Water Commissioners – April 16 2015 – minutes

04/16/2015

The monthly meeting of the Board of Water Commissioners was held at Freedom Hall at 5:00 p.m. All members, as well as Superintendent Chris Wiseman were present.

Also in attendance was Russ Kleekamp, formerly with Green Seal Environmental and currently with GHD Engineering and Greg Wirsen of Green Seal Environmental.

The meeting was called to order at 5:05 p.m.

The 03/11/15 minutes were approved.

All warrants were signed.

Mr. Wiseman reviewed the water quality testing results. Previous routine samples that indicated high levels of manganese were resampled as directed by MassDEP and were returned with no detections. By-Product testing was also conducted during this quarter. There have been no coliform detections and no increase in chlorine treatment. The flushing program is underway.

The following information was also included in the Superintendent’s report:

PUMPAGE 2014 2015
March 2014 Pumpage 8,699,000
March 2015 Pumpage 8,834,000

There were no new service and no replacement service completed in February.

Plymouth County has not yet announced the results of the new bid process for the upcoming truck procurement.

Mr. Wiseman notified the Board that the Main Street Main Extension is scheduled to begin during the week of April 20, 2015.

Russ Kleekamp and Greg Wirsen gave a reviewed the finalized plans for the new tank. Mr. Kleekamp also announced that he is no longer working with Green Seal Environmental, but will be available, along with the new stamping engineer, for the upcoming public information meeting.

Mr. Kleekamp updated the board with the small amount of progress that has taken place with the Fiber Optic Project in the last month. Russ continues to follow up with Gary Farrenkopf and recommends that we give Gary one more month for Open Cape to respond with financial cost estimates.

Greg Wirsen continued to present the board with options regarding the lease and installation of solar arrays and provided them with a proposal to facilitate the RFQ process should the board choose to pursue this project.

The Board of Commissioners then had discussions regarding the 2016 Budget including salary expense and proposed increases. The commissioners voted to propose an increase of 3% for the Superintendent, Sr. Operator and Office Manager. They also voted to budget a total of $37,500 for each field operator where increases will be dependent on licensing.

The commissioners will hold a public information hearing regarding the Main and West Street Tank proposed appropriation on Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. at Freedom Hall. Mr. Wiseman will confirm that Russ Kleekamp and the new stamping engineer at Green Seal Environmental will be available to attend.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. at Freedom Hall.

The meeting adjourned at 7:03 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Frederick Kiely, Chairman

Cc: Prudential Committee

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