12.10.2025 Watuppa Water Board

Good evening and welcome to the December 10th, 2025 meeting of the Wata Water Board. I'm Jim Tero, president of the water board and with me is Commissioner Ferrer and we welcome Commissioner Texer uh who is joining us for the first time this evening. And so without any further ado, I will call this meeting to order and the clerk I will ask to call the role.

Member Tier here. Member Ferrer present.

President Ontario here.

We are here and the first item that we have is citizen input.

The meeting you want to read your open meeting last statement.

Oh, I'm sorry. The open meeting law.

Yes. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting and may transmit the meeting through any medium.

Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or not or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Thank you.

Number one on the uh agenda is citizen input. We don't have any, so we can move speedily on to item number two, which are the minutes of the previous meeting.

If you'd like to take a minute to review them. Um if not, the chair will entertain a motion to approve the minutes as submitted.

A second.

Second.

All in favor? I so moved. All right.

Item number three on the agenda are proposed leak abatements as we have five of them.

And I just wanted to look at one thing here. Um any questions or concerns concerning the abatements that are um submitted this evening?

The um we have 11 Dr. [clears throat] Street for $11056 546 Hicks at $3,5657 208 Lincoln Avenue 22402 784 Maple Street an abatement of 38560 and 103 East Main Street 247. All abatements meet with the abatement procedures as approved.

And the chair would entertain a motion to accept these abatements.

Motion made.

Seconded.

Second.

All in favor?

I.

All right. We reach item number four.

And [clears throat] Mr. Clerk, if you would please.

Yes. Thank you very much. So in front of you, you have a letter of recommendation to award. Uh so we went out to bid recently for the uh calendar year 2024 lead service uh replacement program uh the second contract that we're doing uh this year. Excuse me. I apologize. The one that's in front of you is a change order for Bisco Contracting Services for the 2024 lead service replacement

program. I apologize for that. This is just uh this project's just closing out now. Uh total of three change orders make up this uh this one. Um the total amount it's change orders 7 through9. Uh the total amount is $376,2361.

Uh the majority of these change orders were for uh additional uh inspections within homes that we requested uh the contractor to do uh so we could work to identify the lead service locations. Uh all this funding is through uh the wind grant that we have uh through uh the EPA.

I would have to say at this time we are ahead of our schedule of lead service line replacement. Um moving along rapidly here in that program. Um the uh change orders 7 through 9. Uh change order number seven is for $130,59045.

Change order number eight is for $143,199.37 and change order number 9 is for $102,413.79 for a total of $376,2361.

Um all have been checked by engineering and approved. And the chair would entertain a motion to approve the change orders to the Bisco Contracting Company.

Motion approves as listed. Seconded.

Seconded.

All in favor?

I I.

Item number five.

That is the lead service replacement program.

And [clears throat] excuse me one second um as I get a little organized here. Okay.

The this is for the uh replacement program.

The bid is by this is the low bid the Ferrer Construction Company.

Yes, Mr. Clerk.

Excellent. Sorry for jumping the gun on the last agenda item. So, this is the calendar year 2025 lead service replacement program contract. Uh we're probably going to have two contracts in this calendar year. Uh this contract includes replacement of 200 lead services. Uh these were previously identified and verified that they are lead services. Uh there is a number of ones that we identified as difficult

lead services within this uh program i.e. them being uh crossing a um crossing let's say Braen AB so four lanes of traffic or um you know having to uh one of them the front yard of the house has a garage and a swimming pool uh pretty much from property line to property line. So uh it's going to be a very tough challenging challenging uh one to uh install. So uh

that this and they were all labeled out in this contract. They were all specifically identified. Uh so the contractor should under, you know, should have understood what he was getting into when he did his two-digit diligence bidding on the contract. We had a total of four biders on the contract. Uh the low bidder was Ferrera Construction Company. Uh his bid was 1,879,28.74.

Uh ranging [snorts] up to over 4.1 million was the high bid. Uh so there was fair spread on the on the bid amounts. Um like I said a total of four biders. Uh the engineer would would encourage went through did an evaluation of Herrera Construction uh and came back that they are a company that's capable and able of doing this this work and they have done uh similar work in other communities. Uh so they've done lead

service replacement in Providence, Rhode Island. uh Wallwick uh they've just completed a water man replacement project in Adelber um so uh we are comfortable this is the same for construction that also has done a lot of uh gas line replacement I was going to ask that is it the same and if it is they are extremely good yeah Liberty Utilities they've done a lot of gas work for them in the city in

the past so uh you know they are a uh they are a company that's capable of doing the we feel um so the bid tabs were uh were provided within you uh they are ready and prepared to stop the contract once award goes through.

