The Fall River Sewer Commission convened on February 28, 2023. The meeting began with a roll call, confirming the presence of Commissioners Almeda, Alves, and Bernier. Citizen input was not received as no one had signed up. The Commission then approved the minutes from its November 16, 2022, meeting, with Commissioners Almeda and Alves voting in favor, as only those present at the original meeting are eligible to approve its minutes. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024, totaling $27,615,277, an increase of over $1 million from the previous year. Paul, a department head, explained that major drivers for this increase included sewer treatment plant expenses (electricity, services, chemicals) accounting for approximately $600,000, and a $300,000 increase in Debt Service. Commissioner Almeda also highlighted a reduction in free cash surplus revenue, partly due to a $350,000 rebate from Viola that was not accounted for in a timely manner for the current budget cycle, impacting the proposed rate increases. The budget was approved unanimously. Following the budget approval, the Commission approved the associated rate increases for FY2024: a sewer rate of $6.06 per CCF and a stormwater fee of $50 (a $3 increase from $47). The revised rate schedule for non-metered houses was also approved. The meeting concluded with updates on ongoing projects, specifically two change orders for Contract 2 at the wastewater treatment plant, totaling $103,586.10 and $118,216.75, respectively, both of which were approved. An update was also provided on the Wilson Road pump station project, including the recent collapse of an old AC sewer pipe and the successful transfer of flow to a newly installed line. Commissioner Almeda requested that Viola's monthly reports be made available to commissioners. The meeting adjourned.
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City Officials
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okay welcome to the meeting of the foreign Commission uh it's February 28th um pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio a video recording of this public meeting I may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees at their advised that such recordings of Transmissions are being made with a perceived a run perceived by those present in our Dean mcnowledge and permissible
0:28having said all that Mr furland will you do the roll call please yep president Almeda here Mr elves I apologize okay um well I've been given a packet of what we've supposedly going to discuss tonight um in regards to the items on the packet uh is there any citizen input well we had nobody has signed up horses and input all right okay very good uh item number two minutes of the previous meeting held on November 16th
1:1520 22.
1:18now it's my understanding that at that meeting was Mr Alves myself Mr Bernier yep correct so as a result of two-thirds of those present at that meeting which would mean Mr owls and myself that we can approve the minutes of that meeting yes correct Mr uh at that meeting now for the benefit for the benefit of for the benefit of of rigid you um it was discussed at the previous
2:02meeting that we had a couple of issues with respect to previous um Sewer Commission meetings that needed to be approved and unbeknownst to myself haven't been on this boat for a long time I I learned um through commissioner hunleyak always grateful for that in order for a meeting to be approved those attending the meeting to approve that meeting will have had to re had been at that meeting
2:42so the fact that you were not at that meeting okay um and you can correct me this on Paul the fact that you were not at that meeting I guess in a sense doesn't allow you to um throw an input into it right right would it allow you to vote on the minutes the fact that Mr Alex and myself where it was there um the passing of the meeting if we go
3:13ahead and approve the minutes of the previous meeting will be the result of Mr Allison okay yeah okay okay so that's that's something that came about at that last meeting and and it makes sense but what it does too is kind of brings a focus in on the commissioners having not having to but taking the opportunity to come in and things because it um it it get we in some cases could get to
3:48where we were a couple of meetings ago where we couldn't approve some meetings right because we didn't have two-thirds of the people present to do you think so having said all that um now we need to approve the minutes of the previous meeting I believe it was all sent to us in our packet if you've had the opportunity to read through it uh Scott you were there if you have any questions about it or
4:16anything of that nature please say so I've looked through it I think Olga does a great job but of recording all the things that come out and um I I think she does a great job so having said all that unless you have any questions Scott no and Richard yourself um I'll intend a minute to uh minutes of previous meeting held on November 16 2022. anybody want to make that motion
4:53I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the November 16 2022 for me second second motion oh I second oh I secondly uh all in favor aye aye opposed motion passes okay um let's take the title number three which is um the major item which were the reason for what we're here um the proposed budget for a fiscal year 2024.
5:28staff has put together the budget which is something that's due downstairs from what I understand uh by March first so having prepared this budget in the time frame that we have this allows the uh all the parties to be able to review it look at it discuss it and hopefully to come to some degreement to pass it yeah so it's March 3rd just so yeah it has to be upstairs yep correct
6:06um all right so in your packet it spells out what the budget is being proposed and we're looking at a budget uh to the tune of 27 million six hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred and seventy seven dollars which is a little better than a million dollars over previous years the previous year we don't we probably won't know till the end of 23.
