08/20/2015
The monthly meeting of the Board of Water Commissioners was held at Freedom Hall at 6:00 p.m. All commissioners were present as well as Superintendent Chris Wiseman.
Russ Kleekamp from the engineering firm of GHD and Andrew Casey from GreenSeal Environmental were also present.
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
The 07/16/15 minutes were approved.
All warrants were signed.
Mr. Wiseman reviewed the water quality testing results noting that all MTBE samples were returned with no detections, and that manganese levels have increased over prior testing. Two of the samples were above the SMCL level but not above the action level. The superintendent will continue to sample and monitor results.
The following information was also included in the Superintendent’s report:
PUMPAGE 2014 2015
July 2014 Pumpage 36,991,000
July 2015 Pumpage 40,457,000
Pumpage exceeded one million gallons on twenty-eight of thirty one days in July. July 2015 pumpage is the 3rd highest usage in recent history, exceeded by July of 2005 (41,224,000) and August of 2010 (43,430,000). The largest day was July 20 with 1,763,000 gallons of usage.
There were 5 new services, 2 replacement services and 1 sideline leak repair completed in July. The department also replaced a total of 5 hydrants on Santuit Road and Nickerson Road.
Andrew Casey from GreenSeal Environmental presented the board with an update on the Solar RFQ which is currently in process. He will attend the meeting again in September to provide another update.
Russ Kleekamp reviewed the results of the recent bid opening. The apparent low bidder is Biszko Contracting Corp. of Fall River MA. Russ has reviewed the bid specifications and references. The board reviewed the bid and engineering fees which as proposed will exceed the appropriation voted for by the district and will continue to work with Mr. Wiseman, Mike Daley, and the contractor to reduce the bid price and complete the funding.
Commissioner Campbell made a motion to allow the superintendent to sign the award letter as long as it meets the requirements of the $2.1M appropriation as voted by the district. The motion was approved. This will allow the contractor to secure bonds, get insurance certificates and sign their portion of the contract. Once this is complete we can countersign and issue the notice to proceed.
Russ also gave the board an update on the Fiber Optic project, noting that he and Mr. Wiseman will visit the site in Chatham sometime in the coming month and will provide another update at the next meeting.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. at Freedom Hall. The October meeting has been tentatively scheduled for Thursday, October 15th at 6:00 p.m. also at Freedom Hall, with Jen Leger attending in place of Mr. Wiseman.
The meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Theodore Barnicle, Chairman
Cc: Prudential Committee