7.25.2023 City Council - Committee on Public Works & Transportation

my boys Committee on Public Works and transportation will commence can you please call the roll here here pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting to any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and

permissible um we don't have anybody to produce his input uh we do have a gentleman that's involved in this Mr Robert schneck Is Here um let me see so number two is the minutes from the March 28th meeting motion to approve second all approved hi hi no objections okay so third we have the communication from Mr schneck regarding water drain repair reimbursement all right okay attention city council regarding

lead service replacement at 79 18th Street Fall River consent form was signed by me Robert schneck an emailed to water at Fall River mass.org on 6523 on 6 16 23 at approximately 9 pm I received a call that the basement was Flooding at my property on 79 18th Street upon inspection water was flowing from underground around the lead pipe I call the water department and left a message

with the answering service a city water department employee arrived within 30 minutes and proceeded to shut off the main water valve at the street he handed me a list of licensed drain layers for the city of Fall River I immediately called as instructed Coastal Water and Sewer Excavating the owner Mike Aubry answered and scheduled an appointment for the next morning at 8 AM to do the repair

the work was done in an extremely professional and proficient manner the entire job took less than two hours the lead service removed had three large lead patches denoting the compromised Integrity of the line I have been informed that they are having trouble identifying enough homes to do the lead replacement which leads me to believe that since the beginning of this project any property owner with

issues should be part of the program most disturbing to me is the statement that I might be responsible for the cost of replacing the line in the consent notice it states that the city is receiving funds from the EPA win Grant Mass dep and the American Rescue plan act arpa to resolve these lead issues with no burden on residence I feel the city should be responsible for the sled service line replacement

especially when the city acknowledges an issue and sends consent forms to Property Owners which I signed before the replacement was needed Coastal should be paid by the city of Fall River please add this to the next city council agenda Robert schneck and he gives his phone number any discussion we're going to invite Mr schneck and Mr Ferlin to the table

is anywhere special any way you wish just please give me your name and your address for the record shank 73 18th Street in Fall River thank you welcome hey how's it going Paul furland administrator Community utilities thank you to uh so Mr Ferlin is are we anticipating on the reimbursement of this so since this uh service was replaced under an emergency so you take a look at the service there was a leak

on the service um any service that has a leak from the curb stop in the homeowners always responsible for um by city ordinance the homeowners responsible for their water service from the main all the way into the property historically the water department has taken care of from the main to the curb stop area property owner has always been responsible from the curb stop into the house

again seeing whether you know this was a lead service but whether it was lead plastic Kappa it wouldn't have made a difference on the material this would have been a leak that the property owner would have been responsible for as everybody knows we do have a lead service replacement program going on um as many properties as we're able to fit into that program we are trying to get everybody into this program this

leak occurred on a Friday night it was unsafe to leave this water on this property wasn't within the plan for a couple of phases out which could be a couple years away we are trying to work with any homeowners that we are able to fit within the program but again you know the way that this leak occurred when it occurred we weren't able to get a contractor from US service replacement

program out there to do the work so again we fall back that it was a leak on the service the homeowner was responsible for repair of that week so so one of the issues is that the I guess the contractor wasn't one of our contractors that was that would be performing the workers that yeah correct so it's not one of the ones that we have under contract for lead service

replacement okay to see I feel like the name is familiar maybe it's just drain layers licenses but have we seen is it Aubry Mike Aubry he does he do he usually does some work for us right yeah Coastal excavation they do do uh emergency uh work for us when we need to call them into do uh work within the roadways so I guess is is there because I don't I guess I don't disagree right

so I see both sides of of the argument right so I would I would say that you know if we're having this conversation prior to the lead service program coming in then I would I would agree with you I say the homeowner would be on the hook for it um however if the lead service did not leak he would have had it replaced right so we were going to replace it anyways

so is there I guess can we can we have a compromise in terms of I know it was an emergency there's probably some overtime associated with it or is there do you have an average cost of what it would have cost to replace that particular home if there's a difference right so I don't know because he's got it it's an emergency call um is there is there a way to I guess

discount what we would have paid to to get it if we can get it down to you know obviously per household like a cost for the lead service and so let's just say this 500 difference than you know the the property owner would pay the 500 yeah this is the entire amount again one of the one of the issues that we run into is procurement law to be able to pay a

contractor to do work like that prevailing wage or Davis bacon depending on where the funds are coming from to make sure that uh all those requirements would be met um you know again and I can tell uh tell you that Mr uh schneck isn't the only one I apologize if I missed it announced it's close enough it works not the only one in in this case there are others that this has occurred to uh increasing histories

but I I I I can I can understand the procurement piece right but the procurement I mean obviously it's an emergency so we would technically if it's an emergency I mean you could probably make an argument that you had to go out there that you we don't do the right we don't have to go through the procurement process we obviously would just make it safe and I think at that

