09/17/2015
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, Mike Biszko from Biszko Construction, Jaci Barton from the Barnstable Land Trust and Andrew Casey from GreenSeal Environmental were also present.
The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.
The 08/20/15 minutes were approved. All warrants were signed.
Mr. Wiseman reviewed the water quality testing results noting that the Quarterly By-Product testing was complete and that the district continues to be well under the MassDEP requirements. Based on our current and historic results for these tests, Mr. Wisemen will be requesting a reduction to the testing schedule for THM’s and HAA5’s as directed by the MassDEP.
The following information was also included in the Superintendent’s report:
PUMPAGE 2014 2015
August 2014 Pumpage 34,465,000
August 2015 Pumpage 40,653,000
Pumpage exceeded one million gallons on twenty-five of thirty one days in August. The largest day was August 3rd with 1,922,000 gallons of usage. This is our largest day of the year to date.
There were 3 new services completed in August.
Mr. Wiseman reviewed the terms of the AT&T lease proposal with the commissioners, and the commissioners authorized Mr. Wiseman to negotiate the renewal of the lease with no less than a 5% annual increase (AT&T is proposing a 3% annual increase which is a change from their current lease agreement).
The district is waiting on a notification of acceptance for the Hazardous Mitigation Grant as written by GZA.
The new superintendent vehicle as approved by the district at the annual meeting has been ordered but will not be delivered until the required transmission has been built. A Purchase Order has been submitted for the order.
Jaci Barton addressed the B.O.W.C. and requested a vote to accept and sign the Conservation Restriction with approved modifications. She expects to close on the property by 10/28/2015. Jaci is working with Mike Daley for this appropriation and he has gone to the bond council for the funding. Commissioner Campbell made a motion to accept and sign the Water Restriction document so that the Barnstable Land Trust can proceed with the purchase of the property surrounding Lowell Park. The motion was passed unanimously. Jaci will provide a copy of the signed document to the district.
Andrew Casey from GreenSeal Environmental presented the board with an update on the Solar RFQ which is near completion. The RFP is going through their legal review, and will be submitted to the Department of Energy for approval within 15 days. Assuming an October 1st issue date, the proposed timeline outlines a completed RFP process by early January 2016.
Russ Kleekamp introduced Mike Biszko from Biszko Contracting Corp. of Fall River MA. Russ and Mike worked together with Mr. Wiseman to modify the proposal to fall within the approved funding for the tank project. The project award letter has been completed and will be executed by the contractor. Once all required documents are returned, we will issue the notice to proceed and a change order to finalize the reductions. The first phase of the project will be the demolition on the West Street tank.
Commissioner Barnicle, Mr. Wiseman and Russ were able to do a site visit in Chatham to review the new security system in place in their district. Russ is working on a USDA grant application for funding for both the tank and security project and will continue to update the board on the progress of this project.
Commissioner Campbell made a motion of accept changes to the commissioner accident coverage as proposed by VFIS saving the district an additional $500 in this policy year. The motion was approved unanimously.
The Board of Water Commissioners assigned Commissioner Campbell to the Policy Advisory Committee and Commissioner Mastro to the By-Law Committee as representatives for Fiscal Year 2016.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. at Freedom Hall.
The meeting adjourned at 7:26 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Theodore Barnicle, Chairman
Cc: Prudential Committee