10.11.2023 Watuppa Water Board

okay we're reaching the appointed hour um we'll call this meeting into session uh would the clerk call the role please president terum here member Ferrera here member Collins here thank okay pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions

are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and deemed acknowledged and permissible uh first item on our agenda is citizen input I do not see any citizen input we will move to item number two the minutes of previous meetings um as you recall we um skipped the June 15th and the July 13th me uh minutes if you'd like to take a minute to review them the chair would entertain that and if there are no

questions comments adjustments or omissions the chair would entertain a motion first to um accept the minutes of the June 15th meeting so moved motion made seconded all in favor I um and a motion for the July 13th minutes motion is made seconded all in favor all thank you we are now proceeding at light speed to proposed leak abatements uh turn this over to the clerk um is there anything that we

should discuss most of them look pretty straightforward yeah there was no he raising ones through here there was some denials um based on uh not meeting the uh requirements of the leak of batement policy uh other than that uh all the ones proposed were uh compliant with the leak of payment policy in the uh amounts shown once again it's toilets I we cannot stress strongly enough how

important it is to watch toilet leaks float valves Etc um the chair would entertain a motion to accept the uh abatements as submitted to us for this month in the amount of now total uh of $1,142 24 motion approve as listed we have a motion to approve second all in favor I I so move moving along to lead service design cont excuse me ex lead service design contract Woodward and curent Mr

Clark uh so in the packet provided to you uh and I know on the agenda there uh hyphens in front of all the numbers on this agenda but those are just hyphens not a negative sign so I don't want anybody to be confused um so uh this is contract for $350,000 for Woodward and current um to design uh Leed Service uh removal contracts for uh the next F fiscal year uh we're expecting two contracts

of uh roughly 350 to 400 Services each contract uh a large amount of uh inspections are required uh due to unknowns throughout the city uh and uh verifications that need to be done um so this is uh the contract with W would current to be able to do that design uh my hope is uh we're currently under uh we're currently under construction in the Leed Service uh contract with ad

Pini uh the contract is going very good uh both from a design standpoint and also working with the contractor um they are slated for 500 this this year uh they're on target uh and they're moving forward um so this will get us in line to be able to rule right out with a contract U my hope is to be able to have one of these contract to be able to bid

uh the end of November uh so that they'll be able to start December 1st because as per our acop we have to remove 600 next calendar year yes um and then also a secondary contract would be coming out probably towards the end of first quarter uh of the calendar year uh to be able to uh get a second contractor on board to also do additional wood service replacement next calendar year and these um these contracts are

calendar year to calendar year uh the requirements of the ACO of the ACL that's right calendar year to calendar year well we're doing what we told them we would do and yeah we're right on track so far this year we're at about 300 for this calendar year um and uh they're pushing forward with two to three a day I would amend your statement and say that we're doing what they told us to

do all I I I stand corrected thank you thank you commissioner Collins I I agree they told us to do it we did not tell them you are so right my friend um all right um we would expect to see this contract before the board next month uh so yeah this this is the contract for design again I plan to bid probably the uh probably November time frame okay bid would go out I would

imagine the board will see a contract for construction in December time frame all right excellent excellent um I now you want to vote to approve the uh contract amount of $350,000 is that how you would like to put this y not to exceed 350 or 350 uh yeah not to exceed not to exceed 350 the chair would entertain a motion to um go ahead with a lead service design contract to Woodward and Cur for an

amount not to exceed $350,000 so moved second all in favor I I and just a note on that too that is all going to be paid for with a uh win grant that we received from the US EPA so it will not cost our rate pay as anything so even more important item number five lead service leak rebate program now this is a leak rebate just for emergency uh service leaks that

occur yeah so um I was in front of council recently uh with a uh homeowner um that had a leak on the lead service in the house um it was in between the curb stop in the house house uh historically uh the by ordinance a homeowner is responsible for their water service from the main all the way into the meter so the main underneath the asphalt underneath the sidewalk underneath their front lawn all the way

into the meter um that's what ordinance States historically the water department has maintained from the water main to the curb stop the homeowner has always been responsible which is near the property line the homeowner has has always been responsible from that curb stop near the property line all the way into the meter on their house the um current lead Service uh abatement program that we have in place uh is for

$500 um that was upgraded from the $100 when it was originally implemented in 2005 um neath the 2005 acop um that covers a very very small portion of any type of blet service um work that's being done uh under so this program here would only be for emergency replacement so as it stands right now we have a contractor under contract somebody calls us up says I have a lead service in my house I want

to get it replaced right now we're able to have our contractor schedule that house within the next 3 to four weeks to be able to get that lead service replaced the problem where we have an issue is where somebody has a leak on their lead service in between the curb stop in the house um if we're able to we have our contractor go there currently and we've done this on a couple of

houses uh where we bypass temporarily bypass from the next door house to their house to provide them Water Service uh until the contract is able to get them scheduled in um sometimes that can't happen know at night or on a weekend or something like that uh and a homeowner needs to call in a private contractor to be able to do work on their private property uh water department staff we

will not go on go on private property to repair or replace the service um we will take care of the street portion again from the main to the curb stop but we won't go on to a private property so we require the private homeowner uh to hire a a contractor this policy as it provides would be able to provide a rebate uh on the customer bill uh in the amount up to3

