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2.27.2025 Wattuppa Water Board

Fall River Government TV Mar 25, 2025

Transcript

136 blocks
0:00

The appropriate time has arrived. So I'll call this meeting of the Wata water board to order.

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Um quarum being present. Mr. Clerk, would you call the role? Fer here. Uh Collins here.

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F presidentio here. Okay. The open lead meeting meeting law. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or visual video recording of the 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 unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and

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permissible. Um we'll now go to the agenda. The first item uh is citizen input. I see no citizen input. Um the chair will move uh to item number two, the minutes of the meeting.

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Um after you've had a chance to peruse, the chair would entertain a motion to accept the minutes of the meeting as presented. Motion to accept. Motion made, seconded. All in favor? I I so approved. Okay. Second item, excuse me, item number three are proposed leak abatements. Um, if you would like to take a minute or two to review the leak abatements, I did meet with Mr. Furlin earlier today and we discussed those.

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The total of the abatements for this month are $12,1766. All of the uh leak abatements conform with the leak abatement policy and program. Are there any questions? Be happy to review them.

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Hear motion approve as listed. Motion uh to accept as presented. Second.

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Seconded. All in favor? I I I Thank you, Mr. clerk. The next item on the agenda is the mediation uh between the city of Fall River and the town of Westport. I'm going to ask Paul to give a brief uh overview of that uh as the board had voted to propose non-binding mediation with the town of Westport and that was conducted by former judge Moses. Mr. Clerk. Yeah. So

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uh in front of you you have uh the outcome of the mediation. Um so the mediation both uh us as well as uh Westport provided uh some premediation documentation to judge Judge Moises for him to become familiar with the uh the case as well as our positions. Uh we uh we attended a uh a mediation hearing on uh February 12th. uh both proposed uh sides uh in a letter uh it was out of that mediation

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was what an agreement was drafted up as well as a letter uh from uh Judge Moses with his uh with his uh opinion on the resolution for the uh for it uh the total uh out of the mediation the proposed settlement was a uh total amount of $293,000 to be paid paid from the town of Westport to Fall River. Uh that's what uh Judge Moses felt was due to the city of Fall River

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uh for past unpaid uh water bills uh by the by the town of Westfall. in going over Judge Moses um opinion.

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Um he also stated that uh if this were to go in front of uh a court, the possibility that Fall River would owe Westport $24,000 was one potential.

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And the other was that the city of Fall River was looking for some $600,000. Um, Judge Moses pointed out that the $600,000 figure looked at um contained interest and penalties which are not included in the city council approved um agreement to sell water to the town of Westport.

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So the sum of 293 $293,000 represents actually the cost of the city supplying the town of Westport with the water period. We're not making any money on it. We're not losing any money on it. So at that figure due uh do the city is in my opinion fair and equitable. I I would have to agree with Judge Moses's finding on this.

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Yeah. So, just to uh summarize uh summarize the letter on his one of his last statements on here, having reviewed this agreement uh I find it to be fair and reasonable compromise of this matter which avoids expensive, lengthy and uncertain litigation which is the key word is uncertain litigation which would be the next step for us.

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Personally, I not speaking for the entire board, but I I take the judge's comment in his next to last paragraph as being words to the wise.

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Um he he feels that this is fair and equitable. I I would have to go along with his assessment and the um we'll call it a uh I won't call it a warning but I'll call it a cautioning that to pursue this further would of course inter in additional costs which quite frankly won't get us anything. You know this it's a very complex issue. there's there's a lot of

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there's a lot of things. So to be able to uh a get a litigation team to understand all the complexities of it as well as then uh have them be able to uh explain it to uh either a judge in court or a or a jury uh is even another uh another uh triumph upon itself. So u it's a complicated issue and for those people who are not actually actively involved

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in utility billing it's a whole other world of of mathematics and complexities and also if this were to be heard by a jury there's let's face it you know we're the big mean machine so to speak u we'd be in a hole to start with. I I believe we'd be in a hole to start with. Um the board has previously voted to approve the abatement number. Uh it was the board approved it

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wasn't it wasn't do do an abatement. I'm sorry. They approved the amount due to the city of Fall River which is the same as what came out of the mediation 232.

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And there's no there's no need for the board to vote on the amount, but uh the board should vote to send um the findings of Judge Moses to the city council as we promised uh we would to the finance committee um and and to the members of the council itself. Um and this will uh be our summation of doing due diligence on on this So the chair would entertain a motion to accept the settlement agreement and

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forward it to the city council. So moved. Second. All in favor? I I Thank you very much.

