10.2.2024 Watuppa Water Board

um good afternoon ladies and gentlemen welcome to the October 2nd meeting of the wupo water board um first uh 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 UNP perceived by those present and are

deemed acknowledged and permissible um thank you very much uh having a quirm I would ask the clerk to call the role president Tero present M ferer here thank you all here first item on the agenda is citizen input has anyone signed up for citizen input having no one signed up let's move to n uh item number two on the agenda the minutes of the previous meeting um if you've had a chance to review them um

and you have any questions comments are there any corrections or omissions if not the chair would entertain a motion to accept the minutes as presented so move second motion has been made and seconded all in favor I I so moved this moves us to item number three propos leak abatements we will turn this over to the clerk Mr clerk yeah thank you very much commissioner so in front of

you you have a number of leak of vements that were filed uh in the uh recommended amount for approval uh these uh 23 in 24 primarily uh when they were uh when they were filed uh with the analysis that's being done recently uh some of the older ones we had to wait for uh to make sure the leak came back down and that uh there was enough quarters to be able to

average get an average usage so that's why some of these are a little bit older uh all of them together in front of you today total $18,988 58 all conformed with policy correct so as uh as has been uh talked to at the board meetings before uh any denials will be administratively denied uh because they don't meet the requirements of the leak of batement to come in front of the

board they'll be sent a letter and they will have the right to uh have an independent Hearing in front of the board if they disagree with the denial excellent uh having reviewed the um abatement and um gone over the numbers U are there any questions if there are no questions I um chair would entertain a motion to approve the abatements um in the amount of $1,941 58 so moved second all in favor I I

thank you all right that moves us off our abatements and takes us to the next item on our agenda which is the lead service line replacement um contract amendment number one for uh Woodward and Curran engineerings in the amount of $300,000 Mr clerk yes so this is uh if you remember a couple of meetings ago we approved uh this is for calendar year 2024 service removal program we remove

uh we the board approved a smaller contract uh for wood we in current to get them started uh on the inspectional services of this project uh this is just the remainder of that contract uh of inspectional services and construction management uh to keep this project moving forward absolutely and um this is going to help us meet our U lead service line go for 24 and take us into 25 yes excellent

so the uh contract Amendment for um for additional construction phase Engineering Services for the lead service line replacement uh program contract one in the amount of $300,000 chair would ask for a motion to approve so moved second second all in favor I I we're going along without pontification here let's service next item up for bids next item next item on the agenda is lead service line replacement change

order number four for bisco construction this is the service inspection um this is in the amount of 67 $190 48 if I understand correctly these are the home inspections in which the services and the meters are inspected to ensure that uh the if a lead service exists that that lead service will be addressed this also gives us um an update on our records which unfortunately Through The Years um a lot

of times streets are done people do improvements and the department isn't notified and that's just been our problem in the past um so unless there are any questions this is very straightforward um the chair would entertain a motion to um approve the uh service inspections um to continue the program throughout the remainder of calendar 24th and into fiscal or calendar 25 in the amount of 67,900

that over to you sir yeah so this is a final change close out change order for uh the Water Maintenance uh building here uh that we're currently in right now uh bisco Building Systems was the contractor on this project um so as the uh construction went on there were some things that were uh that were discovered uh through the project um and needed to be dealt with uh so those are listed out

on the second page again as uh as put in your packet so full backup can be provided if anybody needs uh would like to review all of these things these have been reviewed by myself uh the uh our engineering uh the architect uh as well as a separate uh engineering firm that possibly solve some of the construction uh as well so they've been through all these feel that all the costs uh

Justified so uh this is like I said final change order on this project in this we'll close this project out excellent motion approved second all in favor I I now at the heart of the matter the Westport agreement update Mr clerk so uh just wanted to give you an update uh westport's intermunicipal agreement expired uh last year uh in 2023 uh we have not um we have not uh extended in the current intermunicipal

agreement it states that we have the right to go Year bye with the same terms in the existing intermunicipal agreement um we haven't gone into a new inter Municipal agreement with them because there was a disputed past amount to uh to the water department um so uh just a little bit of history on on where where it came from originally 1986 or so uh Westport built out their system started

taking water from Fall River and as the board knows we Supply also to free town uh in North Idan fire district um but uh so they started taking water 2013 was the last intermunicipal agreement um starting in 2016 uh there was a dispute from Westport uh on the accuracy there was a question in dispute on the accuracy of the water that was going through the meter at the Town Line uh so what

happens is essentially we wholesale uh water to them at the Town Line it leaves our system enters their system they're responsible for their own system their water quality their pipes their meters and everything within their system um right around this time 2016 2017 is when the uh Tri halothane which is a disinfection byproduct rule uh went from an average throughout your whole entire system