,000 uh and would be able to uh be used to offset the cost that they would have to pay for there uh for that repair uh from the curb stop uh into the house um you know again there's a couple ways to look at this the leak whether it's copper plastic lead uh is the customer's responsibility but again since we have uh Federal funding and different uh programs in place right now um to to be

able to provide a rebate for those that are getting the lead out uh which is essentially what we're trying to do um this helps ENT incentivize those people that have a weak on their service uh helps them get the lead out of it um again this would be an emergency basis only so somebody has a leak in the on their property from the curb stop into the house or in the basement next to the

meter they call up the water department hey I got a leak of my water service we go out there we determine there's a leak we determine that it's a LED Service uh and we don't have we're not able to get our contractor to go over to make the repair uh we uh will tell them you have to call a licensed drain layer from the drain layer list and then there's a

process to go through here um which will make them eligible to be able to get that up up to $33,000 credit on their uh on that bill um you know I've met and they feel that uh the uh Financial team feels that we'll be able to use uh arpa funding for reimbursement of this because it's a rebate uh for work that's done so they feel that uh it's not going to cost our rate payers uh again

this policy be put into effect re retroactively till when the acop was signed uh which was November of 2022 uh so that those uh people are eligible and you the 3,000 assuming it went that high would appear as a credit on the water portion of the account correct and we're working with the financial team so we don't take the cash influx in one fiscal year because we're a cash actual basis we're working with

them so that it trick moving over a 3 to four year period prior to 2026 just have one question um putting a credit versus uh versus a rebate um it could take you quite a while to use up a $3,000 credit on the water side yeah well again that's where it's set up as it'll be water sewer it'll be and again yeah it may take so you could apply it on both yeah yeah it

would be applied it would be applied to the utility bill they they can use it past 2026 right because it will right so my girls shower four times a day I think and me a while to get through this so yeah yeah no it it it will you know again we're looking over uh to apply that full $3,000 prior to the 2026 uh deadline will so will be applied to the

account prior to that uh if it's all not used up in a year it'll sit on the account until it's fully used up the program itself on our side the funding for it would expire in 2026 and we would have to go look for funding for this to continue elsewhere past 2026 yes but when do we have to have all the lead sewer lead Services completed uh so we have 400 this calendar year 600 next

calendar year uh 600 in 2025 and then 400 every year after until they're all removed okay I expect we're going to I expect worst case scenario we're probably looking at 6 years okay at which time it will be time to start painting water to again there are other Capital Improvements that aren needed yet throughout this time too all right well very interesting um we're looking for a straight approval on this

okay the chair would entertain a motion to approve the lead service leak rebate program as submitted so moved is there language in here that that makes it retroactive do we need to add those particular items or I actually yeah if you would like to add that to the motion that would be good make it retroactive to when the um acop was signed with d okay so okay so a date for that uh November 7th 20

2022 retroactive to 11722 yes and then um I suppose if we if um if everyone else agrees or if they'd like to discuss uh that we in 2026 uh review the program in that we we would not have the funding in 2026 from to so so in 202 in so just in the motion if you want to include in 2026 that a review of the program be done uh to to assess so so

the board at that time assesses whether whether we have funding to continue with the program or we need to go look under a rock for it somewhere yeah because we may not need it going for we may not need it or or we may not have the money for it so okay so so that it gets brought nobody knows if any of the four of us will be here in 2026 so the motion

should uh should inail um the proposed lead service leak repair rebate program retroactive to November 7th of 2022 and to be reviewed in 2026 to see if there was a need to uh further the pram funding yeah all right do we have that in the motion thank you um let's take a vote on that though as as amended absolutely um motion is made second second all in favor I I thank you thank you V very much

okay fluoride and drinking water I will turn this over entirely to excellent thank you very much so um first we'll have a little bit of discussion on FL I think most of the board members have received uh uh some emails from people uh so let's just let me just do a little recap where we are uh what's happened and um you know where we're going so in 2019 we had an issue

with uh obtaining fluoride that works within our feed system uh so the fluoride uh that we're receiving uh was coming in in uh different texture than it did pre yeah previously so we used to get it it was almost like sand uh then we were getting it it was like a flower consistency that was clogging up our volumetric Feer that we used to be able to feed the uh fluoride into a drinking

water system so we went through um the uh director of treatment and resources at the time uh did an excellent job job um scouring the country scouring you know Europe China trying to find a supplier that would be able to supply us what were uh the big issue was uh the uh come to find out the manufacturer that was manufacturing our was originally from China their plant uh caught on fire

and was shut down uh wasn't rebuilt um so we were getting it from a different uh it was being coming to us from our Distributors through different suppliers at that point uh we tried multiple different types of product um from different uh other Distributors uh with no luck uh we tried modifying our own uh system in house um and uh adding uh adding vibrators to it uh manual agitation air agitation multiple

