12/17/2015
The monthly meeting of the Board of Water Commissioners was held at Freedom Hall at 6:00 p.m. Chairman Barnicle, Commissioner Campbell and Commissioner Mastro were present, and Jen Leger attended on behalf of Superintendent Chris Wiseman.
Russ Kleekamp from the engineering firm of GHD and Steve Johnson, Executive Director of Open Cape were also in attendance.
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
The 11/19/2015 minutes were approved and warrants were signed.
Ms. Leger reviewed the water quality testing results for the month of November. MTBE testing was completed for the quarter. No detections were found. And the By-Product testing was also completed with results lower than the previous year. Once the December chlorine results are received and submitted to DEP we should be approved for annual By-Product testing going forward.
The following information was omitted from the Superintendent’s report but should be noted for the record:
PUMPAGE 2014 2015
November 2014 Pumpage: 8,999,000
8,841,000
There was 1 new service installation and 2 side line repairs completed in November which includes removing the old service at the Cahoon Museum.
Ms. Leger informed the board that AT&T check that was missing from October was received in November, as well as the November lease payment and they are now up to date on payments.
Mr. Wiseman met with Sam Bell of GZA and members of MEMA and FEMA to do a site visit for the Station #5 generator grant. The site visit was a likely indication that we will be approved for grant funding.
The new superintendent vehicle is now in service. It needs to be sent out for the lettering and seal which we are hoping to schedule in the next few weeks.
Mr. Wiseman has executed an agreement with Tata & Howard to update the Emergency Response Plan.
Steve Johnson, Executive Director of Open Cape attended the meeting to present a new proposal to the Board of Water Commissioners for the Fiber Optic project that was started several years ago. Cotuit is the last piece to complete the network and Open Cape will be able to absorb much of the infrastructure cost by utilizing their mainframe and make-ready poles as they upgrade to 172 strand cable. This will connect the 5 pumping stations, the Water Department office and the Santuit Tank to the Open Cape Network. Steve will have Brian Hopkins come out and complete the initial survey as to the best way to connect all 7 locations and update the board again at the January meeting.
Russ Kleekamp updated the board on the progress at the West Street Tank. The area has been cleared, the existing tank has been shut down and a new 3-gate cluster has been installed at the access point. Demolition will begin soon after the new year and the new tank is on schedule to be constructed in the spring of 2016.
Mr. Kleekamp also discussed the request for pricing from GHD for the Cell Tower RFP and opened up the option for Cotuit to obtain pricing from other Engineering firms who specialize in Cell Tower RFP’s.
There were two requests received by the Board for adjustments to the excess use bill due to leaks discovered during the water usage year. Both requests were reviewed, discussed and approved.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, January 21, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. at Freedom Hall.
The meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Theodore Barnicle, Chairman
Cc: Prudential Committee
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