point it's it's getting to a point where he's got water and things of that nature but I I well we got all this Federal money coming in specifically for that I I feel like we should be able to work with some property owners in terms of you know identifying and offsetting some of them some of the costs and I don't disagree with you because I I do I understand where we're coming in from

from the ordinance standpoint that they're responsible you know the city goes above and beyond goes to the shut off in the in the sidewalk and then obviously from the sidewalk to the uh to the building itself is the homeowner's responsibility but again I just it's hard to as a city council I don't want to speak for everybody but when we've got the Apple money LED service and you hear you know residents coming in and

it's like from my standpoint trying to work with the residents utilizing the Opera and federal monies you know which again we've been saying trying to get more to the water department and Sewer departments to offset the burden and the costs associated to the homeowners to me it seems like you know we should be able to try to find a happy medium and like I said whether whether it's if it's not 100 you know some type

of uh relief in terms of what it would of cost the city to to go in there and the difference obviously I'm sure he's he's paying a little bit more or actually maybe even less if we're not talking about prevailing wage yeah you know again we still uh for somebody like this we are still providing the credit that's been approved by the uh by the water board for uh replacement which would be 500 applied to their

water and sewer account so that still is uh eligible for any property owner like this so can I just ask what was what's the cost to you three thousand dollars from what I've heard that's less than what the contractor that is doing The Replacements is charging yeah again when prevailing wage and other uh costs so I actually got a cheaper right and you know so when prevailing wage uh plays

into it which that's the only way that we can pay uh a contract is through when they do prevailing wage um I've been down here in front of the council before and said prevailing wages you actually agree to pay my bill I just saved you money because it's less than what you would be paying the contract as it's going out now doing the schedule by the way my repair was scheduled two weeks

coming up after the league so it was already on the books that they were coming in to do the repair so it wasn't a few years it wasn't two years away it was two weeks away right again and we run into the issue with paying contractors like this if they don't pay prevailing wages their employees in circumstances so I I guess to that to that point I mean I know we're playing we're playing the word

game but if it's is it truly if you're giving him a credit is it really circumventing procurement because you're giving them a credit to his to his water bill for a repair as opposed to you know working and I think two two years versus two weeks that's that's a substantial right I mean if if he was only lucky enough to wait two two additional weeks before he made the call and let all the water go into

his his basement I think I think it would have been replaced it right yeah I'd have to check the schedule but I don't take it I mean I have it I have everything right yeah same thing I already sent yep good is that the notifications yeah education yeah this was two weeks prior and I think it was 11 days out that it was scheduled so that's the original consent form

and here's the form that I was given for the license drain layers for Fall River and it was coal still right on there yeah so do you want to see this yeah again license rainway means that they bonded with the city approved to do work in the in the street uh or on the water or sewer system in there in there by the city council to do work

so I guess I I'll say this I know city council as a legislative body has no uh authority to I guess even reimburse or suggested reimbursement but um you know I'd go on the record to make a recommendation to the full Council that a letter be sent to the uh water department requesting that um some type of reimbursement be made to the uh to the homeowner uh in regards to the lead service change

um do you and I guess I would ask is there a appeal process with the water board or anything like that that he could proceed because the water one would actually have more Authority than obviously the city council so yeah yeah so so we filed the claim through the through the city through the city clerk's office um the Law Department again that claim comes to me I do an administrative

review of it and reply to the law department so then it goes back to them they make a determination does that go to the water board as well or does it just go through you to the back to Corporation Council yeah and on Corporation Council will make the decision on the clock yeah I can't bring this up with water boards see if there's uh see if there is any uh

and then I guess I would um also just include that the letter that goes to the war department also goes to cooperation Council um saying that the city council does support some type of reimbursement for the expenses that were incurred whether it's through the Opera money or claims so before I ask if you want to make that emotion um I just want to make a couple comments if yeah all right

so I have to say that I agree with my colleague on all of it if I put myself in this gentleman's shoes I wouldn't be a happy camper either completely understandable his his reaction to it I think is and I think the city would be remiss if we don't somehow and again even and I and I I say like Council kadim okay the emergency part of it okay fine um if there's some cost

would I be willing to eat that probably but it just seemed three thousand dollars is absurd when it was when it was going to be taken care of in short time anyways so I can completely understand this gentleman's um dismay and uh I would concur that we take those steps and and see if we can get him some true uh relief on this I would appreciate that so would you like

to make the motion that wasn't a full motion Corporation Council to support the reimbursement of expenses and I would second that all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes motion to adjourn second would you like this because I do not want it and just so you know there were two more of those patches on that pipe yeah under the sidewalk so I don't know who repaired him over the years but you

think somebody one day would have said meeting again