Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes April 14th, 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 April 14th, 2021 via Zoom and FATV. The meeting commenced at 5:11 pm Members present: Rick Healey, Chairman Steven Bodurtha, Commission Member George Seiner, Commission Member Nicolas Bosonetto, Commissioner of Public Works Michael Mclaughlin, Commission Member Others present: Jeff Murawski., Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater John Deline., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jennifer Lambert, Head Clerk Water Division Nathan Glenny, FATV Lance Dellogono, Constituent Absentees: None Item #1 Approval of meeting minutes: Motion to approve minutes from March 10th, 2021 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: #579 South St., Fitchburg MA – Sewer Connection Permit Fee determination appeal. Mr. Lance Dellogono of Tegra Properties spoke to the Commission about relief consideration of the subject property’s planned unit development sewer connection fee. His request is to have the property treated like a commercial property and not residential and is asking the commission to waive the connection fee for sewer from residential to commercial. He provided the commission with a site development plan, planned unit development along with a utility plan. Motion was raised to deny the appeal and passed unanimously by roll call. Item #4 Water Division:  Covid 19 – The water division recently had one of our employees within our distribution team test positive for covid. This resulted in several other employees being exposed. We also had another employee whose wife tested positive which resulted in him having to quarantine for two weeks. Over the past week we have had 5 people out with Covid or exposure to Covid, and an additional two employees out for 5 weeks of FMLA for parental leave as well as another employee on scheduled vacation time off. This left us with a staff of 2 employees.  Cross Connection Program – We have reached out to Weston & Sampson Engineers for help with the management and efficiency of our Cross Connection Program. Staffing shortage in our meter room has put us behind. We have advertised 3 times with no luck trying to hire someone with the expertise and licensing required for this job. This MassDEP requirement of testing backflow devices along with the completion of surveys for cross connections is one of the items on our ACO that needs attention. Weston & Sampson will provide one tester and we will continue to have our employee test as well. They will also schedule, send letters and communicate with homeowners. Proposal was received today and looks good.  Meter Project – We are approaching 10,000 meters replaced out of 11,240. We are pretty close to having this project 89% complete. Office personnel are ramping up trying to contact customers via any way possible to get appointments scheduled.  Narrows Rd. Hydroturbine – The turbine has been running for a few weeks now. We have received the final permits from the state and are excited to see that it is running perfectly and generating power. A lot of work was done at this station such as piping being removed and or replaced the roofs have all been done as well.  SCADA Project – Meeting was held yesterday about the design of the screens, we are trying to make them as simple as possible compared to what we have now so as we can see what needs to be seen. Very pleased with Arcadis and how they are going to be setting things up. Falulah will be done late summer and Regional will be done late fall when our flows are at their lowest.  Falulah Transmission Main Project – We will be upgrading approx... 2000 feet of 16” main between the Falulah treatment plant and the water storage tanks on Rindge Rd to a 24” main. The Conservation Commission is scheduled for a site walk on April 21st. This will greatly improve capacity. Item #3 Wastewater Division  Sewer Ordinance, (City Code Chapter 147) – Both the towns of Westminster and Lunenburg are working on incorporating the city’s ordinance updates into their own bylaws. We have provided our review feedback to the town of Westminster on the draft Town Bylaw update (chapter 161 – sewers). Their town meeting is scheduled for May 1st. We are still awaiting the Town of Lunenburg’s Sewer Commission’s draft sewer regulations update for review.  CSS Project: CSO 007, 011, 039, 048 Separation/Rehabilitation Project – This project is moving along very well. Contractor J.A. Polito & Sons have resumed spot type street work which includes trenching excavation.  On-Call Construction Contract- Contractor Blue Diamond Equipment is tying up loose ends on the Highview St. sewer rehabilitation. They are restoring loam and seed to the front of homes  because a lot of the work that was done was not in the just the paved roadway. Repairs of lawns and driveways are also being taken care of.  Misc. – Wastewater staffing is a concern for us as well. A Sr. Treatment Operator recently left to take another position with another community. Interviewed a qualified candidate for the job that we are very hopeful will accept the position. We also have a couple of employees that are looking to retire in the near future. Our rain barrel program is moving along well. We are in excess of 70 barrels sold so far and the date to purchase rain barrels has been extended until early June and distribution of the barrels will be in mid-June. Item #4 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on May 12, 2021 via Zoom & FATV, Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 6:03 pm