to an a four quarter running average at the independent sites that you were testing at so a lot of communities uh had issues uh being compliant with the trial methane regulations which was 20,000 uh 880,000 pots per million excuse me 80 pots per million um so um at that time they Westport needed to increase the amount of water that they had going out their bleeders uh for water quality purposes uh the meters

that they had had on there were positive displacement meters and at the volume that they were running uh water out of those meters uh it was outside of the operating range of the meter uh and then it would very quickly burn out the meter as well yeah um so how it works with them and the agreement stated that we would credit them the amount of water that they flushed off for water quality

purpos is off the meter at the Town Line if they didn't have good meters to be able to measure the water that they were flushing uh then potentially the water that went through the meter in the Town Line could be a lot higher their credit that uh they're supposed to be measuring and providing us uh was a lot lower uh and they weren't getting the uh full value of of the credit uh our standpoint

it's their meters their system they're supposed to maintain it and take care of um so uh that started in about 2016 uh and uh in 2016 they questioned the accuracy they really questioned the accuracy and wanted proof that the meter at the Town Line was uh was reading properly uh we took that mea offline for about a 3-month period had it tested and it was reading accurately uh put it back

in those three months that the meter wasn't in service uh we um agreed that they could pay 8 $1,000 per month um for those three months uh the Town Administrator that was uh in Westport at that time took it upon himself uh to say okay those three months I paid $8,000 I'm going to pay $8,000 every month thereafter all the way up until about 2020 um John frier sent sent the town in

the Town Administrator multiple letters uh Terry Sullivan sent them multiple letters of the p to amount um and when Terry left I sent them letters as well the prior Town Administrator um in 21 a new Town Administrator came into Westport uh and uh that Town Administrator wanted to uh clear up uh this issue um knowing that it was a past issue that needed to be dealt with um so

what we did first thing we did he made sure that the meters that were in place on their bleeders were the proper is functioning properly and everything like that um so once that happened we set up a new billing account uh to be able to get away from the old billing account that was uh a little bit of a mess um so uh just because there was a lot of uh

unpaid bills and how bills were applied um it was just really tough to follow so we wanted to start clean we started clean in 21 uh the January of 22 we started cleaning fresh new account they've been 100% up to date with providing us the proper credits uh that they've flushed uh they've also been up to date with making payments on their account since January of 22 um and any issues discrepancies

that come up they contact us right away when they get their bill and uh the issue is is taken care of right right then at that point so uh right now we're we're in a very good operating place with them but we still have this large uh outstanding balance Duke uh from them uh so going through so the way that it works is our accounting system bill goes in it's munis westport's account is just like

every other customer's account uh gets hit automatically within the billing system with penalties and then um interest charges and everything like that but our um um our intermunicipal agreement that we have with the other communities with Westport is silent to interest and uh penalties and things like that so it doesn't say that we can charge penalties um according to Massachusetts law in the past if your

inter Municipal agreement doesn't state that you can charge it it's not something that you can charge another municipality so um that's that's what I was told um so essentially the all of that interest and everything was AC crewing on that account so that account is it was highly overinflated on uh what was actually due from them so after we spent uh we spent a lot of time so I worked

with uh the current Town Administrator they hired a consultant to go through everything we provided a full review of the account in our system interest that was applied how it was applied credits that were applied credits that weren't applied that we were sent to us we didn't apply them to try to get their attention to straighten it out uh and we were at 579,000 so without any interest without any

penalties roughly that's what we feel uh went through the meter uh at the Town Town Line that was due to us uh there was another portion of uh of credits that weren't applied to that amount and stuff like that so that's really what we were talking about Westport cook The Stance a we don't owe you anything um after their evaluation they felt that they didn't owe us anything uh and we

felt that they did so uh I was working with the Town Administrator uh back and forth and we kind of came to a standstill uh at one point um and then uh brought in uh the uh mayor's representative uh came in we sat down you know again with the Town Administrator from Westport and somebody from their select board uh to uh to try try to come to a resolution uh we met

about four times or so and we've came to an acceptable compromise number to both parties at $292,900

uncomfortable accepting that amount for the uh for the past du again as I said uh the meters who there were letters from us to them saying that your meters are not working they need to be replaced so water went through the bleeders it's all a question of how much went through those bleeders and how much didn't um if we look at the amount that uh that uh that we've compromised on um it's very

consistent with what uh if we were to issue a leak batement policy for that whole entire amount to to one of our customers it's very consistent following that leak of batement policy where we would charge them for their normal usage and then 50% of the overage would be forgiven and 50% they would be charged for um so you know it's uh that's why I'm comfortable with uh with being able

to uh to do this um Westport still states that the amount that we would have build them for that they've already paid for plus this is well over what theyve build their customers for uh but again we don't know the accuracy that Meers in their system so that's why we still feel that this is a uh a uh a good uh compromise to be able to settle on this then we'll be able to move forward

