04/20/2016
The monthly meeting of the Board of Water Commissioners was held at Freedom Hall at 6:00 p.m. Chairman Barnicle, Commissioner Campbell and Commissioner Mastro were present, as was Superintendent Chris Wiseman.
Also in attendance was Jeff Bellino from GHD Engineering, Patrick O’Neale from Tata & Howard and Andrew Casey from GreenSeal Environmental.
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
The 3/17/16 and 3/28/16 minutes were approved and the warrants were signed.
Mr. Wiseman reviewed the water quality testing results for the month of February.
PUMPAGE
March 2015: 8,834,000
March 2016: 9,753,000
There was 1 new service installation and 2 leak repairs completed in March.
Mr. Wiseman informed the board that we have received the executed copy of the Hazzard Mitigation Grant and will be meeting with David Woodbury, the MEMA grant coordinator and Sam Bell from GZA to move the project forward.
May 17th is the Civic Association meeting for budget review and candidate’s night. The cell project could also be part of that meeting discussion.
Mr. Wiseman notified the board that the Forestry Stewardship application has been submitted with no response at this time.
And as a follow up to the public comment at the March meeting, Mr. Wiseman clarified that the discussion regarding the by-law changes was held at the November 20, 2015 meeting approximately 35 minutes into the audio meeting. The proposed by-law changes have been submitted to Charlie Eager for inclusion in the annual meeting warrant.
Jeff Bellino of GHD distributed pictures of the new tank foundation and updated the commissioners on the progress of the tank project. The project is on track with the timeline.
He also notified the board that the Cell RFQ was complete, pending review, and that it would be ready for release after 5/1/16.
Mr. Bellino also gave the board an update on the USDA grant application noting that they had sent a response to address the comments in the last letter from USDA and that they were making progress with the DUNS and SAMS account registration issue.
Patrick O’Neale of Tata & Howard reviewed the proposal to bring the pumping stations into compliance for chemical treatment based on the sanitary survey done by the MassDEP. The quote includes mechanical upgrades and cleaning for Station #1. The commissioners will review the proposal and Mr. Wiseman will follow up on the disposal of the old engines from the stations. The district must show good faith progress on the upgrades to avoid penalty.
Andrew Casey reviewed the Solar PV RFP packages that were received. The two companies that bid on the project were Borrego Solar Systems Inc. and SunEdison. Both are quality organizations, reputable, and well-funded and will speculate before site contracts are in secured. The financial proposals were different and the commissioners will hold a special meeting to review the details of the proposals prior to the next regular monthly meeting, pending the availability of overlay maps.
Steve Johnson of Open Cape did not attend the meeting; therefore, this topic has been tabled for a future meeting.
The commissioners continued to discuss the current water rates and agree that a reasonable increase to the rates are appropriate. They will continue to gather the information necessary to make a final decision on the adjustment.
The next monthly meeting of the Board of Water Commissioners will be held on Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. at Freedom Hall, with a special meeting to be schedule prior to the monthly meeting to review the scope of the solar project.
The meeting adjourned at 8:36 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Theodore Barnicle, Chairman
Cc: Prudential Committee