6:38just how we made out on reaching the budget for 23. correct we uh because of uh constraints and time and getting information together on budgets for all departments we have to um we have to put our heads together and come up with the numbers that we think are going to reflect the new uh um I've had the opportunity to look through this I've had some preliminaries preliminary discussions with Paul with respect to
7:17um what's driving the million dollars and from what I can say things that deal with the sewer treatment plan expenses that fall under electricity other purchase services chemicals that in itself right there is of the million dollars you're looking at you're looking at almost 600 000. when you go when you're looking at that portion of it we're we're anticipating that that portion of the budget to be 13
8:02million a little better than 13 million dollars well last year we're looking at 12 and a half so um there's at least half of the million dollars another big factor to this to the increase probably lends itself to um Debt Service which is something that always comes back and stares Us in the face every time we put a budget together and as we all know the The Debt Service is all based on
8:41the long-term debt that we create when we when we're doing the right things to try and keep the city and and proper running or off as you can see from what's been presented we're looking at another three hundred thousand dollars that coupled with the fact that our free cash Surplus Revenue which for the last couple of years it's been running about a million seven this year we're looking at a
9:21at a cash free cash of uh just under a million five now usually part of that free cash is re-based it come back and Paul you can correct me on this there's rebates that come back from Viola on their contract um there are things in their contract we specifically states that if you don't spend this amount of money and it reverts back to the city so that's that's that's something that takes place
10:03where the problem is is that it's if historically we've been getting a million seven and now we're down to them well just under a million five um throws a flag that something probably different took place and I don't from what we can I believe I can surmise from it is that um I guess a credit that accredited that that was supposed to have come from viola to the tune of almost three hundred and fifty thousand dollars
10:49um for it for some type of accounting reason was thrown into the budget for 25. uh thrown into 23 Revenue uh 24 excuse me put into 23 revenues about 22 revenues okay so that in itself if you take those that 350 000.
11:15the 500 and some thousand that's under chemicals and things of that nature along with the along with the debt for the most part you're looking at the increase of the million dollars now so for the benefit of everybody out there once once that money has been determined as something that is going to be needed and will require and then then takes us to the point of saying well how much does that mean
11:52and how much income we're going to have to generate in order to be able to absorb that increase that's where the number that we're proposing for the stormwater fee and the sewer rate reflects back at the top of the budget which then it then will reflect what we anticipate to bring in as income to absorb our costs if this was a business like I was in like most of my experiences in
12:40the ideal situation would be to create more income than expenses unfortunately we don't live in that world we live in a world where we bring in what we think will go on indeed and in situations for what I can remember where it ends up creating a situation is created where more income ends up coming in then then the expenses then at some point it reflects down to possibly a rate decrease we're not at that point
13:19and I don't think we've been at that point for a while it's been a long time I've been here a long time making I can say unequivocally that there aren't too many that I can count on my hands with that so we have we have a budget I think it's a good budget um when Paul had called me and gave me some flash figures flash numbers on it I I even anticipated it to be somewhat higher
13:56and I got to commend the staff for for changing my thinking about that in that sense I'm sure I'm sure the numbers are still going to be um under some scrutiny by the powers that be and that uh we'll just have to fight for what we think is right so um your gentlemen have been given the opportunity to take a look at the numbers if you have any questions for Paul and myself with
14:34what the meaning of some of it is or why why is it how come or whatever the case may be now now's the opportunity to bring it up if you don't have any questions about it I feel comfortable with it I think a lot of work and effort went into it um I was a little bit I was a little bit disappointed in in the fact that um not but we had an opportunity to
15:09drive up by free cash and uh for whatever reasons it didn't happen so it put the burden of another 350 thousand dollars into the uh into this system but hopefully that problem will get taken care of next year normally normally in the in the where I come from that would have been cleared up very easily with a journal entry unfortunately and these things in the uh in the environment where we're involved
15:46with that doesn't happen so um that being the case gentlemen if you have any questions um not we're at the point now where we have to either approve this tonight or give it back to Paul because somebody has a question with it or a problem with it can't live with it or something like that so you can okay well it was spoken about last time in MOA was that included on this um
16:19objection of potential Cola in the future or was that actually settled yet so that has not been settled yet I did carry those projected figures uh included in our salaries okay so if you look underneath other Personnel within the overall budget and the salary line item there's a uh you know there's everybody's salaries then underneath other Personnel is 60 000 in change 15 of that is for uh benefit package we
16:52have 15 15 000 that is for uh potential interns in 45 000 is for a possible increase depending on whatever happens with the CBA the side letters okay that's all I have a question for clarification you I was trying to follow you you mentioned something about a debt and you mentioned something about 300 or 350 and then and then uh mentioned about a credit or something what's the 25 000 uh okay um the credit
17:36the credit that we're talking and I was referring to was um the rebate that would come back from Viola okay all right that rebate that's something that happens every year we have a contract with them um and let's just say for the sake of argument this year's contract is gonna it's gonna cost seven million seven hundred and eighty seven thousand seven hundred fifty one dollars okay when it come the end of 24.
