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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - SC - 02/24/2016 ° - TOWN OF COHASSET e_ } Sewer Commission 41 Highland Avenue Cohasset, MA 02025 COhASSV_Y N _ i1 ° 781-383-4108 Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 Time: 4:00 p.m. Place: Basement Meeting Room,Town Hall Present: Bryan Baldwin, Chairman Bill McGowan,Vice Chair Wayne Sawchuk, Clerk Chris Senior,Town Manager Dan Coughlin, Coughlin Environmental Services Chairman Baldwin called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. 1. Administration a. Next Meeting: scheduled for Wednesday March 9 @ 4 p.m. in the Basement Meeting Room- Town Hall. b. Department Projects Status: list not reviewed. C. Sewer Department Office Relocation: Chris Senior told the Board at this time they do not have a definitive return to work date for the current staff member that is out on leave. The Board expressed the need for a full-time person as soon as possible. Mr. Senior presented the job de- scription for the Administrative Assistant for the Sewer Department. The plan is to post the job opening internally for two weeks per the Union rules. The day-to-day operations (phones, emails etc.)will continue to filter through Tracey Connors in the Town Manager's office. Chrissie Dahl- strom will be taking over meeting minutes, and is ready to take on filing projects as needed. Dep- uty CIO Ron Menard has a person to handle any Excel projects as needed. Motion by Chairman Baldwin to approve job description and post as soon as possible as discussed, seconded by Mr. Sawchuk, and the vote was unanimous. d. Meeting Minutes: Motion by Mr. McGowan to approve the minutes of 4/2/16 and 4/4/16, seconded by Mr. Sawchuk and the vote was unanimous. f. CES Contract: Brian Joyce discussed some minor changes with the Commission. Mr.Joyce for- warded copies to Dan Coughlin for his signature, and then the Commission can approve it. 2. System Operation Review a. Suez Operating Expenses Proposal: Suez Area Manager John Marcin was present and dis- cussed their contract extension and requests for reimbursable expenses. After some discussion Chairman Baldwin asked for Suez to come back to the Board with a specific dollar amount in ar- rears for FY15,the unbudgeted increase for FY16, and the projected FY17 expense. The Board can- not complete its draft FY17 budget until these values are received. Cohasset Board of Sewer Commissioners Page 1 b. Monthly Report: Mr. Papa reviewed the monthly report for January. The WWTF was in com- pliance for the month January 2016. A sump pump in the influent pump dry well was replaced, as was the drive chain for the sludge thickener. GE Zenon finished up training Jan 18t"-Jan 22"d. All remote pump stations are operating well. They continue to monitor the lift stations and install grease deterrent blocks if needed. All emergency generators were load tested. There were no odor complaints. Mr. Papa reviewed the action list for the plant. It was agreed that all three (3) items would be de- ferred until later in the fiscal year. He had estimates for three (3) new metal doors in the Influent Building, new doors for main building, and new lights for Influent wet well. The Board discussed the repairs and costs. Mr.Sawchuk was at the plant and realizes the door need to be replaced but thinks the price is high. He will do more research and come back to the Board at the next meeting with a recommendation. C. GE Zenon Report: Mr. McGowan asked about an e-mail message dated 1/29/16 received from GE Zenon about the condition of the membranes? Mr. Papa spoke of a significant jump with solids. Mr. McGowan asked if in their opinion if there was an issue? Mr. Papa responded the levels are starting to come down to normal levels in the membranes. Mr. Coughlin suggested they may also schedule cleaning more often. Mr. Papa stated Train 1 was cleaned in December and Train 2 will be cleaned next month. 