Excellent. Are there any questions from any of them commissioners?

Hearing none. Uh the chair would entertain a motion to award a contract for the um 2025 lead service line program replacement program. uh award a contract in the amount of 1,879,228.74 to the Ferrer Construction Company.

Chair would entertain a motion to approve.

Second.

Second. [clears throat] All in favor?

I.

All right, Mr. Clerk. Item number six, CMRI contract approval with Woodwork and Current Engineers.

Yes, correct. CMRI construction managers resident inspection services or construction administration res inspection services for uh the uh calendar year 2025 lead service replacement. Uh so this is uh with Woodward and Curran in the amount of $432,000.

Uh this is for Woodwin Curran to uh administer uh do the and oversee the contract uh and the contractor uh as well as to provide a full-time resident inspector uh on the site while the contractor is doing work uh to coordinate between homeowners, the city and the contractor uh to make sure and to inspect and make sure that the work is done per specifications.

I've reviewed this and I feel that this is within the grounds of what's needed to oversee this contract.

You know, this um this program has been going on um with a great deal of success. I congratulate you on um on how this has gone. At first, this was a very daunting task of finding, locating, and replacing these literally original water services. Um, [snorts] that's great. And Woodward Current is extremely familiar with not only our process and our programs, with our system. So, we've relied on them

extensively in the past. Um without any further ado, um if there are no questions concerning this, um chair would entertain a motion to award a contract [snorts] to the firm of Woodward and Curran in the amount of $432,000 even.

I'll make a motion.

Second.

All in favor?

I I This brings us to other business. Um last night uh the um Mr. Furlin and myself appeared before the city council and submitted the um Westport intermunicipal agreement and um answered questions regarding uh the situation with the Westport uh payment that was um in held in lie of proceeding with this new agreement.

Um Mr. Ferlin if you would like to and yeah definitely so in front of the commission there's uh there's two things that weren't reasonably anticipated when the posting was put up uh that's a Westport billing summary uh and so moving forward what I'm going to be providing to the board at each one of your meetings uh either myself or or Mr.

Tai uh the uh division leader for uh admin water administration will be a summary of the uh payments um the charges and payments with Westcore. Uh so you look at what I prov provided you tonight. I provided you a summary of the past two calendar years 2024 and 2025 uh just so that you could uh get an understanding. We'll pro we'll probably end up changing the format, but I just

wanted to provide you a good history uh of to show uh they have you know you'll see starts off with the bill date, due date, their usage, um the amount build uh and we do bill them per month uh and then the amount paid. All the amount paid were paid prior to the due date uh of the bill. Uh so they have been keeping up with their uh payments in the

amount that they've been built for. This is an excellent um in my opinion this is an excellent spreadsheet. It does give you um as you just said it gives you the bill date, the due date, the uh total net uh of the billable cubic feet, the the water cost if there is a base meter fee that is issued on a quarterly basis.

Um this is an great way to stay on top of this. We assured the council last night that we would um have a program uh to uh analyze the bills on a monthly basis going forward. We assured the council that um this would be the new methodology of dealing with our out of town uh customer. So without any further ado, the chair would entertain uh well now let's stop for a second

because this is an explanation of the bill. The second part of this is the uh revised intermunicipal agreement for drinking water with the town. Um, yeah. So, with the billing summary, uh, if the board wanted to, uh, accept the report and place it on file, that may be an appropriate action.

I I think that's a good idea. That's where I got a little ahead of my skis here. Um, I think this is an excellent format and if we can have this every uh meeting, we'll uh be able to fulfill our uh promise to the council as well as our obligation to to our customers. Um, so the chair would entertain a motion to continue with the Westport billing summary at each meeting.

Second.

All in favor? I I All right, that takes care of point one under item seven. Point two is the revised Westport intermunicipal agreement for drinking water and I will [snorts] refer to Mr. Furland who has shephered this agreement. [clears throat] Thank you very much. So, we were in front of I was in front of council last night uh with President Ontario uh going over the Westport intermunicipal

agreement for drinking water services.