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Um next item is the fiscal year 26 budget.

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Um it complies with excuse me one second.

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um mission statement to pro protect the health and public safety and the environment. The goals and objective um are as always uh to comply with federal and state mandates and minimize bills as reasonably as possible while meeting the goals and objectives.

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Um significant changes are the alle uh administrative consent order mandated by DP, revised lead and copper rule again EPA revised lead and copper rule improved issues by the EPA and the water management act changes. So taking all of that into consideration um Mr. Furland has presented the board with the budget and I'm going to ask him to give us a brief overview if you don't mind.

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Yeah, definitely without a doubt. So, uh in front of in front of you the board members, we have a uh a budget uh for FY26. The proposed budget amount is 16 billion859 uh,529.

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uh that uh it's a balanced budget. The revenues uh for the water department do uh meet the expenses as as proposed uh within this budget. Um so just uh to run through a couple of minor changes within the revenue. Uh so our uh rate was increased this year. Um the increase was from $4.24 24 cents per CCF uh to $5.58 per CCF. Uh that is a total increase uh of uh

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8.02% so 8% primarily uh is the increase. So, uh, if you remember during last year's budget time, uh, there was, uh the uh, the water board proposed a budget to the city council, uh, not using any retained earnings. I went down to the city council with, uh, with without retained earnings. City Council requested that retained earnings be uh plugged back into the budget to minimize

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the rate increase last year since there was increases large increases in both water and sewer. Uh that was done by the water board, but the water board specifically requested that uh since that was a one-time money uh that was being plugged to reduce the rate that that be added uh back in this year. Yep.

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So uh when we had our consultant Raph Telus last year uh come in did a rate study on both water and sewer as well as evaluated our budgets uh they did go through uh and they recommended the rate increases that they recommended last year uh as well as 5% rate increase uh for this year. Um, so we did come back this year with the 5% rate increase that they recommended as well as uh also

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making of the other 3% makes up for the free cash that uh we used within last within uh FY25's budget. Um so the FY26 budget uh is using no free cash retained earnings as a revenue source uh within the budget. uh primarily on the revenue side that's the only major change uh within the revenues is that increase uh so the uh study that was done by Raph Telus also recommended a 5% rate

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increase on the base meter fee as well uh which once I constructed the budget uh I opted not to do that 5% increase on the base meter fee uh so that's the revenue side on the Uh the expense sides uh most of the expenses uh for labor just had minimal increases uh based on cost of living increases uh or changes within it. Uh our overall uh expenditures within uh water administration had some minor

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increases for telephone and postage charges uh that have have gone up.

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Um other improvements you'll notice went from uh a 250,000 uh budget last year to 350,000 this year. Uh so so that's where any of uh any of our capital purchases that come out of the operating budget would come from. So, uh, if we wanted to buy, uh, you know, a new truck or if we had a major issue within the system, a collapse, a collapse or main break and we needed, uh, money from the

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operational budget to do that repair, that's the line item that it would come from. Uh, so that's only 350,000. It definitely sounds like a lot, but when you think about it, when you talking about a basic stripped down pickup truck costing $55,000 now, can't believe the How much did you quote the backhoe and dump? So, the backhoe is almost $200,000 now for a new backhoe and a dump truck.

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Uh, the current quote that we have is $220,000.

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So just those costs alone if you know and we have one backho right now that uh I believe it's a 97 say it's almost 20 years old. Yeah. Our oldest one and some of our dump trucks again within the 25 budget. We're looking to replace one of those. So uh you know that those items would come from this line item. Uh as we move through the rest of the budget,

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um we the uh next the uh distribution salaries again cost of living increases uh or were included within that. Um as we get to the water maintenance and expenses, there were some minor increases in there. We've we've seen increases uh as everybody has in their normal households on uh tires uh just oils and greases. Um some of those basic uh expenses we've seen increases on u and we accounted for those within the

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budget. So that's why there is a a slight increase within that line item. U plant uh salaries. Uh, one thing you'll see is a uh, increase in the overtime. Uh, so one thing that I did this year, so there's been a lot of uh, adjustments within the uh, budgets. As you know, the water treatment plan is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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So that means if somebody calls in sick, somebody's on vacation, we need to fill that spot. Uh so I did a basic evaluation this year uh to say if our employees take all of our current employees, if we're 100% staffed, uh the v the vacation time that they have on the books per year and the personal time as well as using 30% of their sick time through the year, which is probably a

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low number. we did not have enough funding within the overtime budget to cover just those minimum expenses. Uh so that's why the overtime budget was increased within this line item so that so that we would have enough to uh to cover just those minimum line items.