3. Collection System a. Grinder Pump Work Log: Chairman Baldwin distributed copies of the 2015 Grinder Pump Re- pair Log dated 1/17/16 consolidating monthly reports prepared by Suez. He noted that calls high- lighted in yellow were not on Suez's report. This is very disconcerting as the approved procedure is for all service calls to be routing to Suez for review, and only then is Rosano-Davis or FR Mahoney to be called as required. Scott Papa of Suez gave an overview of how calls are handled. The calls in yellow were never received at the plant. Some residents are calling Rosano Davis and FR Mahoney directly. He has no control over those calls and they were not aware of them. Paul Davis of Ro- sano-Davis and Ed Quann of FR Mahoney were present. Mr. Davis stated Rosano-Davis handled warrantee maintenance work for Interon pumps for ten (10)years then the Town took over the maintenance when the warranty period expired. Chairman Baldwin distributed copies of the document titled Town-Owned Grinder Pumps Billed Qtly Fee dated 1/27/16. Rosano-Davis is billing the Town for any Interon pump calls. Chairman Baldwin be- lieves that only those properties paying into the program should be receiving service at the ex- pense of the Town, otherwise the property owners should select their own service company and pay for services rendered directly. Mr. Coughlin agreed that this was the previously agreed to procedure. Suez is first responder for all service calls. Chairman Baldwin asked if Suez holds a contract to perform these services? Mr. Davis explained that the repair work was bid previously, but he was uncertain on the current status of a contract for services. There was general discussion on the current response procedure. Mr. Papa asked to be clear, what calls should they be responding to? It was agreed to continue as-is, with Suez serving as the first responder. b. Grinder Pump Conversions Strategy: Chairman Baldwin asked with all the services calls, should not the conversion program be accelerated? Mr. Davis noted that in the past the quantity of conversions was constrained by funds available to purchase new pumps, usually uncertain until the close of each fiscal year. Brian Joyce stated he is waiting on specs from Dan Coughlin, and once he receives the information they are ready to put out to bid purchase of all remaining pumps for Cohasset Board of Sewer Commissioners Page 2 conversions. Chairman Baldwin stated the goal is to have all remaining approximately one hundred eighty (180) conversions completed over the next (4)years. The Commission has the funds to ac- celerate the program from retained earnings as Town Meeting has approved previously. General discussion on the transfer of pump ownership to property owners. Mr. Dan Coughlin re- called Town Counsel advised that they couldn't do it before the betterment program (which was 20 years) ended. He recommended confirming with Town Counsel as there will likely need to be a for- mal release. Mr. Sawchuk asked if there might be merit in continuing to service all pumps after 2020 rather than leaving residents to fend for themselves? Chairman Baldwin stated this would be contrary to the policy of past Boards to seek an exit from maintaining pumps for residents as soon as possible since it requires much resources and is a variable expense difficult to estimate. A service program might be extended to all ratepayers including those that purchased their own pumps under a quarterly charge. It was agreed to revisit this matter in the future. Chairman Baldwin asked Rosano-Davis for a list of E-1 conversions completed to date to confirm against the Board's master database. Mr. Davis said he will get information together and forward to the Board. C. Retaining Wall at Cohasset Middle High School: Dan Coughlin distributed an estimate from laria Bros. for the additional work. Motion by Chairman Baldwin to approve the estimate from laria Bros.for additional work as discussed,seconded by Mr. Sawchuk and the vote was unani- mous. Mr. Coughlin will coordinate the work with Scott Papa. d. Infiltration & Inflow Repairs RFP: no discussion e. Manhole Covers Replacement: no discussion 4. New Business a. Citizen's Petition—King Street(attorney Richard Henderson): Neither proponent or counsel attended the meeting. b. Abatement Request—734 Jerusalem Road (Hackett): approved unanimously and signed for processing. C. Abatement Request—48 Howe Road (Rosano): approved unanimously and signed for pro- cessing. d. New Connection Request—Map 10/Plot 3 Linden Drive (Milligan): Chairman Baldwin distrib- uted copies of an e-mail message dated 2/10/16 from Nancy Milligan asking several questions which were discussed, as follows. i. "when was north Cohasset sewer expanded?"