Uh so, this was the agreement that the board previously approved uh at a prior meeting. Uh the city council had some minor recommendations uh which I did make. Uh they are provided in your packet as red lines. So if you go to page three section four uh that talks about the term the term of this is 10 years uh as was proposed before uh and then it would continue year to year

afterwards. Uh the and they said thereafter uh we strike the thereafter and replaced it with no more than five years. Uh so they can't just continue this out forever. Within five years they have we have to agree on a new uh intermunicipal agreement and move forward.

Uh the other two changes that were made was uh on page five 7.1.8 Eight, there was a request uh that [cough] must would be changed to to shall shall.

So this is in uh response to dispute resolution to uh if they dispute a bill.

Um so if they dispute a bill, they must come and pay the minimum payment which was an average of the past 12 months shall be made within the allotted time of the bill.

within 30 days of that, this the town must uh give to us in writing an explanation on why they're disputing the bill. And again, I'm paraphrasing here.

Um if this is not done, then payment in full. Uh we had will be demanded. Uh that's being stricken out and will be demanded and it's being replaced with as build and shall be made and shall not be further contested. So in other words, if they don't give us reason why they didn't pay their bill or they don't feel that it's due in writing within 30 days, then the bill that was given to them

stands in place and cannot be contested anymore moving forward. Uh so that we added that to the agreement uh to move forward with uh everything else the council was good with. Uh they did approve it with those amendments. Uh I spoke with I sent Mr. Corporation council today as to form a manner. He would agree with those minor minor modifications. Uh so if this board approves it tonight, I will be

forwarding it to Westport uh for their uh count their uh selective review or excuse me the the committee's review and approval whatever their process is for approval on this.

Are there any uh questions regarding this? Um we have um been down this uh path for quite some time. I think last night's meeting was extremely um I I think it was beneficial to all parties.

I think the council felt reassured. Uh I know that that you and I felt that the council um the changes recommended by the council uh enhance the agreement and um improve it a little bit more and it's in my opinion a very very solid agreement. It's well spelled out.

There's no oxification. There is no confusion. And going forward, um, I think things will follow exactly as they should.

Yeah, without a doubt. And, you know, beyond the checks that were put into this agreement, there's also in-house um checks and balances that we've added to with standard operating procedures to our procedures. uh as well as uh sending the at every meeting sending the most upto-date uh to the board for the board to be able to be an additional check and balance.

Yeah, I I I think the spreadsheet is is really, you know, if um as we go forward, um perhaps uh Mr. Tai would would entertain giving us one for the other out of town groups and we could u you know stay on on that as well. Um I I want to I want to publicly thank Mr. Furland for um a lot of hard work uh that went into getting this coordinated to getting this

um fixed, shall we say. There was there were [snorts] a couple of things in the old agreement that weren't anticipated at that time and um going forward they have been taken care of.

So, with the passage of this and the approval of the town of Westport, we will be once again up to date with Westport's uh billings and um all we require is a motion and a vote to approve.

Uh motion to uh to approve the intermunicipal agreement as amended.

Thank you. Second.

Second. All in favor of approval of the Westport intermunicable agreement say I.

I.

I.

All those opposed? No.

That brings us to the end of our agenda unless there is any further business [clears throat] to be conducted.

So just one thing that I want to put out there just as a public announcement, you know, PSA announcement just uh about our lead service program. Again, we've made great strides uh over the over the years. Uh we just completed sending out a registered certified letter to uh all people that we do not know the service material inside their houses. Uh that was about 2,800 registered certified

letters that was sent out. Uh we had great response with people picking those up. Um probably [snorts] uh over 50% of the people actually picked them up from the post office sign for them. uh I would say about 45% of the people um actually called to schedule appointments with us. So we have we have uh staff that doing inspections and we're scheduled out into February now. So we do you know we have a number of staff

we've thrown a lot more uh staff after hours. Um we've scheduled some we've taken some staff from their regular normal duties and put them on to lead service inspection during the day. So, I ask people just to uh [clears throat] bear with us, you know, we'll get to you as soon as possible. Um, and anybody who did not respond to that, please give us a call. Uh, it's a 5 to 10 minute

appointment where we need to go into your basement next to your water meter uh to see what your service material is.