different uh things to try to uh get our volumetric feeter to be able able to constantly uh provide with the volume that was needed uh and we were unable to do that uh so we then again made the determination to uh shut down the uh shut down the fluoride and we've had some discussions about this in the past um you know we looked at it and you know uh kind of

have two options at that point that we need to upgrade our uh our systems with you know Capital Improvement into our systems uh or disc continue the use of fluoride fluoride is not a uh mandated uh chemical for the drinking water system uh it's one that people that claims to have health benefits to uh to the population and over time they've said especially EJ communities is a benefit too so

uh this is really under the guidance of the Board of Health uh so fluoride all our reports go to the State Department of Health um the uh and to be able to discontinue fluoride uh what needed what would need to be done would it would need to go to the Board of Health uh the Board of Health would then need to make a recommendation to the city council uh the city council then need to take a

vote for it to go up to uh go up to the state to be approved for discontinuance of fluide um other communities have done it uh in Massachusetts and other states um I went to our border of health and laid out the issues that we were talking about uh a million to a million a half dollar uh Capital upgrade needed uh at our waste at our water treatment facility um and or

discontinuance um the Board of Health was adamantly against uh discontinuance of the of fluoride and was really wondering how quickly we could get the fluoride back up and running uh at that point without a funding source or uh or anything else uh we weren't able to move forward uh I worked with uh test cover from the Board of Health uh as well as the administration and we've been able to uh

secure funding through arpa u in the amount of 1.28 million uh which was the estimated cost from uh the initial study that was done um to be able to uh upgrade uh all our fluoride and related to systems that need to be upgraded down at our water treatment plant uh some of the recent uh correspondents that uh has come in I've received some calls and there's been some emails sent um from

people that against the use of Florida uh adding fluoride to the water um you know and and there's a pro and con side to uh there's a for side and and against side on fluoride and I think there has been for years um again uh I don't think it's really up to this board um whether we add fluoride or we don't add Flor right cuz we're not trained I'm not a trained health

professional I can't make that determination you know so that's why we leave that up to the Board of Health uh it is our job um they're ordering us to continue the use of floration uh that's what we need to uh need to facility is there a savings to the rate payer if you don't provide fluoride in the water so if we don't provide fluoride uh sorry it is um would there be a savings uh yes what

that amounts to cuz rate payers do pay for all the chemicals that go into to our water uh 100% um as I said the capital cost upgraded and needed to uh uh invest in the capital upgrade uh that is provided by the OPA funds but there is no um you know so there is no increase to the rate payer for that um we always have uh added fluoride uh I can say

probably about 3 to four years ago we budgeted about $40,000 for uh a year for the fluoride that we were getting um in most recent years uh the bids have come back although they haven't been able to provide us the product uh at at $130 to $140 uh, a year um so substantial increase uh but that's for sodium sodium silica fluoride um when we went through our initial uh when I had uh right P to the

initial study on the florid Nation there's really three types of FL that you can use sodium silic fluide uh fluidic acid and uh the third one uh skips my mind uh but through our evaluation we realized that fuic acid would probably be the best route for us to go uh a the lowest capital c uh the lowest uh annual cost per a year um and uh the capital cost was uh was a bit more because you're

dealing with a liquid and it's it's an acidic liquid uh so some of the uh some of the stuff needed to be but again um it it's safe um I I've had them uh they talk to multiple systems that do use that product and the systems are happy with the product um the the annual cost for chemical uh is estimated to be uh the same that we used to pay or

less so you're saying the same we used to pay in the $40,000 range yep so um again there is a cost to adding to adding this chemical uh there always has been a cost uh so I personally am in favor of returning to adding fluoride into the water um and I base that solely upon that when Fall River was adding fluoride to its drinking water our neighboring city of

New edford was not at that time and the difference in uh the difference was actually reimbursed back to the city by the P um by the welfare department because they were paying less for U Children's dental work and the fluide reimbursement was based upon the uh the fact that fluide uh was believed to add um stronger Dental Health in in children that's I'm still I've never heard anything other than that but again as

you said it's not up to us um it it it's up to the Public Health Board who are charged with that oversight if they feel that it's a good thing I'm I'm in favor of it so um if there are any other discussion I'm certainly open to hearing that but uh if not I'd like to get a vote um to proceed um with um what it's going to take with uh a design contractor right

