===PAGE 1=== Minutes of 6/27/23 Sewer Commission meeting– via Zoom (Video Conference) Attendees: Chair- John Reynolds, Vice-Chair- Brett Ramsden, Members: Dave MacDonald and Mike Nault, DPW Director- Bill Bernard, Business Manager-Paula Bertram Absent: Minutes Clerk- Jane Ranley Guests: Mike Mackin John opened the meeting at 6:04pm. and did a roll call of attendees. The Commission began the meeting by saying the Pledge of Allegiance. John welcomed Mike Mackin who is interested in joining the Commission and will be on board after the Commission meets with the Select Board. Dave asked Paula to pass on their prayers to Jane, for her husband’s recovery. PUBLIC COMMENT- Dave thanked Mike Mackin for joining the Commission – just a matter of paperwork to make it official. Dave thanked John for his great presentation to the Select Board last week. Brett said he was very impressed with the DPW’s repairs on the potholes on Mulpus Road, using the grinding machine. He wanted to commend Bill B. on his action and approach. ANNOUNCEMENTS – John stated they received an email from Paula regarding some sewage backup in a Mass. Ave. residence, near the center of town. The backup was cleared but they are still looking into what happened and John wanted all the Commissioners to be aware of the problem. Paula received the call about the backup but was unable to get Clean Basins out right away. Instead RM Ratta was contacted, who came and pumped the manhole, where the sewage was up to the top. They then proceeded down Mass. Ave. from the center of town to the pump station. The lines were cleared and they are in the process of determining what happened. Paula noted there was a significant grease blockage. John and Paula visited the establishment which has a grease trap and asked for more information. They are waiting for the reports and noted there was a history of a problem in the area, between 2 establishments. The issue is on the property, where there is a junction of several pipes. The property owner had previously contracted someone to service those lines to determine why they were having a backup. Paula is waiting for more information about what happened, when it occurred and what pumping had been done. Also they want to pop the manhole covers at the site to see what is causing the issue. The backup was from 926 Mass. Ave. to the pump station, heading towards Fitchburg. John will pass on information as available. CURRENT BUSINESS - Minutes of 6/13/23- Motion: Mike N. Second: Brett R. To accept the minutes of 6/13/23. Roll Call Vote: Mike N.-aye, Brett-aye, Dave-aye and John-aye. ARPA Funding- Paula reported the Select Board asked for a modified ARPA request and she has sent the draft to the Commissioners. She put together the information that John presented to help the Select Board understand the effects of Covid on the sewer system, as well as the challenges they are facing from new regulations and financial constraints. John asked the Commissioners to give Paula their input, so he and Paula could compose the final letter to the Select Board. The Commissioners agreed that the request looks good. Dave suggested saying more about the testing for NPDES/Covid aftermath and the potential costs between Fitchburg and Leominster. Paula stated the numbers in the document are from Wright Pierce and are for Leominster. Their document also articulates their estimated costs for the flood plain monitoring and additional contaminant monitoring if they are required. Dave asked if they are attaching an engineer’s report to the request and John replied the information from Wright Pierce was their professional opinion but not a paid for study. Paula added Wright Pierce is working with other towns to provide comments on the draft NPDES and those towns are in the same position as Lunenburg. Dave noted that the state will be offering grants and monies for the water departments to deal with PFAS issues but has not seen anything being offered to Sewer departments for dealing with these issues. John replied that the PFAS issue is a much greater unknown than the flood plain issue, which could be $200-300K. He added that right now it is an unfunded mandate. Testing for PFAS would be one cost, but if Fitchburg and Leominster have to remove PFAS, it would be a very expensive proposition. Dave noted the costs would then come from the sewer budget. John added there has ===PAGE 2=== been a 50% increase in flows to Fitchburg and Leominster, which is significant. Paula stated the modified request needs to go to the Select Board for their 7/11 meeting. The Commissioners will send input to Paula asap. FY23 Encumbrances- Paula reported there is just over $50K in encumbrances. The pump station cranes have been ordered but will not arrive until September. Martinez Road Construction repaired 16 manhole covers on Mass. Ave. for just under $10K but she has not received a bill yet. Clean Basins will be jetting lines soon for $9,800. Paula has a proposal of $9,100 from Wright Pierce for evaluation of feasibility of redirecting flows. She also ordered more manhole covers for $3,624 and she has estimated bills for telephone and utilities. The cost of waste disposal and asphalt from PJ Keatings is $1,195. The emergency jetting on Mass Ave is estimated at $2,800 plus the money for police details. She noted the funds will be coming from various line items in the budget for a total of $51,592.50 and will carry over from this year’s budget to next. Paula asked for a vote and signatures of Commissioners. Motion: Dave M. Second: Mike N. To accept the encumbrance of $51,592.50. Roll Call Vote: Brett-aye, Dave-aye, Mike N.