—No expansion of the sewer district has occurred since the completion of the Little Harbor project in 2012. Town Meeting ap- proval is required to expand the district. In response to a recent significant rate increase from the Town of Hull to process a portion of the wastewater generated in Cohasset, a pilot program was put in place to divert a portion of the flow sent to Hull for processing to Cohasset's wastewater treatment facility for processing. Final decision to make the diversion permanent was made at the Board's meeting on 1/19/16. Cohasset Board of Sewer Commissioners Page 3 ii. "record of these conversations leading up to the decision to expand"—Following the re- cent leave of absence of the Board's administrator, meeting minutes prior to 12/19/15 have not yet been prepared or approved. Those that have been are available to the public on the Town's web page. iii. "Have there been properties permitted to connect? And if so, which ones"—Per Massa- chusetts General Law and supporting case law, properties that abut a sewer main and meet all other requirements for a building permit shall be granted connections to a sewer system with capacity to accommodate such connections. Sewer connections have been granted since the first sewer main installation in the 1970's and continue to- day as they are requested and approved. iv. "Is the commission adhering to the original list?"—A list has been maintained of re- quests for sewer connections. Unfortunately, it was recently discovered that it has been some time since it was last updated. A number of these properties were connected, and some have been withdrawn since the previous update. We are in the process of updating the list to current conditions which will be available for public use as soon as possible. V. "how was the public informed of this change?"—Several recent connections have been approved over the past several months that have been on the connection request list. Because of sufficient capacity, it has been unnecessary to withhold these requests to follow any order of list. The Board has always considered it the responsibility of each property holder to inquire on the status of its connection request. e. Abatement Request—544 Jerusalem Road (Kracunas): Chairman Baldwin distributed copies of an e-mail message dated 2/17/16 from Dan Coughlin of CES. It was agreed unanimously to proceed with the recommended course of action. f. Sewer Connection Sign-off—25 Mohawk Way(Barry): Chairman Baldwin reviewed the docu- mentation, review, and approvals in place for this connection, and noted that the normal process was not followed. It was agreed a request should be made to the drainlayer to attend the next meeting to discuss the situation. g. Sewer Connections in Progress: Chairman Baldwin distributed a spreadsheet titled Sewer Connection in Progress dated 2/24/16 to track all connections and their status. He suggested the Board use it going forward to properly track connections. The Commission discussed the spread- sheet and missing information. Chairman Baldwin will forward to Dan Coughlin. h. Requested Senior Discount on Sewer Charges: Chairman Baldwin stated he received a phone call from George Littlejohn of 103 Black Rock Road requesting a senior discount on sewer charges as well as general use discount for outdoor irrigation for all ratepayers. There was general discus- sion on these matters. There is no current discount provided to seniors for water or sewer usage charges. There is a program available to defer payment of charges until transfer of property title. Unfortunately,the revenue lost by granting all ratepayers a discount for outdoor irrigation would have to be made up by a rate increase. i. GE Zenon Invoice: Mr. Coughlin stated this is billing in advance which the contract calls for. The invoice is for a Zenon track system. Motion by Mr. Sawchuk to approve the invoice,seconded Cohasset Board of Sewer Commissioners Page 4 by Mr. McGowan and the vote was unanimous. Mr. Coughlin stated he is making progress on get- ting information on the other outstanding invoices. j. Extension for Sewer Connection Fee: Chairman Baldwin distributed a letter from Olivia Mason dated 2/21/16 requesting an extension of sixty(60) days to submit the sewer connection fee for properties Map 8/Plot 36 and Map 8/37. Motion by Mr. Sawchuk to approve the extension, se- conded by Mr. McGowan,and the vote was(2-0), Mr. Baldwin abstaining. 5. Old Business a. Plan of Study Final Draft: k. GHD Additional Services Proposals: Motion by Mr. McGowan to adjourn, seconded by Mr. Sawchuk and the vote was unanimous(3-0). The meeting adjourned at 7:14 p.m. Documents Distributed and Reviewed: Meeting Minutes 2/2/16 and 2/4/16 Suez January 2016 report Grinder Pump Work Log date 1/27/16 544 Jerusalem e-mail message Sewer Connections in Progress dated 2/24/16 Letter from Olivia Mason dated 2/21/16 Cohasset Board of Sewer Commissioners Page 5