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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - SC - 11/30/2018 �a TOWN OF COHASSET r ` Sewer Commission 41 Highland Avenue Cohasset, MA 02025 a'«r, �7 1 781-383-4100 x5114 0 o Date: November 30, 2018 Time: 11:00 am Place: Cohasset Town Hall Basement Attendees: William McGowan John Beck Wayne Sawchuk Dan Coughlin John Marcin Scott Papa Next Meeting: 4pm on Wed. December 5t"at Willcutt Commons Emergency overflow system discussions, discussion to create SOP for implementing emergency overflow system. Coughlin: infiltration has been high recently and inflow could be coming from any number of leaks in the system. Beck: where are we with manholes? Coughlin: we're trying to get the money from FEMA. Beck:this manhole project needs to be done right away. Coughlin: we've gone back and forth with FEMA multiple times this year. Sawchuk: was the plan updated following the January storm? Coughlin: if we can clearly establish losses, we can make the case to FEMA, it's helpful to have paperwork to help us meet their criteria. Sawchuk: it's too bad we can't identify specific certain areas where the water is coming in. Coughlin: we've identified some areas and we have plans to mitigate that inflow but FEMA will not reimburse after the fact if we go forward with repairs. Sawchuk: we need a better way to qualify different areas that are leaking. Beck: we need to be sure to document losses due to waiting for FEMA to approve plan. Coughlin: it has been a year and half of back and forth with FEMA trying to get it approved. �a TOWN OF COHASSET r ` Sewer Commission 41 Highland Avenue Cohasset, MA 02025 a'COhA55FT 7 781-383-4100 x5114 0 Leary: one of the problems with getting approval is that Cohasset does not have a hazard mitigation plan, it has a fixed deadline in June (we think). Sawchuk: are there about 10 or 20 manhole covers that are really the worst that we could fix now? Coughlin: yes there are about 20 that it would make sense to go ahead and do now that are literally in the marsh. McGowan: are there any systems in the plant that is in potential jeopardy due to increased volume? Papa:the membranes are getting very tired. McGowan: are the membranes due for another cleaning, maybe we could get one done in the summer. Marcin: we need to think about what we should be doing over the next thirty days in terms of going into training mode for the new operators. Papa: cleaning the membranes on side one will have very little effect. Marcin: getting that small number of manholes fixed will greatly improve the situation. Leary: can we vote to fix those manholes? McGowan: we need to know which ones are the critical ones. Coughlin: we can take that from an existing plan so those will be fairly easy to identify. Marcin: are we talking about transitioning today? McGowan: we can't talk about that today because we haven't finalized the contract. Marcin: is Dec. 315t the scheduled end date? I'm going to start moving forward with closing accounts and moving personnel. Beck: if we need people to help with training after that date will you have that available? Marcin:You can't tell us on Dec 30tn McGowan: we will let you know. Marcin:there has been no communication. Sawchuk:there's a lot to do in a short period of time and we need to finalize the agreement. Leary: question regarding invoicing, are we getting all the invoices that we need to get. Marcin:there is a service fee adjustment outstanding from 2018, $47,000 which is the CPI adjustment for this year that never got resolved. Sawchuk:that's a single payment for the year? �a TOWN OF COHASSET r ` Sewer Commission 41 Highland Avenue Cohasset, MA 02025 a'«r, �7 1 781-383-4100 x5114 0 o Marcin: it should have been over the whole year but yes.There's also two payments of$5081 that's outstanding. Leary:those were short because there were supposed to be three operators at the plant. Marcin:there is language in the contract to dispute fees. We brought in someone to cover for Jeff, he was out 8 weeks. Beck: are we in agreement about the figure for the cost of living adjustment? Marcin: we have not received a fee increase for 2018.The CPI adjustment that was supposed to go into effect Jan 2018 never did. New Contract Discussions: Coughlin: past contracts we've always used the values allowed by the design and the permits. W&C is probably looking to establish a baseline. If you increase the organic loads and solid loads those increase costs. What if flow goes up, what if TSS goes up. Have those things defined.Those influent values can vary a lot based on sampling methods. Beck: so we should have the contract say that we'll use the most current values? Coughlin: The annual average should be the value. Beck: a preceding annual average. Coughlin: we should look at what components are going into their adjustments. Beck: hasn't it always been flow? Coughlin: generally but TSS and VOD go into the calculation. Beck: so why don't we just make it based solely on flow. Leary:to clarify,we are saying that we want the 10%average based on flow only and we're increasing our baseline of flow to 337. Beck: if the arc testing is not mandated then it should be at the discretion of the board Coughlin: is WC doing an energy audit? Beck: yes. Sawchuk:the blowers use the most energy of anything else at the plant. Sawchuk: we should look at the contract and makes sure that Suez is running the plant fully up until the end of December and have training start before Jan V. �a TOWN OF COHASSET r ` Sewer Commission ; = 41 Highland Avenue Cohasset, MA 02025 a'«f' �7 1 781-383-4100 x5114 0 o Leary: we need to talk about how much the grinder pumps are costing with Rosano-Davis,they are costing too much money. McGowan, I think we should have Paul Davis come in to talk about this. McGowan motions to adjourn the meeting at 1:30, Beck seconds, unanimous.