-aye and John-aye. Action Items- John suggested future discussion on grease traps in light of the recent overflow issue. Dave suggested pulling all the records for grease traps in that area and Paula replied they had started that process already. She also found out that there has been some jetting done, for which she has not received reports. The Commission discussed and agreed they need to make sure it does not happen again. Paula noted she and John had been investigating, along with visiting the establishment involved, but found out there were other issues on other properties that were dealt with in the past. More investigation will be done. Dave suggested looking at how they would deal with this issue during non-business hours. Paula gave a shout-out to DPW workers Jack Welsh and Jim Stickler for an amazing job in dealing with the issue. Bill stated if an issue occurs after hours, people can call the police, who will notify the DPW and they have personnel who will respond. Dave suggested adding wording to the DPW answering machine, to call the police station (not 911), for a sewer problem. Business Manager Report – Update on System Maintenance & Upgrades – Paula reported they recently replaced pumps at Meadowwoods, Francis and Mass Ave. There were 2 in stock and 1 was ordered. The cranes have been ordered and they are installing guards on the panels, to prevent shocks. Al Packard is looking at other upgrades and he has updated some reports but she has not received the final reports. She will follow up with him. FY23 Budget-Paula sent out the updated budget but it is difficult to find out where they are because the accounting department is severely understaffed. As of 6/27, they have $945,366.77 in User Charges, which is much less than the forecasted $1.1 million. Until the receipts for May and June are posted, she will not know where they are. Paula estimated conservatively there will be $975K in User Charges but will end the year positive due to moving money from other line items and encumbrances. They will not have the money they usually put into Retained Earnings, due to the personnel shift and upgrades done. There will be a surplus of about $20K which may increase if the Revenue figure increases. She suggested looking at more bids and spending more than $10K on jetting, manholes and I/I. Right now, they are limited to spending less than $10K on contracts. If more than $10K, they need 3 bids and if more than $50K, it will need to go out for bid. System Maintenance – Paula stated they received 1 bid from Chad Empey and it was significantly more than they anticipated. Bill has been working on adjusting the proposed hours in the bid to bring the cost down but they will need to rebid. He talked to Chad Empey and they are willing to extend the current contract out 2 months. They need to revise the IFB to reduce the preliminary quantities to come in under budget. John said they discussed combining the generator contract with the Operation & Maintenance, but Julie (Assistant Town Manager) thought they may have gotten more bids if they were separated. John asked the Commissioners if they would want to split them since they are going back out for bids. Bill noted one company asked if they could just bid on the generator maintenance. Dave suggested keeping them separate to help control costs. The Commission discussed the options. Bill said he favors 1 contract and noted on Chad Empey’s bid, the generator cost was only 11% overall. John suggested putting the IFB out again as one contract and Paula stated Bill has already modified the quantities, so they are ready to send it out now. Dave asked to see the modified quantities and asked about the increases from Chad Empey. Bill replied the ===PAGE 3=== monthly and hourly charges went up some. Paula added the increases were due to the increase in the quantity of hours compared to the current contract. July 25th & August 8th Attendance- Paula noted she will be able to attend the 7/25 meeting via Zoom but will not be able to attend the 8/8 meeting. She will be doing the agenda early for the 7/25 meeting and has tentatively scheduled Wright Pierce to attend that meeting to discuss their proposal for redirecting flow. Brett had asked for an update on Pond View and has added it to 7/25 agenda. John noted in regard to system maintenance, the manholes that were fixed a few years ago used a cement/concrete which degraded into powder. Paula stated she added into the modified ARPA request the fact that when Mass DOT did repairs during the repaving of 2A, the concrete essentially turned to dust. This may happen to all the manholes repaired by the DOT. Bill stated they potentially used a fast-setting concrete which has a tendency when below grade to turn to mush when wet and then to dust. Dave asked if there is are regulations for material used and Bill replied yes. Dave suggested going back to Mass DOT with the repair costs and Bill noted they would need to do a chemical analysis to prove their point. Paula added she has information on what repairs were done on a database and could compare a manhole done by Mass DOT to one done otherwise. The Commission discussed if the state is responsible for redoing the manholes when they resurface or were they were asked to do them by a past DPW Director. They also discussed the crack sealing done around many manholes. Paula will discuss the issue with Adam during the next Town Counsel hours and she recommended having Bill talk to Joe Progin to do more investigating into other manholes. Dave also suggested adding pictures of the new sewer covers to the DPW Facebook page to let the public know about work being done, as well as traffic delays. PUBLIC COMMENT – Dave wished everyone a safe holiday. John thanked Mike Mackin for joining the meeting and is looking forward to having him join the Commission. Paula asked about posting a joint meeting on 7/11 with the Select Board for Mike Mackin’s appointment and the Commission agreed. UPCOMING SCHEDULED SEWER COMMISSION ACTIVITIES: July 11, 2023 @ 6pm – Regular Meeting, Remote Participation July 25, 2023 @ 6pm – Regular Meeting, Remote Participation August 8, 2023 @ 6pm – Regular Meeting, Remote Participation August 29, 2023 @ 6pm – Regular Meeting, Remote Participation Motion: Mike N. Second: Brett R. To adjourn at 7:19pm Roll Call Vote: Mike N.-aye, Dave-aye, Brett-aye and John-aye. Respectfully submitted, Jane L. Ranley Minutes Clerk Handouts: none