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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - WC - 09/04/2014 a Cohasset Water _ D E P A R T M E N T Commissioners ° Leonora C. Jenkins an or,Ass��� ` �(J?51712� M1 Daniel M. Varney Rolf N. Gjesteby Minutes of the Cohasset Board of Water Commissioners es 339 King Street— Water Treatment Plant September 4, 2014 @ 10:00am Members Present: Leonora Jenkins, Clerk Daniel Varney Rolf Gjesteby Recording Secretary: Brenda Douglas Guests Present: Carl Hillstrom, Kevin McCarthy, Mary Gallagher, Karen Quigley, Chris Senior, Paul Roux Motion made by Lee seconded by Rolf to call the meeting to order at 10:00 am all in favor Abatements Douglas & Karen Ellinger 91 Pleasant Street were granted an abatement of$197.22 for an over usage charge on the 8/1/14 billing. Ellen Winn 92 Ledge Way was granted an abatement of$15 8.41 for high consumption. Michael Bergan 164 Pond Street was denied abatement due to the fact that the board felt that it should be the responsibility of the irrigation company that put the system in. If they in fact caused the heads to stay up and let water run out then the owner should go after the company for compensation. Roof Repair—Dan stated the roof needs to be replaced. Lee stated and Mary Gallagher agreed that there are no monies to replace the entire roof at this time. Lee indicated that there are no monies due to several facts: the Water Department has reduced rates for the town and school to a flat rate of$1.27 which saves those entities approx $70K/yr., also CWD forgave monies that were due from the town(esp the pond) and the schools and the town has only paid $247K for the last few years of the agreed $300K per the WPG for hydrants. Karen stated that Chris has made it clear that the past is the past and we should just move forward and not look back to the receivables from the town. Karen suggested maybe having another rate study done. 339 King Street, Cohasset, Massachusetts 02025 Tel: (781) 383-0057 Fax: (781) 383-2906 www.cohassetwater.org MOR Carl reported that the plant has been running smooth all summer. There was a leak in raw water feed system upstairs. Repair was done and the valve was not opened up completely. This was corrected after 3 days. Karen, Kevin, Chris and Mary requested to be put on the distribution list for the MOR. Report is available at the Water Treatment Plant if anyone wishes to review. James Lane Project Rolf feels that the Water Commission is being ignored, as the Planning Board has gone ahead and approved the plans. Chris stated that the town is looking into a new way of permitting and have it done in one department. They have looked and researched other towns. Lee stated that she she thought those plans were in the works and no matter,. CWD should be in the loop with other boards. Karen suggested having a meeting with all the boards and come up with a way to communicate with each other. Lee indicated that a few months ago being copied on emails worked. Financials Chris explained that with the rate reduction and the increased debt has put the current budget in anegative revenue position of($295,600). This being the case the state will not certify the town tax rate. Chris stated that to fix this problem it will be a 2 step process. Chris does not think that raising rates at this time is a good idea. Lee wanted to know why there should be no change in fees, as for the last few months the board was looking at inserting a charge for multi units with one meter. Chris stated that the board needs to cut the budget. There are a couple of ways to approach this. Lee asked Chris about paying the back hydrant fees. Chris stated that they are looking to pay the FY14 and look to increase for FYI -taking $106K from the deficit the doing a paper transfer for the FYI deficit of$31K+ leaving the department to come up with about$158K. Chris stated that there is $247,000 in Capital Stabilization fund that can be used to pay some of the debt, in conjunction with reduction in spending. Lee stated that the board would have to meet again to review all options. Karen then brought up the fact that rate payers were promised that as the debt rolls off that the capital recovery charge will be reduced. Lee corrected her by clarifying that the debt service would not be reduced to below the low point of FYI until FYI so it would be harmful and inaccurate to publicly make such comments out of context. Chris stated that the warrants for town meeting need to be put together by the end of the month. Lee then asked Chris about the RFP. She wants to get it done and out by the end of the year. She also wanted to know if there was still was interest in having the Water and Sewer departments combined in some way so that they can be overseen by the Town Engineer and possibly have the same contractor to run both. She asked Chris again to but together a meeting with him, Selectman, Sewer and Water Chairs and the Town Engineer to discuss this topic. Lee asked if the milfoil grant went thru yet. Chris stated that this administration will not approve but it will have to be advocated for. 339 King Street, Cohasset, Massachusetts 02025 Tel: (781) 383-0057 Fax: (781)383-2906 www.cohassetwater.org Lee stated that now that the sludge is being processed in house the Water Department will be saving monies on that line item. Paul stated that we have brought the transferring in house now. Lee indicated that she wrote to and thanked the teacher who coordinated the raingardens. She told the teacher that she would be willing to send letter of recommendation for anyone interested. Karen stated that when the raingardens were initially put in they were told not to maintain them and that we should be doing a lot more because there were bad feelings with the homeowners. Lee did not remember any such recommendations and she indicated that while she was President of the Community Garden Club outreach was conducted to the homeowners to assist in maintaining the raingardens in front of their properties. Lee noted that even though the health agent has stated that all the septic in the watershed between the reservoir and Lily Pond were Title V, she feels that there are many issues with old septic systems and cesspool along the pond &reservoir. At a recent Planning Board meeting it was disclosed that two cesspool were given permits to be replaced during major renovations. The nutrient overload in the pond is an ongoing problem that should be addressed with the sewer expansion study. Town Pool The board received a letter from Diana Karcher, Cohasset Swim Center Trustee. She is requesting some relief from the water bill. The board was supplied with the usage records and Brenda explained to the board how we had them downsize their meter from 2"to 1 1/z" saving them $1,420.00 a year. Dan stated he does not feel that we have any monies to give a reduced rate or any type of a break at this point. Lee thought that the usage might reflect that they have some sort of leak. I will put together a letter to Mrs. Karcher with Lee's name and have her review. Warrants Warrants were signed and approved by the board. Lee noticed that the department had purchased leak detection equipment. She asked Paul if we were taking this in house. Paul and Carl stated that the state mandates that it is done privately. In the meantime Paul explained that we can be proactive and be seeking out possible leaks. Motion made by Dan to adjourn meeting 2nd by Rolf. Meeting adjourned at 12:02 pm. Respectfully Submitted, Brenda Douglas, Recording Secretary Approved By: ` �� Date: /e. z A Gf y Rolf Gjesteby,Clerk Cohasset Board of Water Commissioners 339 King Street, Cohasset, Massachusetts 02025 Tel: (781) 383-0057 Fax: (781) 383-2906 www.cohassetwater.org