18:14there should be something coming back to us out of that money correct now what what took place for the year that just finished that that was that was supposed to be part of the free cash was the credit that came out I guess there was a timing Factor as to how that credit was to be accepted and as a result of it it didn't get put into the cat or the into the place where it
18:48would have been beneficial to us for the 2024 budget in other words that 350 000 we were expecting right um it wasn't it didn't get put into the where the million seven would be yeah we ended up having a million four okay okay are they going to correct that they did but they didn't do it in a fashion that was beneficial to us for this year okay it's it's going to be probably beneficial
19:23next year and next year okay okay what I was trying to say it also was in certain in a business environment that I'm used to something like that would be handled very quickly and a journal entry right but with the with the mechanisms and and the accounting procedures that take place for municipalities you know one once some a problem of that crops up if it's if it's not dealt with
19:57in a certain time frame it falls into another category and it gets it gets sidetracked into another category that's that ended up not being beneficial to us so you've got so the million dollars yeah right we're saying here is resulting in a 31 Cent increase in the silver rate plus a two dollar increase in the Stormborn so you look at it and just if you look at it and say well okay had that money
20:33been in there had it been handled in a fashion where it was beneficial to us now then you look at it and say well 350 000 we've got a million dollar increase there's 33 percent of it right right 33 but you take 33 percent of of the pro of the ratio in which the stormwater fee and the storm water and the silver fee combine then you you'd find out that
21:12maybe maybe you'd be taken 20 cents off or I'm sorry 15 cents off the suicide and potentially a dollar off the increases so that's that's the scenario I was trying to present on on that line item um would there be justification for interest on that money no because employee didn't correct me and we've been given it oh we've been giving it it's he it was here it's how it's How the transaction of bringing it into the
21:56into the accounting factors created the created the uh the difference in him okay thank you very much all right um I don't know Paul I don't know if you want to add anything to that yeah no I I think uh you know it's a very very thorough explanation about you right okay I mean I'm not an accountant but yeah you know it's so it's tough again the way the DOR closes fiscal years and
22:26dor approval of free cash Department of Revenue through the state in the uh Massachusetts uh accounting UMass guideline accounting guidelines that we have to follow and everything like that very tough and uh it just so happened again it's just you know that 330 300 roughly 350 000 will not be lost to us it will come out in the uh 23 free cash is certified that's the most important thing thank you okay
22:58anybody have any other questions Richard you're good yeah okay um and their basis then one paying a motion to approve the budget that's been presented for a physical year 2024.
23:18and the amount of 27 million six hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred and seventy seven dollars notion second the motion is for 27 million 615 277 dollars you sucking it Scott's second all in favor aye aye opposed no no opposition motion passes now I think the thing that we have to do next put employee can probably correct me on this is now approved the rates that's been uh presented
24:04yeah uh so we'll we're going to be looking for a motion to approve the sewer rate projected sewer rate for 2024 the amount of six dollars and six cents per CCF right yeah 100 cubic feet anybody want to make that motion I'll make the motion second all in favor aye opposed none the stormwater fee for 2024 has been presented is 60 I'm sorry 50 dollars my bifocal Sultana played with shifting
24:51games on there's uh fifty dollars we're looking at a two dollar increase I'm sorry three dollars three dollar increase yeah my my bifocals are definitely scored me up uh three dollar increase I need a motion for that I think emotionally uh changed some some water fee from forty seven dollars to fifty dollars with the fiscal year of 2024.