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Um as we go through the expenses for the treatment plant uh again there was some uh some minimal increases uh across line items intergovernmental uh those are uh fee some fees that we need to pay to D uh as well as uh some pilots that we have with other communities. Um that seems to be one of the larger ones that that changed uh throughout. We did go up on electricity

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uh just a little bit based on the uh based on past projections looking forward. So chemicals are staying the same. Yeah, chemicals when we went out and we did our full evaluation this year, you know, we were riding the chemical roller coaster for a little bit. Yeah. uh you know after CO and stuff like that I'm comfortable that we that we're at a good point and this is a good budget number

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for for this coming year. That's good news. That's good news. That's a large item. It it definitely is and you know that can definitely change. Chemicals are a commodity just like gasoline.

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They're affected by gasoline and uh so uh you know these are projections. You know I tell everybody that's a tough thing. You know, I'm building this budget in December and January and I'm trying to project out what chemicals are going to cost a year and a half from now. You know, we bid them out, but then you know, force majors and everything.

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How does it look when it comes when it when it we get to the end of the following fiscal year? But that's one of the more difficult parts of this enterprise fund um is is making these budgetary projections that go forward.

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Um, we're unlike any other form of government in that we have to anticipate this to our best abilities whereas government can just encumber that as they as they encounter it. Um, we don't have that luxury. I I applaud you for what you've done with this. Thank you.

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Uh and then we did have uh uh debt service was really the last line item.

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We did have uh we did have an increase within the debt service, but uh it was it was somewhat minimal uh compared uh you know a little bit over 200,000. Uh and that's just a uh a factor of some of our debt. So uh you know some of the debt that went online in uh in 2002 2003 was coming off the books. uh and new debt coming on uh took its place but not

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in full force. So funny how that works.

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Yeah. And we we had very little debt come on recently because of a lot of the grants that we've gotten uh between Arper uh and some other uh one-time grant funding money that's we've been provided. you know, we've been lucky here over the past five to six years to be able to uh do a lot of work uh and not put a lot of a lot more debt in play. I would um just like to say

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without pontificating um that um federal money is drying up. Anybody who's paying attention to Mr. Musk um he's hellbent to cut the costs of government.

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I'm sure the ARPA money will not be forthcoming in the future. Yeah. You know, again, I'm not going to go into the overall, you know, politics of it, but Oh, do there. There has been uh you know with some of our funding agencies there has been uh fluctuations in what we've seen from past years uh to what they've put out so far this year with in relation to grants or reductions in uh principal

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forgiveness or funding or things like that principal forgiveness. So it definitely will be a uh something that we uh may have to deal with in the future but have to evaluate that once we uh once we get to those once we reach it. Yeah. So the proposed uh total budget for this year is uh 16859,529.

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Yep. And just uh just you know and I know the next item is the rate but since uh you know this B this budget was fully uh built off of uh off of the rate of $4.58 per CCF. Um so just uh for your impact based on the 53 CCF per year which is uh what we estimate the average household at uh the annual increase to an average household would be $182.

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$182 per year. Per year. While no one likes to see an increase, I think the 1802 is more than justified by the costs of operating the department. Um are there any questions, comments? And so just for you know so you know um last year we did have free cash that was uh that did come out. So there is uh retained earnings uh that we do have. My recommendation again and that is how I constructed the

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budget is not to use that within the budget as a one-time uh funding source, revenue source.

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Um we did have about $850,000 of retained earnings that came from the uh FY24 budget. Uh it was uh was certified was certified this year.

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Uh my recommendation would be to uh transfer 400,000 of that to stabilization. Uh we currently have 795,000 or so uh within uh our current stabilization fund. So that would bring us up to about 1.2 just under 1.2 in stabilization. that is in line with what the consultants and the rate analysis and the audit have showed us is the correct and responsible way in which to operate and

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we have voted in the past and we will in the hopefully continue in the future to follow this guideline that we have.

