner of Public Works
Others present: Jeff Murawski., Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater
John Deline., Deputy Commissioner of Water
Jennifer Lambert, Head Clerk Water Division
Nathan Glenny, FATV
Absentees: Michael Mclaughlin, Commission Member
Item #1
Approval of meeting minutes: Motion to approve minutes from December 9th, 2020 meeting was
granted by unanimous vote.
Item #2
Public Forum: None
Item #4
Water Division:
Water Rate Study – City Auditor Calvin Brooks received some feedback from DOR about our
water rate revenues for FY20. We were a bit low, but not as bad as we thought though. COVID
of course played a role as some of our biggest water users were shut down, and all backflow test
were out on hold. Meeting last week about this very and Calvin would like to do a water rate
study and increase the rates sooner than later. Right now in our current fiscal year our water
revenues are ahead by 3.5% compared to last fiscal year. Information is being gathered by our
Business Manager along with the Mayor, Auditor and DPW Commissioner. We will meet again in
the next few months to discuss more in depth. We will be looking at the schools and possibly
city departments paying for water because at this time they do not, and one good thing is that
we have a $900,000 loan payment going away this year. We are hoping we can push the rate
increase out until 2022.
245 River St – Several months ago we received a letter from the owners of 245 River St. stating
they feel we had been over charging them because since there meter was changed their bills are
significantly lower. Brand new meter installed in September 2019. After a lengthy investigation,
the meter was found to be defective on the low side. The meter at this facility is a compound
meter which means it has a high side for large flow and a low side for lower flows. We installed
a new meter to investigate the difference of the billing for the next few months and found that
we had actually under billed them for approx... $74.000 combined for water/sewer. We will
need to figure out our next steps moving forward on how to go about billing them. We will
reach out to City Solicitor for legal advice on this matter.
Meter upgrade project – Approximately 85-86 hundred new meters installed which leaves about
28 hundred left to go. Meter installation has picked up after the holidays but we will be sending
another round of letters to our unresponsive customers. Once this projects comes to an end our
software for our old metering system Badger will be gone. This means we will have to enter
customers’ homes every month to read the old meter manually. We would like to propose a fee
of $50 for customers who have not had their meter changed in this last letter that will be going
out. We are hoping this will get customers attention when they receive a higher bill.
Item #3
Wastewater Division:
Sewer Ordinance, City Code Chapter 147 – Ordinance was approved by City Council on
December 15th, and then was signed by Mayor DiNatale on December 18th. We are still waiting
on City Solicitor Pusateri for comments and feedback on the revised DRAFT “ Sewer Rules and
Regulations” I am hoping to have his comments and feedback at our next meeting come
February.
Construction Projects- CSS project contractor J.A. Polito & Son’s commenced work on November
24th. They addressed a failing sewer on lower South St and installed approx... 80 linear feet of
replacement sewer. Work has continued through the winter with spot excavation work and
plans to include trenchless rehabilitation portions of the work. Our on call construction contract
work with Blue Diamond has completed the Highview St open cut excavation work. They have
not yet conducted the trenchless rehabilitation portion of the work. Wastewater has requested
a price proposal from Blue Diamond for sewer separation work on Boulder Dr. This work is
planned to be done in the spring on 2021.
WMP, Consent Decree Submission #2 – This submission was submitted to EPA & MassDEP on
December 30th. . Prepared by Weston & Sampson and approved by Wastewater. We have made
this publicly available on the City Website Wastewater page.
Joint Water & Wastewater ‘Rates Study’ – The wastewater department of course has two more
increases (FY22 & FY23) for the approved 5-year period of increased rates that were approved in
April of 2018. Of course rates are strongly correlated with capital improvements and the city
cannot walk away from the consent decree. It does make sense that if we were going to do a
rate study that we should combine our efforts and savings for both departments and have same
consultant do the work.
Item #4
Other Business:
The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on March 10, 2021 at the J.A.
Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg MA, 01420.
Meeting adjourned at 5:55 pm
Agenda
Water/Wastewater Commission
Meeting AGENDA
Wednesday – January 13th, 2021
5:00 p.m.
J. A. Provencial Building
1200 Rindge Rd.
Fitchburg, MA 01420
DUE TO THE RESTRICTIONS REGARDING COVID-19, THIS MEETING WILL TAKE
PLACE VIRTUALLY WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF FATV & ZOOM.