25:19second all in favor aye oh it's nothing okay um pull does that also mean you want us to approve the rate schedule that you sent to us that have yes please all right we're looking at this page right here remember correct yes all right closed ordinance all right as proposed to the board okay I mean just for my benefit though um under subsection four all those all those numbers there
26:00uh reflect the increases we're talking about am I right right so subsection for those are for uh houses that do not have a water meter we build based on the number of occupants of that house uh so this starts at one occupant all the way up to um I think okay I think it's 19.99 okay um so the the schedule that's been presented to us um if you want to take a minute to look
26:35at it but I'll obtain a motion to approve the uh the schedule that's been presented with the revised numbers that's been proposed if we didn't want to make that motion good I'll make the motion second okay all in favor aye okay gentlemen thank you appreciate that um the battle is just starting I take the item number four I'm sorry item number five I think we're done with four correct I call you we got
27:24anything else to discuss all right item number five is the updates on the ongoing projects and we have Two Chainz orders um that deal with uh project number two that's going on presently down the wastewater treatment plant under contract number two I'm sorry the first one being uh first change order under that particular contract to the twin of a hundred and three thousand five hundred
27:54and eighty six dollars and 10 cents um I've I've looked through the schedule you have any problems with what we're uh what we're being asked to approve they're uh there are nine items on this particular route change water it's been there's a write-up for each item 13 items uh the first the first one is 103 586 right sorry you were correct okay got nine items on it um you know these items by the way
28:48um a royal Bean created and reviewed through the awesomeness of CDN yeah correct correct uh engineering so they presented it to us they feel there's a generacy to it yeah and they're asking for our approval yeah definitely so they they go through they redo it they work with the contractor they review all the costs they review everything submitted by the contractor uh then it comes to our office we I review
29:25um when did this project start this uh contract too roughly a year and a half ago a little bit over all right so this this contract is supposed to be finished next year right yes it's a Time contract completion Day July 31st 2020 full house so it was a three-year contract yes okay so so we're we're about a year and a half then right and this is a pretty big contract 45 million dollars that's right and
30:05okay so right now we've we've got one change order and let's face it we're going to have change artists it isn't we always have changed one and there were you know in our minds they're always in my mind they're always legitimate anyways but so um we got the first one at a hundred and three thousand five eighty six uh if you've had the opportunity to review through the reasons for it
30:35um and what they are and the amounts uh and you're feeling so you don't have any problems with I don't but if you if you have any issues with it bring it up now if not I'll obtain a motion to approve change order number one for contract number two at the wastewater treatment plant for the tune of a hundred and three thousand five eighty six ten cents I just got one question
31:00if I could sure these unforeseen uh items Paul that just come up that were missed or yeah so so some of these on here are definitely unforeseen you know uh when you run into a existing very fuel tank that wasn't on any previous plans or anything or just additional you know Foundation areas those are unfacine there are some things on here that uh you know um either through design or you know actual
31:30fabrication they may not be able to fabricate it the same way that the design is wanted wanted to constructed so they have to make some types of changes uh and some of them when you get into it you know again this is an extremely large project everybody with plans and everything like that sometimes there are things that uh well price increases or anything on yeah because how long did this stop how long is it
31:54for did we say so this was a three-year contract this is there is no price escalations within any of this this is not escalations I have not approved any escalations from a contractors these are just unfortunately things that come up for them on both on both of them yep I'm also question you feel comfortable with these increases yeah with these changes it is all definitely needed things uh to uh to do the project
32:26one question on uh item number five not to to be jumping too much what is that show a buried existing fuel tank removal so when we when they okay yeah when they got into Excavating uh around the back side of the existing holding tanks um they ran into a buried fuel tank who knows what it was from where it was luckily the inside of the fuel tank was clean but it was still in the in the
33:03earth so it was about as expected but you know once they excavated the top of it they had to get an LSP on board to be able to Monitor and test the stuff around and make sure it didn't leak and stuff like that so I want to say that's a big vacuum cleaner yeah just the presence of an LSP they don't come cheap yeah okay thank you all right so um unless there's any other questions
33:28or comments about it yeah with someone to make a motion to approve change order number one for contract number two in the amount of hundred and three thousand I have a question why can't we accept the uh the whole contract order I mean the change on it um because because there's two separate change orders okay I'm sorry I didn't realize that yeah no maybe in the future because and the other thing too is these