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Yeah. No, 100%. you know, and we went we just went into depth last year. You know, when you're using that one-time money, those retained earnings as a revenue source within your budget, and you get to last year where we had very little of it, uh, and we weren't able to uh, you know, absorb or use that whole entire uh, you know, use as much as we used in prior prior fiscals. Yeah. you

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hit that fiscal cliff and it's raise, you know, you you have no choice at that point but to raise the rates, you know, to get back into that cycle where we're uh building a structural deficit within our budget, something that we know we're going the possibility of hitting that cliff again and falling off that cliff is just not the correct way to be able to operate a sustainable enterprise

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fund. I'd go so far as to say it's fiscally irresponsible not to. Um, we take this very seriously and I I want the citizens and and the council to understand that, you know, we don't take this lightly. We watch it very carefully. And once again, you know, I know you spent countless hours going over these numbers.

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Um, it's just the way it's indicative of the way it is.

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I'm a tired expression, but it's fiscally responsible. So, the chair would entertain a a motion to approve the FY26 budget in the amount of

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$16,859,529 with a water rate commensurate to fully fund that budget at $458 per 100 cubic ft or 748 gallons of portable drinking water.

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So move second. All in favor? I I So that takes care of actually we sort of drifted into item number six, but uh I don't think we need to belabor that one. Yeah. Again, just with the rate, again, the rate would be uh $4.58, right? Which is what's proposed uh within this within this fiscal budget.

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Uh that is a 12 cent increase uh excuse me, I apologize, a 34 cent increase uh above the current rate. Uh the average uh per CCF, the average increase um to a uh the average increase to a standard to an average household would be $182. Uh and so it's a 34 cent rate increase. One thing I just want to know, uh 12 cents of that is to replace uh the retained earnings that we used in the

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budget in FY25. Uh so 12 cents out of that 34 cents is to replace that uh retained earnings that were plugged in uh in FY. So this is a classic you've got to pay Peter because we robbed Paul.

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We we took to put that way. I mean we took that money from last year has to go back. So the increase this year would be 22 cents if you minus that out which on the overall is well within well within the understanding. So I think we're in a good position. I thank you very much.

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Make a motion to approve uh fiscal year 26 water rate 458.

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Second. All in favor? I. So moved. Okay. Lead service line replacement change order numbers five and six to FISCO construction.

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Um contract price pri prior to the change order was 5,41,82571.

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increase of this change order is uh 144,606 bringing the total contract price to 5,186 43193. Um you have anything you would like to input? I no so both of these change orders were for uh inspections of lead services. Um, you know, that's, uh, one of the things, again, I've mentioned it multiple times at these meetings, uh, in front of city council, on the radio.

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Uh, we need to find and identify all service materials throughout the whole city. Uh, that's going to help us find the rest of the lead services to be able to replace. Uh so homeowners, if you uh you know, if you get a door hanger, if you get a phone call, if you get a mailing, uh if you get a water department or an EPA employee uh knocking at the door, um please speak to them. If they're

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knocking on your door and you don't want them to come in, just take the number, give us a call, we'll schedule an appointment. If you're unsure of whether you should allow somebody in your house, uh we'll schedule the appointment. will get somebody out there at a time that's convenient for you, whether it's nights, weekends, whatever. But we need to uh identify the rest of these lead

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services. Uh identify all the service material of the city, find the rest of the lead services so we can get the bottomhouse system. Thank you. That's uh change order number five. Change order number six. Contract price prior to the change order is 5,18643193. The increase in the change order is 93,47316. Uh bringing the contract total price uh this time to 5,279059. Um any comments? So this these

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this is just for two separate months.

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That's why we kept them as separate change orders additional cost for that.

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Okay. Um any questions? Um no questions or comments. The chair would entertain a motion to approve change orders five and six. Uh motion to approve change order 5 in the amount of 144 60622. Um we'll take them as separate or I think that it'd be easier. We'll vote on one at a time. So let's vote change order number five uh in the amount of 14460622.

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So moved. Second. All in favor? I I uh change order number six in the amount of 93,47316. Um chair to entertain a motion. So move second. All in favor? I thank you very much. Item number eight is amendment number two to the um fiscal year 2024 lead service line replacement. This is for our engineering assistance at Woodward and Curran. Mr.

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Clark. Uh so what you have in front of you bid number two for $47,000.

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This is uh for engineering and support services uh for uh the contract the uh lead service replacement contract that we've been doing. So all those in additional inspections that they've done uh the contract uh you know reviewing the the material uh making sure that it's all entered right into our system so we have that historical data uh saved properly and stuff like that. Uh this is

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extra time that the engineering firm has had to uh has had to spend. Thank you.

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Um the chair would entertain a motion to approve the Woodward and Curran amendment number two in the amount of $47,000.