Pierce um in an amount not to exceed $200,000 uh to come from arra funding I'm just going to ask uh I'm assuming that the uh the design phase is also included in the fund yes yes so uh the 1.28 million that was awarded for oper is for design construction construction management based on the estimates that were provided uh on the initial uh on the initial uh study um you know construction prices are sometimes all

over the place but I think we're pretty confident that we'll be able to do this there was a lot you know so there's work on the floor system and there was a lot of uh additional backup work of uh upgrading our PLC so that it would work with the new fluoride system and some of that stuff that's also included within this contract I would make a motion to approve so moved all in favor I I okay

thank you uh okay theed service map presentation is so let me see whether this works up on the screen um this is a little bit of a preview it's something that I actually already wanted to have out to the public already uh haven't been able to get it out but I wanted to get it out to the board uh here at least I plan on doing a large um press release

and a big notice to try to get uh people uh to be able to use this site um this is a site that was developed uh through our ongoing Leed Service uh replacement program that uh allows a customer uh this will be on the city's web page a link to it uh allows the customer to come in uh to this site uh gives them a little bit of in information about the

program that we already have um kind of what a service is uh this is a little picture that we have water service um going into the house um you know what are what are we doing to help to you know when we talked about the replacement program that we have underway this is really to help us try to find uh out what service material is going into the houses uh our records our

cards indicate um the service material typically from the main to the curb stop it doesn't say that from there into the house is copper or it is lead or it's something else um underneath the new guidelines uh of the uh lead copper uh revised replacement um law uh if you can't specifically know what the material is then it's what's called an unknown and there's unn possibly containing lead unknown not containing

lead uh so anything with a house built after 1987 could be an unknown non-containing lead anything prior to that could be an unknown uh possibly containing lead um so we have a large number of unknowns uh starting the end of 2024 all of those unknowns under the revised Le and coer Rule uh all the those unknowns that possibly lad need to be counted as lead services so the more that we can figure

out what type of material is coming into somebody's basement the more that it is going to help us knock down and chisel down that list that'll also help us ident you know narrow down the amount of work that uh that we have to do um you know we've been hammering with uh with inspectors uh so we're reaching out to people in multiple different ways we're doing hand delivered thing hand

delivered uh notification to contact us uh we're doing mailings a a contractor is doing mailings uh to get notification from customers um we're having our staff in the water water uh Department office uh call homes from 400 to 7 at night um we have the some of the clerk staying to be able to personally call to try to schedule appointments uh we have uh inspectors that are uh our staff is

working uh Monday Wednesday uh doing inspections we have other inspectors that are working other days of the week uh we're just starting with uh night inspections from 4: to 7:00 at night uh and then also Saturday we're starting to schedule Saturday inspections so um we're trying to make it as easy for the customer for us to come in for 10 to 15 minute period look in their basement see

what type of material is in their basement this is one thing that's really going to help uh a customer try to understand whether they have a LED service or not so this is uh an interactive map where the customer will be able to go uh and zoom in and go right to her property wow so this is all the services for all of these houses so if I want to look for a specific service

I could go right in here zoom in and this is 5 568 568 weedo street so it has this circle in front of it with a line down the center and it's blue on both sides so what does that mean if I come over here and I scroll down a little bit this helps explain what that is so there's that Circle that they see in front of their house with a line through

the center the left hand side of that circle is the material on the street side whatever color corresponds to this whether it's lead galvanized unknown uh unknown definitely does not contain lead or non Le the right hand side of the circle is a house side that will again may be a different color so on this particular property where we just were scroll back up blue both sides 686 weedo Street blue

both sides so we know that that's copper or plastic that is a non-led service so that's good so let's look at oh yes so we'll be here by 40 we Street maybe this person is watching they may be and I and I would love for them to contact us to be able to go in so we can do an inspection um but this house they see that they have a

blue side which is non-led um and it's known uh and then we have a red side which red is lead is lead so from our records what we have on record uh means that from the curb stop uh into their house is a LED service if that is a ledge service then they are eligible right now underneath the program that we have to be able to get that Leed service replaced at no cost to

them so this map is really going to help us uh identify those Services multiple ways people may be able to come on to this map and say oh wow I have a LED service or I have unknown let me call the water department so that I can schedule an inspection have somebody come out take a look at it or also on this site there's ways uh right above this map um through the EPA protect your

TAP program or the mass DP service line identification tool where a customer could go and this will walk you right through the process on how to identify what the material of your service coming into your house is um so and then you can input your information your address your name your service material pictures you can put it right into there and it automatically comes to us so that we can

update it uh on our site this whole entire map links back to our asset management software so as our inspector goes out there does that inspection inputs the information right into our asset management software it automatically Updates this site so within a day or so the customer should see so if we were to go out to that property and say nope that's actually a copper service it must have been

replaced at some time where we don't have documentation for it then tomorrow if we do that we documented in our asset management software then tomorrow the other side of that Circle would be blue so if we go in and we find another one so 572 weedo Street you have this service here blue on one side gray on one side gray means that we don't know what the material type is uh so we don't

know if it's plastic we don't know if it's lead we don't know if it's copper so in 20124 all these gray dots up here will be assumed lead um by the revised lead and copper room um so being able to get a lot of this information uh figured out now is definitely going to help us in the future um as you scroll down this site too it gives you the uh it gives

you kind of the uh the key for the uh Maps uh then there's some basic information about our program uh M EP and EPA resources uh and some of the different uh notices and press releases that we've had out uh some information about water filters and stuff like that so this is really kind of a homepage for our lead program as we know it um this is a fully inter inter this will