The public is invited to participate in the Zoom webinar of January 13, 2021 5:00 PM
Register in advance for the Public Comment/Hearing portion of the Agenda by going to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FdtpevvXR6-Elp5NBakIBw
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about logging in to join
the webinar.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
1. Review minutes from December 9th, 2020 Commission Meeting.
2. Public Forum: None
3. Water Division
Water Division – revenues/expenses and water rate study
245 River Street – defective water meter
Meter upgrade Project – update on project and fee for reading obsolete meters
4. Wastewater Division
Status Update Items:
o Sewer Ordinance, (City Code Chapter 147):
Tuesday – December 15th, 2020: City Council gave Ordinance 236-20 its 3rd
and final reading, and adopted the Chapter 147 Sewers Ordinance changes to be
enrolled and ordained, by unanimous vote;
Ordinance 236-20 was signed by Mayor DiNatale on Friday – December 18th,
2020.
As required by Fitchburg’s Intermunicipal Agreements (IMAs) with the Town
of Westminster and with the Town of Lunenburg, certified mailings were sent
(on Monday – Jan. 4th, 2021) to the IMA required recipients of notification of
Fitchburg’s Ordinance change, and Fitchburg’s Local Limits updates. Each
IMA has time provisions within which the IMA Town must adopt the Local
Limits, and incorporate Town Bylaw/Ordinance changes that are as stringent as
or more so than Fitchburg’s Sewer Ordinance in all respects.
o Continue to the W/WW February 2021 Meeting: Review & Approve the Revised
DRAFT “Sewer Rules & Regulations” (update of previous DRAFT “Sewer Rules
& Regulations” provided by ARCADIS {consulting engineer}), provided to the
W/WW Commission at the Sept. 9th, 2020 Commission Meeting.
The Revised DRAFT “Sewer Rules & Regulations” have been provided
multiple times to the City Solicitor (first on October 30th, 2020), and as of the
writing of the agenda for the W/WW Jan. 13th, 2021 Meeting, the City Solicitor
has not yet provided review feedback comments/questions/suggestions.
Construction Project (Update):
o CSS Project: “CSO 007, 011, 039, 048 Separation/Rehabilitation Project”.
Contractor, J.A. Polito & Sons, Inc.; and Engineer, Weston & Sampson Engineers.
1. Contractor commenced work on Tues. – Nov. 24th, first addressing a failing
sewer on lower South Street, and installed approximately 80 linear feet of
replacement sewer. Work has continued to occur into the winter, with “spot”
excavation work, and plans to include “trenchless rehabilitation” portions of the
work.
o “On-Call Construction Contract” Work (Contractor: Blue Diamond
Equipment):
Blue Diamond has completed the Highview Street open cut excavation work
portion of the “Highview Street Sewer Rehab. /Replacement Project”, and is yet
to conduct the trenchless rehabilitation portion of the work.
Wastewater has requested a price proposal for sewer separation work in
Boulder Drive (see provided plan) from Blue Diamond. This work is planned
to be performed in the spring, at the beginning of the 2021 construction season.
Wastewater Management Plan, Consent Decree Submission #2: Prepared by
Weston & Sampson, and reviewed and approved by Wastewater, was submitted to EPA
& MassDEP on December 30th, 2030.
Wastewater as made both the original submission of the Wastewater Management
Plan (submitted on May 13th, 2019) and the recent WWMP Submission No. 2
publicly available on the City website, on the Wastewater webpage:
1. www.ci.fitchburgma.us/476/Wastewater-Division
2. Beneath the “Frequently Asked Questions” section of the webpage, is the
“Wastewater Management Plan” documents.
Joint Water & Wastewater ‘Rates Study’:
o Wastewater previously engaged with Tighe & Bond for a Sewer Rates Study
(performed 2017 – 2018).
o On April 19th, 2018, City Council amended the Sewers Ordinance (City Code Ch.
147) to include the schedule of sewer rates changes for the 5-year period of FYs
’19, ’20, ’21, ’22, and ’23.
o “Rates” are strongly correlated with capital improvements, and Wastewater still
has a number of capital improvements projects required to be compliant with the
Consent Decree.
o Note that the City can’t “walk away” from the Consent Decree, after its latest
referenced date…..rather, the City will have to serve a “Request for Termination”
petition EPA and MassDEP to be released from the Consent Decree, having
attained the requirements under the CD’s “Remedial Measures”.
5. Other Business
The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm on Wednesday
February 10, 2020 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg, MA
01420.
Adjourn
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