get into a new inter Municipal agreement with them um and move forward uh just one other note about Westport with in their intermunicipal agreement right now they do pay 70% higher than our residential customers within for River most of our other inter Municipal Agreements are 55% higher they're still on the old one uh which is 70% higher so even with that 579,000 that's 70% higher than what any

of our residential ctim pay yeah so actually when you when you I had gone over these numers myself and having frankly they're right in line with what historically the department has done uh with in in other cases um but it it it should be understood that the cost to the city of this $293,000 is actually onethird of that the rest of that is in search charge so it it it

in other words we are not losing money on the production of the product sold the adjustment is in what they were using uh and and in search charge um but I I I tracked the numbers several times and they look they look pretty good to me and they're as I said they're consistent with my understanding of the history of Municipal agreements with as we've done in the past will these two installments be made

during this town administrator's existence in that position uh I have not heard that he's planning on retiring I don't know if there is anything but what once we uh once this board approves this uh I plan on uh putting together an agreement to sending get to Westport for them to have them sign it I from what uh the talks have been with them a 50% installment will be made right away and then come uh junea July

the second installment will come through because that needs to go to their town meeting for payment of that any I'm sorry that was it I just wanted you know agreements come and go as people come and go so I prefer they go come back to zero prior to um year end fiscal year end so that's fine you know I'm just going to asked is there any chance of getting it in um fiscal

25 um I would I would definitely like to get it within fiscal 25 uh their Town Administrator the way that their town meeting works and stuff like that he's asking for July 15th uh payment date to be done by July 15th just how this stuff works well he might have an easier time selling the board of Selectmen for July versus but I yeah I don't their politics I it's a town I'm not going to go near

that yeah um and you know again just full disclosure to the board there's a resolution about this in front of the city council um which city council uh sent to the committee on finance uh so I expect uh some discussion on that within the near future in front of city council well I think it's important that the council be aware that the breakdown of of the settlement agreement is is

actually in favor of the city if you if you the way I looked at these numbers it I don't I don't find any fault with it whatsoever because it's almost I mean they the town is mandated by the state to do the flushing so that you know the their issue was they they overspeed their meters and burned them now they aren't using hydrants that this time are they uh so they're not using hydrants

they have independent bleeder Serv they used to use hydrants but I'd see them flushing on Davis and so so they do have a hydrid flushing program as well with Municipal agreement how the hydrant flushing program works is the day that they want to flush or the time the couple of days that they want to flush they call us they let us know we go out we do a read at the meter at the Town

Line they their flushing throughout their system we go back get a read at the end uh and then we charge them uh what the average daily usage plus another 10% plus another 10% you that goes on the 90% off right on the count in munus right yeah excellent Tom thank you thank you PA so yeah that is another flush excellent question though because it it it has been in well was a change in Town Administrator they

went from 100% of nothing to to a realistic settlement so your point is extremely well taken yeah are there any uh questions I I have none um a lot of hard work went into this I know I know that for a fact and and people should be assured that the city is getting its Fair billing and it's fair Revenue um and the town is current on their bills and they pay their bill on time that's

fine this is revenue from prior fiscal years this is you know an addition to the budget be nice to have in fiscal 25 yeah yeah again it would be uh be good to have it in 25 uh all right um without any further Ado could we have a motion to approve the uh pass du water agreement at this time motion approve second all in favor I I is there anything else to come before the

board uh just have two contract updates good make board aware about uh so ad Pini uh who is the contracted that had the calendar year 24 uh excuse me 23 um lead service replacement contract they still have a c couple of punch list uh items to do so they asked for a Time extension no cost time extension uh on that contract uh which uh I granted uh so December 15th

is a new contract completion date um and then just the other thing that I wanted to make the board aware of uh the arpo water made replacement contract uh there will be two change orders uh excuse me one change order uh to uh the Fisco contract which is the contractor doing the water main replacement and one to stantech who is the uh uh construction management resident inspector uh for the

project uh this is in relation to the Oak Grove sewer uh so the uh sewer from New Boston Road to Locust Street um was in really tough shape uh once we went in that we place the water M uh we went in they ground the road up there was four spots of the road where we found voids underneath the pavement um we wondering where those voids came from sent our CCTV camera into the sewer uh and

realized that multiple spots throughout that whole entire Lake There's issues with the sewer um so as a change order to the contractor we're going to have the contractor go in and replace that sewer um that's going to be a cost to the Sewer Commission uh but it's a change order to a waterboard contract just wanted to make uh make you guys aware of that excellent thank you thank you any

further business to come before the board yes sir could we have a motion to adjourn so mve second all in favor I I thank you very much thank you