will be available to all the public on the city web page uh able for uh any person in the public to be able to go and scan through uh and find that property uh upper left hand side there's a search function so if you don't want to know scre zoom in and stuff like that you can just come up to this buy Here type in your address and it'll automatically bring you to uh to your

street address and I think I just heard somebody say there's a lot of gray up there that's a lot of gray that is a lot of gray without a doubt um you know and we could have taken an easy approach and said all right well this side of the services copper that side is COA I'm just not comfortable doing that I I feel to be able to uh make sure that this

program is done and done correctly and that we get all the lead out of the system that we need to make sure that we uh do this properly and go through uh EPA audits communities all the time uh and it's typically on their inventory and how they develop their inventory um if EPA comes in and isn't satisfied with how you've done that then you're back to square one uh so taking short cuts at

this point uh I don't think is is the right thing to do um and we're going to be asking for all the residents help the property owners help to either help identify their own service or contact us for an inspection what a fantastic tool that's super cool yeah so developing this whole entire site and everything too uh again was provided uh with funding from a grant uh it was the L

pipe grant grant that we received from EPA I'll tell you having seen firsthand the pencil scribbles on the back of cards stuck in corners of cabinets up at maintenance in the old building this is fantastic sometimes just trying to read and understand a service whether it's water or sewer from from the80s is Hit or Miss sometimes yeah I I I can't speak directly for for for anything in the short term in

forever but in other towns that we work in I I'll get paperwork and and it's relatively new and and incorrect yeah wow no that looks awesome what a tool so again I just wanted to bring this to the board detention within the next couple of weeks we'll probably be rolling that out uh Citywide and uh try to put a real big press uh push on it to let people know that it's available for their use all

right we don't need to do anything uh other than um await that and move to item number eight Copa Rifle Association lease agreement um copicut Rifle Association has been a tenant of ours for quite some time and um this is the renewal of their uh lease agreement uh they will be paying a fee and the buy a license of $6,000 a year and um I don't see any change I'm sorry extra3 the

6,000 plus an additional 300 per oh I'm sorry I thank you thank you um yeah no you know what it was I was read reading that I was reading that that we were going up 300 no an additional 300 the license to agree is follows okay so there are no changes in the basic license agreement no the license agreement has stayed the same as the pass okay that's the 82 or

885 and then um it was reinserted into the bio Reserve in 2009 yep okay and this license agreement was kind of updated by three years ago um and uh that's what we've uh that's what we used uh it's been place for the past three three years this is uh what and if the board approves this uh if there's any uh minor clerical uh Corrections or notations made by the law

department they do uh I don't think it should come to the back to the board if there's any uh substantial um changes to the license agreement that it would come back to the V all right then um while we're talking about leases what's the deal with um uh the watera rowing Center y uh so the ruper rowing Center is fully up to date on their payments that are required uh

so they did uh make just saw the check come in a couple of days ago perfect I know they had a big Gala so I was we're going to get some money just just to know want to make sure there was a funding source before I asked the question but okay it just yeah just to know they do she's the property owner that knocks on the door at 3:45 oh I tell you 2

a.m. L the rent from lastek where's my $2 where's my $2 yeah just to note though there is a a balloon payment that this board uh AG to extend out in the P that is that is going to be coming due sometime soon okay so uh motion then back to cop yes motion to approve the lease renewal for the rifal ring the license I'm sorry uh license license renewal so uh second all in favor I

I okay we item number I'm only saying that cuz we haven't listed number nine the Wilson Road Pump Station bisco Building Systems uh looks like a change order in the amount of $ 53,486 3 Mr clerk yeah so uh this change order the uh actual amount was actually um was reduced from what was on the uh agenda it is 58,7 763 so the agenda should be reduced to 518 717 yep I do apologize not bringing

that out to your attention before but just as we rep this change order there was a issue with mockup so um this is uh originally during the Wilson Road project uh there was underneath the bridge that crosses uh Route 24 uh we have a water main that uh will feed that new uh water booster station um about two years ago uh section of that water M broke um we were able to isolate it we

knew this project was coming up uh within this project we put uh in there to replace about an 8ot section of that main uh that that runs underneath that bridge um once we were able to get once this project was underway we were able to get in there and inspect uh the main that crosses the whole entire Bridge um and uh it's the whole entire thing is in worse shap than originally anticipated

um originally this main should have been replaced but uh working with mass do when they rehab their Bridge a year ago uh we had initial discussions with them four years ago to do that um they left us off their project when they uh when they did did their project of rehabbing underneath the bridge um so uh now we're at this point where we we need to take care of our water mate uh we fully got

the permit from do uh this is to replace the pipe underneath the bridge all the way from a to a butman uh so this will F replace the pipe Crossing underneath that bridge uh that is probably from when the bridge was uh was put in back in the60s that's a long stretch 230 ft yeah yeah definitely uh definitely a big stretch uh again this is uh all night work uh shutting down Lanes of Route 24