Uh this is not something that's we're doing because we want to, you know, it's something that we're doing a for the benefit of our customers, for the health of our customers, to make sure that the service line that feeds your house is the proper material. Uh it's requirements from EPA, uh and D.

Um, you know, and we don't want to get to the point where we don't have your house inspected and, you know, we're potentially talking about possibly turning off water or discontinuing service. By ordinance, we do have the right to be able to enter the properties um and inspect our meter and the service line uh that enters those properties. Uh so I would urge anybody who has not had

their service line inspected, we have an interactive map online where people can go uh to see uh if we know what their service material is. Um so go to the uh city of Florida [snorts] web page, water, uh there's the interactive map that you can click on there, type in your address, brings you to your house, and it's kind of self-explanatory. Uh there's also a way to self-inspect on

able to say, uh, you know, we're coming up to the end of calendar year 2025 now.

I would love to be able to say at the end of calendar year 2026 that we have all the lead services out of our system.

It something very good point. Thank you, Mr. Furland.

Something also needs to be said. This is done at no cost to the homeowner, which is an incredible situation. This is a federal mandate that we received. We are complying with the federal mandate and with it came uh additional funds for this program. Um when you remove a lead service you will gain uh volume. You'll think your pressure increased. It didn't. But you will have more volume.

You will have it will aid uh public health. It will aid you in resale of your home. It is something that, you know, it's a question being asked these days. Do you have a lead paint? Do you have a lead water service?

Even more importantly, and in Fall River, you'll be able to say, "Yep, I had it removed and it was uh or you'll be able to say it was inspected. My service is copper or, you know, PVC or whatever it is."

This is an excellent program and we urge you to comply with this program.

I do have a question, Mr. B. How many have been completed thus far?

So for lead service replacements, uh we've replaced about 1,300 uh total lead services. Um and that's at no cost to the homeowner. That's within the past two years. Um, prior to that, there was a lot more throughout the city and those were replaced, uh, you know, from the main to the curb stop from the water department during main replacements and a lot of homeowners had theirs already replaced into their house. Um,

you know, and we were finding we were finding other ones that possibly could be lead based on the age of the home and this construction and stuff [snorts] like that, we we're finding maybe only 10% of those homes are actually lead.

Yeah. Um, so you know, we have within the past two years, we have a very strong track record with our contractors and our inspectors of, you know, quality work. I know sometimes people get concerned, oh, the city wants to come into my house and do work. You know, we have a strong track record. We have licensed, bonded, insured contractors that are doing the work for us. Um, you know, we're not using our own staff.

That's why we're getting contractors because they're, you know, specialized.

[clears throat] They do this not only in Fall River but other places, you know, around the Commonwealth in the region.

So, um they're insured. So, if there's issues, you know, they're able to uh to respond to those issues. So, uh again, you know, some people may be uh concerned or skittish of, oh, the city wants to come in and check my basement.

We're not looking to see what's in your basement. You know, we my guys, our staff going in the waterboard, they pretty much have vine blinders. they're going to the meter and the service coming in. That's what we're concerned about. Uh it's not, you know, anything else that you have going on in your house or your basement or anything like that. That's not of our concern. This is, you know, a public health matter.

We're worried about the water service that feeds your house. a lot of the um a lot of the streets under the 427 program as we um [clears throat] which we began 22 years ago.

24 24 years ago as the contractors would come up the street in my case um when they came up my street they knocked on the doors and said you know we're replacing the main do you want to um you know at at a nominal cost they came in and replaced services so a lot of them got taken care of in the 42 I keep referring to it as a 427 program but

we've we've really got rid of a lot of lead and and that's just a tremendous tremendous undertaking. It's Yeah. Yeah. Without a doubt. You know, I can I can say from feedback that I get from EPA, D and stuff like that, uh they're happy with our proactive nature, what we've been doing and how we've been moving forward, all the feedback that I've gotten. So, yeah, the department's done an

incredible job on this. They really have. and and this is as we say this is a public health issue. Um and just if you got a letter, please contact us.

Please set up an appointment. Please get this done. It it only benefits you. Um the contractors as as Paul just said, the contractors have done a great job of restoring the ground after they've done.

Um uh people have been very pleased and they're very pleased with the in with the new service that they receive. So it's a win-winwin.

Without any further ado, um the chair any other business? No. No. The chairman would entertain a motion to adjurnn.

Motion second.

All in favor?

I I thank you. Good night.