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So moved. All in favor? I. I. Thank you. Moving on. Aderondac farm. Um, may I be ex excused from the room in reference to this bit?

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So, you're going to recuse yourself? I'm refusing myself from this conversation.

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Okay. Yes. Thank you. You don't have to leave the room. If you don't, well, thank you very much. You can talk amongst yourselves.

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Okay.

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This is uh okay. This is for the Aderondac farm phase one.

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Um and we have the barn stabilization project um out to bid and we have the report from Mr. Tosski.

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Toki Torowski um who is the architect that uh is putting this together. um he reviewed the bids that came in. We received one, two, three, four, four bids and Mr. Tosski's um opinion in a letter he has sent to Mr. Furlin is that the lowest responsible bidder in this matter is the construction firm of Collins Construction and the low bid is 46530 and it is Mr. Terowski's recommendation that the award of the

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contract be to the lowest responsible bidder which in this case is Collins Construction of Fall River. Um chair would entertain a motion to approve the recommendation of the architect to award this bid to Collins Construction.

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Seconded. All in favor? I I so moved. Thank you.

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Um so just for the board too that uh that uh is all being funded through OPA funding uh this project as well. So thank you. I I thank you very much. That that's wonderful. We are joined again by Commissioner Collins. Very interesting reading material. Um the um Safe Drinking Water Act inspection report. I found this to be quite interesting reading. Um do they notify you ahead of time that they're

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coming knocking on the door? Uh they they notified us about a month ahead of time. Uh so about mid December. Uh I got an email uh saying that they were planning on coming in uh mid January for uh for an inspection. uh the EPA was coming into our water system for an inspection. Uh initially it it's uh you know took me a little bit by surprise.

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Uh the privacy agency within Massachusetts is D. Uh they're the ones that uh permit our drinking water system uh oversee regulate our drinking water system. Uh so I was kind of surprised that uh EPA uh was asking to do an inspection. Um, I did uh uh it sounds like they haven't done many of these inspections on on many systems, but it sounds like it's something that they're going to be doing more of uh throughout

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the uh throughout the area and the region. Um, so, uh, you know, they asked, they provided us with a request for information right off the bat, uh, a bunch of material, uh, that they, uh, could review, uh, prior to coming out to the sites, uh, so that they could, uh, so that they could get a good handle on what our systems like, what type of chemicals we add, what different types

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of components we have within our system and stuff like that. Uh so we provided them uh you know anything that they asked for uh anything that very large documents uh that we did have electronically already uh you know we had available for them on site when they came out uh which we let them know about ahead of time and they were okay with.

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So um you know there wasn't uh there wasn't anything there. Uh and then we spent uh two days with uh with them and there was uh multiple people uh from D as well.

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Uh one from the south coast region uh a couple from D Boston that tag that tag along on the inspection as well. Uh and uh we just received uh just received this inspection report uh last week. So, um this is the uh this is the outcome of EPA's inspection of the Safe Drinking Water Act on our drinking water system. It makes for very interesting reading. Um I I will say it's written in

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federal ease, which is a language all its own. Um but it makes for very interesting reading and I I don't really know what to say. I mean, we have primacy in Massachusetts. The feds are sort of overseeing the overseer.

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Yeah. Yeah. You know, you could you could say that, you know, uh you know, I don't know, you know, why this was done, you know, what the what the deal was. It was a good inspection.

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the the uh the folks that were there uh very uh very nice, you know, uh we took them around. We spent uh we spent uh first part of a day going through answering questions, explaining our system uh to them. Um then we uh did a full tour of our uh treatment facility.

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Uh and then we went and we toured uh all remote facilities as well. So all the water tanks they went to uh booster pump stations uh we visited all sites uh throughout the whole entire system.

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So, uh, you know, there there was out of their, uh, out of their report, there was a couple of couple of things that they that they brought up. Um, um, but things that I feel feel uh are, uh, minor. Um, but things, you know, there are a couple of things out of their findings that we're going to address.

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Uh, on perimeter of one of our tanks, they found a fence that had some poles in the wire. uh and um you know it needed some repair uh some minor repairs. So we're taking care of that.

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Um on uh on Bedford Street they mentioned in here that uh our fences were uh that behind our fenced area uh of the Bedford Street water complex.

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uh you know our uh watchman attendant is all 24 hours a day checks on that site every two hours and stuff but they were concerned that there wasn't a full fence all the way around the tanks themselves.