uh so they can get lifts out in the roadway to get up underneath the bridge to be able to do it uh moving those Lane shutdowns Night by Night across the highway um to be able to uh complete this project within the specified am of time wow well okay again just traffic setups on the these things are uh are extremely difficult to deal with Route 24 all night work uh there is a mass do permit

uh that we need to uh follow and anticipate uh that was issued uh just uh just a little while ago uh so we don't expect any changes um from this unless is something that we're unable to see during our inspections funding to come from uh so this whole entire project if if you remember this project was fully funded from uh so part of the project is funded from sewer part of it's funded

from water uh we were able to get a $2.5 million Grant from Mass works for this project uh which opened up some of that initial funding uh that was slated from authorizations within the water uh so this will be coming uh from uh contingency within the mass Works Grant uh as well as uh water department authorizations that are in place no impact on the right pair uh the only impact would be the loan from

paying back uh that portion of it that's paid from the authorization that's in place gotcha okay so what we are looking to do is uh get approval for uh Pump Station water main replacement change order one in the amount of 518 71763 I motion made second all in favor I I thank you item number 10 serpent contract how are our friends at serent they are good um so uh this contract is uh for

it's in relation to a grant that we got uh so this past year we applied for a grant through the MVP program Municipal vulnerability preparedness program uh to do a firm yield study on our water supply um if you remember about four years ago three years ago we did a regional analysis to show how our community interconnects to other communities uh that may need water um what we really need to do uh is

figure out um with our current water supplies um being uh North wupa copaa uh and you know with South wupa being cleaned up and that available uh as it is one of our uh it is on our water registration um what that could yield um so this also comes at a crucial time uh where I think I mentioned to the board about the change in the Water Management act regulations uh which would require

uh energ any registered water supplier which we are we're not a permitted water supplier we're a registered water supplier um any registered water supplier that does not have two times their yearly yield in storage um must go into drought conditions when the state uh drought management board issues drug conditions so can I ask a question is storage in tanks or storage in the the the ponds so when you're

talking yield storage it's it's what's in the ponds okay thank you yep um so essentially that means we would have to have two times what we would use in a normal year available for our use in our store in our ponds um so that we wouldn't have to go and drought conditions when I did a quick calculation based off of the analysis that was done uh for our water management act permit back in uh

1986 um as well as uh yield studies that were done in 2011 by mass d uh I came up with about using just north wupa and Copa uh I came up with about 1.86 uh excuse me 1.96 which is under the two um as the board knows we are appealing this decision uh to the superior court of Massachusetts along with uh 15 other communities so that's that's all in flux you know what this

what this kind of all means to us so you take a year like not this past summer the summer before uh the state was in extreme drought conditions city of FL River we did not have any drought restrictions uh our supply of water was never uh in uh Peril because we have enough Supply it's managed properly with Copa and North wupa uh we never broke 36 in below full pond which isn't very bad for us

but if this regulation was in place at that time we would have had to put out uh watering restrictions uh all drought conservation that any other community around the state would have to do uh which on top of being not being good cuz people get upset about that uh it would also be a hit on our revenues yeah huge cut so uh what I hope this study helps us uh

show is that we have two times that safe yield um so kind of just and I say safe yield they they say you can't say safe anymore so firm yield um so uh that's what this grant through MVP was was originally applied to do uh surpet is going to be working with us to uh do some of the public Outreach uh some of the management of the grant some of uh uh the administrative things that are

required uh we're going to be getting a specialist on board um to be able to do the technical end of the evaluation of the yield studies um and we'll be moving forward with the uh procurement process of that uh but this is to get surpet on board so that we can start some of the uh project management some of the public involvement type things uh to be able to

uh work our way way through it and meet all the all of the grant uh requirements the contracts were 43,6 uh and again uh the grant is uh is through the MVP program uh there is a match that's provided by us which we do have available within our U current authorizations do you um require a vote to accept the um y so accept the uh accept the contract as unfiled I went a little bit

often explained a little bit about the whole entire project so that you understood uh what was behind the firm yield study assessment okay um then we need a motion to approve the serid contract for the regional water supply firm yield study so move second all in favor I next item uh correspondence from Mr Steven carski of 1532 Bedford Street um uh he has lodged a formal complaint uh of dirty sediment and filthy rusty

water from his location I thought he was tapped on Bedford uh he's tapped on ston Haven he's tapped on ston Haven so are we right the new building correct we're not getting any dirty water so my understanding is he's provided some uh water bottle samples to a city councilor and to you um have have we offered have we tried to do a third- party test of his property uh we

wouldn't do we we don't do tests at the Taps um you know he has provided bottles of water and different types of things to many different people throughout the community um uh some of those uh people that did receive it within you know the the uh structure of the city of Fall River uh did go and uh you know not from what they've told me they went uh to uh

see if they could go inside of his house see where the tap was that that dirty water came out out of uh he refused them entry to the house and said he wouldn't allow them to come in and see see it um so that's that's so far the uh the extent um again you know he has sent over uh a very you know and everything that he has sent has been a very uh

