Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes February 9th, 2022 Legislative Building, City Hall Campus 700 Main St, Fitchburg MA 01420 ______________________________________________________________________________ A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday February 9th, 2022 at the Legislative Building, City Hall Campus, 700 Main St. Fitchburg, MA 01420 The meeting commenced at 5:03 PM Members present: Nicholas Erickson, Commissioner of Public Works & City Engineer George Seiner, Commission Member Mark Piermarini, Commission Member Rick Healey, Chairman Water/Wastewater Commission Stephen Bodurtha, Commission Member Michael Mclaughlin, Commission Member Others present: John Deline, Deputy Commissioner of Water Jennifer Lambert, Head Clerk Water Division Nathan Glenny, FATV Mark McNamara, Interim Deputy Commissioner Wastewater Division Absent: None Item #1 Approval of meeting minutes: Motion to approve minutes from January 12, 2022 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  Staffing Levels – We recently had another two people leave and take other jobs. We usually have people in our Distribution Crew, we are down to 5. We have completed a few interviews these last two weeks and are hoping a couple of them work out. Problem is our working foreman in Distribution was one of the employees who recently left. He held a D3 Distribution license, so he served as a primary operator within our Distribution system. We currently do not have a primary operator, so Steve Neal (Distribution Manager) and I are acting as primary operators. We have notified DEP of this so they are aware. Our Treatment side as 6 operators and one chief operator. Our Chief operator has recently retired, and we have two primary operators retiring in March. We have two secondary operators who will be moving up to primaries, but they do not have their T4 treatment licenses. We are a T4 plant so this is needed. The downside to not having enough staff on the distribution side is that we are going to have to hire out more work. We had a significant water main break on Electric Ave last week and had to hire a contractor to do the job. This not something that we normally do. We will do the best we can with what we have.  Falulah Water Transmission Main – Contractor KJS LLC has hit a lot of ledge in the last couple of weeks but has managed to complete approx. 1000 ft. of pipe installed out of 2200 ft. of 24” main. Project is moving along and they are getting pretty close to where they will cross the stream at the Falulah Dam. We’ve lowered the lower reservoir. Once they get to the dam the plant will be shut down.  SCADA upgrade project – This project is behind due to supply shortages, along with labor and material shortages. It is moving along but has been delayed. Item #4 Wastewater Division  Westminster/Lunenburg IMA – Lunenburg’s Sewer Commission reviewed and updated their “Sewer Use Regulations” to reflect Fitchburg’s. A minor change was requested in an article pertaining to discharge permits for SIU’s (referring back to the City for permits). Westminster is requesting a short term extension to the IMA for 2-3 yrs. because dialogue is needed from MA DEP in allocating additional flow. They are also requesting a transfer of 50,000 GPD from Rte. 31 to Rte. 2A.  Consent Decree – This item is being compiled and is approx... 85% complete. Should be completed by next week and then sent out to MA DEP.  Hazardous Communication Plan – Weston and Sampson is currently working with the East Plant staff on this item and has requested an extension with the Dept. of labor safety.  Polito has shut down operations because of the weather. We are hoping to start back up in early spring.  FY23 Wastewater Division Budget – We are currently in the process of compiling the Wastewater Divisions budget for FY23. We do not see any major changes so far between this year’s budget, but again we are in the early stages.  Staffing Levels- Wastewater Division currently has 1 vacant operator due to a retirement. Interviews are being done for this position. We have another operator retiring on March 4th. We have a pool of candidates that have applied to the job posting. We also have 1 senior operator retiring as soon as the latest CBA is reached. This is a critical position and presently no candidates have applied. Lastly, we have a chemist that will be retiring on March 18th. Interviews for this position will begin soon. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on March 16, 2022 at the Legislative Building, City Hall Campus 700 Main St. Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 5:36 pm