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Um so that was one thing that they brought up. Uh I don't believe that that's a requirement or a regulation. So um you know it was a finding. It was something that they mentioned in their report. They didn't say that action needed to uh to be taken on it. They also mentioned that um the tanks are under visual surveillance so to speak at all times. Yeah. We have cameras on the building that not somebody's going to

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scurry in and be nefarious in some way.

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But it's interesting reading. Yeah. No, backflow protection program was one thing that they mentioned in here. I was sad to hear Jeff Coocher had passed.

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Yes, that was unexpected. Yeah. Uh he ran that program for a number of years.

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He was here forever. Yeah.

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He was a good man in his day. Yeah.

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Yeah. And you know, a couple other things that are that are brought up within our uh within our water master plan as well and identified as things um that that need uh that need addressing long-term goals uh for the department, not anything that we capsulated to uh to do right away. But, you know, there was no uh there was no major findings. there isn't anything um that uh that they said was glaring

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out and they were they were seriously concerned about. Uh as part of this they did uh they did bring in a cyber security specialist as well to uh evaluate uh our SCADA system. Uh so you know there wasn't really uh any findings that I saw visually from that either.

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Not to belabor the point, um I I did um listen very carefully to a podcast that they were discussing um security, internet security of um utilities and water departments were brought up and it was it made for some very interesting listening. Um, and it's good to hear that the feds took a look immediately at our security and um, as you say, there are no gigs, there are no negative comments, there are nothing.

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So, yeah, you know, and we so we do have consultants that oversee us gator system.

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Uh, the business side is run through the city IT uh, department. We do have uh we do have a grant right now from D uh where we're going to be upgrading some of our security and encrypting some of our uh radio communication that was already in process well before uh this came out. So uh and that is uh that is going to be completed within the next month or so. U so uh I feel knock on

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wood right now we're in an okay place.

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Yeah. One of the big concerns that was raised during this podcast with the uh is the use of AI as it comes online now um and also with the new computers that are out there um using AI um it's security is going to become an increasing area of of vigilance and concern shall we say um things are happening so so quickly in the world of cyber.

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It's scary. Yes, really. Very much so.

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Um I don't think we need to um have a vote on anything um regarding the uh report. I just u recommend it for reading. It's it's very interesting and as I say they actually logged every time they or they included their inspection sign in and their phone logs which u was pretty good. So uh nothing else come before the board. Uh the chair quick question. Yes sir.

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Just an update on lead service replacements.

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How many we still have left to find?

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Just curious. Yeah. So, we have roughly about 6,000 left to inspect. Um, so, uh, as it stands, this this calendar year, uh, we are slated, as the acco currently stands, within this calendar year, by the end of this calendar year, we're supposed to be up to 1,600. Uh I have requested a modification to the acco uh with D uh and it's in D's hand that right now that modification to the acco uh I've

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requested that uh this year we concentrate on inspection and identifications of lead services. We'll be able to get a lot better uh bids on lead service replacement if we're able to tell a contractor this place has a lead service. This place has a lead service. This place has a lead service.

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Uh so the modification that I proposed is the additional is all the 6,000 unknowns that we have within our system that we identify those within this calendar year next calendar year. So from uh January 26 to the end of 26 then we replaced the 600 which uh in my eyes right now I estimate we may have 600 or less lead services within our system. Uh so we will get that done next calendar

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year. Uh and by the end of calendar year 26 uh my hope would be that we have all that services removed from our system as well as a full service inventory of all the materials within our system. So uh that's where we stand uh with that. But we are moving forward. So we're going to be having um EPA uh glow get the lead out initiative. They're going to be back out the end of March

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here uh working with our guys. They're providing us a team of over 12 people for a couple of week period. March, April and June. Yeah, April, May, and June. Um they're providing uh staff members to come out, work with our staff members.

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Uh and they're going to be knocking on doors. Uh they'll be fully dressed in a uh in a uh in a vest. uh with proper identification, different languages for the people uh asking to see whether we can go in and do an inspection. If nobody's home, they'll leave a door hanger, ways for the people to contact us so we can schedule an inspection for them. Uh so that's a uh technical assistance uh grant that's being

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provided to us from EPA. Uh so there's no cost for those teams of people to come out to help us identify the services. But again, we need to be able to identify those lead services uh identify the service materials. Once we have all the lead services identified, then we're going to go out and finish finish up replacing them. That is it. Any other questions, comments? No.

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Chair would then entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. All in favor?

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I I Thank you. Thank you.