coagulated type of almost a flock of uh yeah of Rusty you know contaminants um something that you would pull out of uh your filter container when you when you're changing your filter and he uses and he's asking for the city to supply him with a coconut carbon micro gr filter we began supplying water filters string water um string type filters um when the rusty water problem back in the Lambert

administration had reached critical and we began giving these filters the filter the filter cartridges out to Residents and they have worked beautifully and I see no reason to change our filters nor do I see any reason to to purchase anything other than what we have been successfully using throughout the city that's my opinion but I've seen an awful lot of dirty water in my time and these filters have worked

beautifully um in addition to the fact that we pulled out almost 40 miles of tuberculated cast iron water M and continue to do so I M Mr Kowski um is familiar to the chair I get emails from him regarding climate change um but I I honestly and truly I don't see anything in this complaint that I I think needs to be acted upon if someone else does on all

ears but I mean we just you know and I had thought Mr Kowski was tapped on Bedford you corrected me he's tapped on ston Haven well with the new wash bays in the new building my gosh you're going to have far more water being run through that main than ever and if there was a tuberculation issue it would clear up that's my opinion yeah again so you know I wanted to take this opportunity just to let

people know uh what we do provide as the chair said uh for years we' provided uh 10 by uh 2 and a half string wound um filters like this one um any customer can pick them up up at the Water Maintenance building 1620 bed fit Street uh we've been doing it for a number of years we keep these in stock uh this is for a customer that may get uh you know lightly discolored water or something

like that if they have a filter cartridge in their basement uh we provide them uh with these uh with these replacement uh replacement cartridges for the

filter um I think what the chair would like to do is just make a motion to place on file say against to place on file we have a motion to place the correspondence on file moved second uh all in favor say I correspondence will be placed on file thank you very much okay um at this point we had discussed whether or not there is a need to go into executive session I'm going to ask

the clerk does he feel that we need to if we do um the chair would entertain a motion to go into an executive session um um so so these are just uh again one is discussion on a uh lease negotiation uh on is uh potential litigation uh that's the reason that I did place these with the PO poten why don't we go into executive session um and um uh the motion to go into executive

session should include the um whether or not the board will resume in Open session or will adjourn in executive session do you um I will ask the clerk do you feel that we can satisfy all the business in executive session and then adjourn an executive session or would you like us to return to open session I did leave one additional item uh that I feel should be in okay then what we will do is go into

executive session for items 12 13 and 14 to return from executive session into Open Session to handle uh agenda item number 15 um so we will uh go into executive session and then adjourn executive session and return in Open Session um could I have a motion to that motion made motion made seconded all in favor I I so the board is now an executive session and we have returned into Open Session um item number 15 water

department Staffing discussion Mr clerk uh so just want to bring up to you where we are with Staffing uh we've talked about this extens extensively last year uh when we were going through the budget process because there was uh negotiated increases that were based on the budget uh and rate increases for uh last fiscal uh last the current fiscal year um so what I prep prepared for you is just a basic uh breakdown

of uh positions that we have open uh throughout the division uh we have six Water Maintenance uh worker positions so that could be all the way from a water maintenance worker two a basic laborer a water maintenance worker one a skilled laborer uh a water maintenance worker one with a CDL or backo water maintenance worker one with CDL and backo um or an advanced backo operator which is working for in on a crew uh so

depending on the skill level of of the applicant um depends on what pay grade they uh would come in at there are three steps to every pay grade that we have um that all union pay grades uh and every April uh you come in at step one and every April you increase the step so we have six of those positions within the water uh maintenance division uh that's a division of uh 18 employees

uh excuse me 20 22 employees um um but you have clerk you have the mechanic uh you have the director um you have the engineering Aid uh so those are people that are not out on the street working um so you're down to about 18 or so employees so uh we're missing about a third of the employees within that uh as you come down the list uh administrative division these cost to

split between water and sewer uh two project managers positions are are currently uh vacant uh one uh that uh has been fully funed uh the other to um um come in to be able to work with a current project manager that will be leaving us uh sometime in the near future um water treatment swing shift operator uh that is uh open position so as of uh today I actually just received the appointment letter uh for an

operator for the third shift so I'll talk a little bit of so we have had a uh staff member who was a Watchman attendant uh we sent him for schooling uh for uh to become an operator uh we applied to the Massachusetts state board about 6 months ago uh to get an emergency certification for him they did issue that certification he has been working uh as the swing shift operator uh since then

um he uh has decided that he doesn't want to move forward with obtaining an operator's license it difficult license with the math involved and stuff like that um so as of actually next Thursday he is going back to uh his Watchman attendance position um so that position that was open for shift Watchman attendant will be filled uh but then that opens up the swing shift operator uh as of today I just actually uh

received the uh signed appointment letter back for a new employee to come on uh this is an employee um that uh has passed his grade four exam for treatment operator oh wow and has submitted to the board for his full license uh so as it stands I'll be taking him on as a grade two until he gets fully licensed and is able to operate he's looking to take third shift um which is a great thing uh