33:59all fall at certain different times okay okay um he made the motion with a question but I'll second it if we're all right yep I'll second it okay all in favor aye aye opposed none so yeah okay that takes us to item uh on the same item number five change order number two for contract two uh in the amount of a hundred and eighteen thousand two hundred and sixteen dollars and seventy five cents
34:31and I believe that one particular one there are what 13 items yeah 13 items again I think they've all been spelled out um anybody has any questions about those items you bring them up now if not I want to attain the motion to approve those as well I'll make that motion second emotion all in favor aye aye thank you very much item six other potential matters does anybody have any other matters to discuss I got one
35:13when's uh when are they going to start the um the thing on Wilson Road so Wilson Road pump station is underway already okay I've been meaning to go by there I wasn't sure if they started construction going on in here yeah yeah so we're really tearing it up yeah Wilson Road Pump Station we actually they replaced the uh they installed the neutral line all the way from current road all the
35:40way to the back of the new station uh the new station Foundation underground piping and Pad is in place you know they've started to uh excavate to install the wet well with uh supportive excavation uh so that so that's underway just an update on that project so it was uh that last week the week before uh Wednesday afternoon we got a report of a Sewell manhole on uh current road backing up really it was actually the
36:12old sewer line um that parallel that parallels the new one that we installed um the old uh AC pipe collapsed underneath the Swale right on the side of uh of current road luckily we were able to work with the contractor so the new fuel line that he installed everything was pressure tested vacuum tested all the manholes were built and everything like that so we have we've had multiple issues over the
36:41years with that old AC line in that area so we opted to take and transfer everything over to the new line all the flow over to the new line uh Crews were out there two days running a bypass pump and then we had to build a temporary Pump Station in the last manhole to Pump from that manhole up into the old pump station you know you guys saw the major problem though yeah yeah
37:14it was a tough one it was kind of the timing was pretty good too so tell me if I'm right we had a three-phase system there you said you we had it full of neutral what neutrals did you have to fold no no a new line uh with the new line the new line As a neutral uh no no no sewer line oh sewer line yeah a neutral neutral we're not talking
37:44electric yeah AC asbestos concrete pipe yeah not eight yeah
37:56you've been in that business what 50 years I wouldn't rang a bell with me too so the um routers for that new line is that gonna stay a road or is it is it going to be a road or it's just going to be vegetation no it'll be it'll be allowed to be naturally vegetated back too well that's the way it was yeah exactly you just opened up like it was a uh an exit
38:17ramp off of uh yeah Wilson Road it was actually interesting how that sewer line was run because it's actually on a mound in a certain section to get the cover on top of the suit I watch it every day that's my roots to go home so okay but yeah no it'll be allowed to naturally vegetate we have manholes throughout that Corridor so we'll maintain it probably you know twice a year or once a
38:39year we'll get out there with a brush cutter to be able to maintain access to those manholes but it won't stay uh a roadway it's gonna be great involved with that and then go on the back end of it no isn't it power lines or something around there there are power lines that crushed the station there for that too yeah and there's a substation up on Sykes road but it's outside of our area of work
38:59yeah okay um I got a request Olga I don't know if this is something that you deal with enough but we as Commissioners get a report on certain times out of uh violio their monthly report right I have your copies in my office okay because I haven't seen one in a while okay well yeah I can understand I can understand it's important did we speak that we're going to email them too or is
39:40it possible to email them or is there too yeah you get like 75 Pages yeah you've seen one of them already haven't yeah yeah yeah um I can actually tell Marianne to just send one copy for Raphael and I can Janet an email yeah yeah I can do that how many pages in this particular it depends it depends oh it depends sometimes but dude who's putting them all together is it Marianne Donna okay you're not having
40:11to compile everything okay all right because uh you know you could better things to do it um yeah if you know I haven't I was kind of haven't seen how the how the complaints are running in a while we don't have any well we don't hear but you know I I tend to look at I first thing I do is go to the complaint sector I haven't seen that in a while
40:37to read now yeah okay all right that's good uh no I appreciate your help on that um any other questions if that's the case and if we can afford this the postage I thought the posters was high um is there an easier way to get them to us instead of I mean if you call if you call me up and say hey they're ready they're here they're ready I'll come in
41:04and get mine okay yeah you know like his email I'll take an email okay I'm running on that's all okay yeah all right yeah yeah I think eight dollars is too much just yeah just just kill me every drop of a book it's a savings but anyways yeah just give me a call I'll come and pick them up um any other matters nope okay I'll pay the motion to adjourn second second make the motion oh look
41:41I'm sorry I make a motion to enjoy it second emotion all in favor aye all right thank you thank you gentlemen