so then we only have swing shift open uh we do have two employees down at the uh down at the plant that were're uh that are going through the steps um and I'm very confident that they'll be able to get their operator license uh so my hope is that we'll be able to uh fill those positions uh soon uh but then if they switch to an operator position and that opens up the maintenance position so

we're back trying to fill the maintenance position so um you know it's it's it's always a uh a moving a moving thing but it's very fluids down there yes yes yes but um you know something that we manage um and uh you know with the uh with the increases that that we seen over the past uh two years for those operators we've been able to uh maintain some staff uh the reservation

staff we're only missioning uh one person from the blue crew or the old reservation staff of three um the green crew is staffed uh currently with three we just brought on a new uh employee within the past couple of weeks uh so we're down a number of employees throughout that uh I did on add on here the Wastewater side as well uh through violi um there's collections Tech there's three positions vacant uh wastewater

treatment operators two positions utility worker one position uh and an OP supervisor one position that's currently what's uh what's vacant down at the wasw plant I just wanted to put that on there uh to show the battles that we're having on on both sides um again um so a new uh director of uh water maintenance that was appointed uh Brian Jacobs uh one of his first tasks that I gave him was uh

going through a list of applicants uh and recalling people that have applied really over the over the past six months or so see whether there's any interest and some recent applicants that we've had so we've spent he spent the past uh he spent the past uh couple of days on the phone talking to potential applicants I always like to um you know the hiring process that I go through I

like to talk to them first explain a little bit about the job explain what our rates are see whether they're interested from there I don't want to waste anybody's time or our time with them coming in for an interview and then then just not being interested so um and he's getting uh you know still with our new rates that we put in place he's still getting a fair number of people

that are saying you're not you're not close to not enough yeah so um you know and it's tough we are in Niche field so to bring anybody in as a as a hire water maintenance worker one or anything like that uh is tough if they don't know anything about the uh underground utility World on the water field or anything like that um you know we are always uh looking to uh promote

our guys internally from a two to a one once they become um you know knowledgeable within the field that's something that we do uh internally uh with approval of the administration um but uh it is always always ble um you know within the maintenance division uh I feel that on the horizon that there may be one or two more people leaving uh us um and then uh within the administration office uh again one or

two people um leaving their Administration we were down to clerks but we were able to fill those within the past couple of months um but I think that may be two vacancies on the horizon is it mostly money they're mostly either not coming in because you're not paying enough and they're not staying because you're not paying enough like what ultimately we need to find out what the reason is because you know what I mean

you 17 open positions right now yeah no pay pay pay like I said it definitely is a big thing you know Brian's um you know Mr Jacob the director has been calling and uh a lot of people just it's not enough for him you know and again our increases were dramatic for us us going from $115 an hour 1576 an hour uh up to 17 and change for somebody coming in was

a big jump for us um but not big enough for comparatives out there you know uh you know you guys on the private side it's yeah twice that easily on a prevailing rate job I have to pay a labor I think $68 an hour right so I would I come here that that's what we're competed mechanics 8 something and change operators 8 something to change so it just it's almost impossible for us to compete and

granted there was insurance and other benefits and whatnot that that may that do not come in on the prevailing W side right that that's a a blanket pay but even if you were to go and work for you know I mean we've lost a number of guys to private construction companies in the past year or two um and that's you know it's very easy to walk away for twice the

pay yeah no I you know I'm 100% with that and uh as we talked about last year um and you know if there's changes that needs to be made this year all that is related to our rate um to be able to pay our staff more our rate needs to go up more we um you know at some point maybe we should talk about what uh you know how competitive we are to

other cities in town other cities in towns yeah other municip possibly that you know other municipalities that that may not necessarily be neighboring you know like what what are some of these positions getting an hour north of here you know in in this in the in the suburbs um you're in the Boston suburbs yep yeah no definitely can do uh when this was put together and the tough thing was you know we did the

side letter with the Union um in relation and it took so long to get through that side letter all of our comparisons everything were based off of 6 months prior that's what we were working for when we got to the end we were still six so then we were six months behind everybody else going up yeah in in 18 months uh numbers have have increased uh they they've kind of think have kind

of slowed down at this point but in the last 18 months up until maybe 3 or four months ago it's just uh unbelievable to see that the numbers change how fast the numbers change yeah you know and CDL CDL is uh is a tough thing for us right now we have three CDL Drivers including the four with the director uh in the Water Maintenance no three with the director in the water

main division so um you know that's uh that's definitely a t tough thing and you know everybody's looking for CDL Drivers right now wow yeah I I it's it's the reality U I don't know what to say I'm just just I wish we could you know bring that right up I won't be I wish we could it's a fight uh I think with the new director on board in the Water Maintenance I'm

hoping that he'll be able to uh to push through and work uh work dilcy to uh be able to bring uh bring our staffing numbers up uh you know even a little bit I think uh will be a help yeah Brian's good guy and he's very personable and well-liked and um that'll go a long way that'll go a long way well on that note um I think we've come to the end of our

agenda and um if there are no further questions chair would entertain a motion to adjourn motion m m seconded all in favor I thank you