Monday, September 17, 2009
8:00 a.m.
The meeting was called to order at 8:32 a.m. Those in attendance included Commissioners Demko and Spath, Jim Dow, Kate Lathrop, and Greg Hall representing the Community Center.
• Discuss fee for Community Center Lateral
o Greg Hall to attend to represent the CC
Kate Lathrop presented the Commission with an overview of her discussion with Chris Hichey, an attorney with the Division of Local Services for the Department of Revenue. There is no case law covering a second sewer lateral for a property so his remarks were speculative as to possible ways to handle the situation. It is the responsibility of the assessing body, in this case the Board of Sewer Commissioners, to make the determination.
Commissioners Demko and Spath discussed the merits of different scenarios. Ed Demko stated that the Community Center is an organization that serves a public good by contributing to the Community and it operates as a non-profit.
Commissioner Spath agreed and added that the Community Center was already bettered for its connection to the sewer system via a lateral to South Street. Commissioner Spath did not think it appropriate to better a property a second time. In addition, he pointed out that the lateral for the Community Center was added to the project at the last minute as a field decision. While the other properties involved in the project requested the installation of the line and knew that they would be bettered for the work, that was not the case for the Community Center.
After further brief discussion it was moved, seconded, and voted unanimously to charge the Community Center for the time and materials necessary to install their Central Street lateral. An invoice for $1,369.55 will be sent to the Community Center and this amount will be deducted from the overall project costs to be assessed through betterments.
• Approve minutes from 8/12/09
It was moved, seconded, and voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the August 12 Commission meeting. They will be forwarded to the Town Clerk and the Town website.
• Borrowing up-date for Central/Thaxter
Kate Lathrop presented the Commissioners with the spreadsheet from CDM outlining the project costs by street. It was noted that the total for engineering costs appears as $21,700 while the contact with CDM specifies an upward limit of $17,200. This will be discussed further at a future Commission meeting once all the work and the costs, including police details, are in.
A note from Treasurer/Collector, Jean Montgomery indicates that she will need our final figures by October 23 in order to make the borrowing scheduled for this fall. We should be able to meet that deadline.
• General Office Business
o Ed Demko mentioned that the Fire Department will be conducting a review of confined space work. Jim Dow explained that all of the Department crew, with the exception of Stephen Dempsey, has undergone confined space training. Mr. Dempsey is never required to perform work in confined spaces and will be sent to training when possible.
o Jim Dow informed the board that new two-way radios are going to be installed in the office so that we will have radio communication between the field and the office. The old two-way system has not been functioning for some time.
o Jim told the board that the FOG program has been approved and complimented as the best program seen by the MWRA. He plans to send letters to all food preparation establishments by October 1 informing them of the policy and letting them know that it will be going into effect effective January 2, 2010. These regulations are the result of state guidelines.
o 2011 budget preparation coming soon. We need to look into engineering general consulting.
o MWRA Grant/Loan for I&I. We need to work on a specific scope of work.
o Red Flags rule and project betterments will need to be discussed and voted at the next Commission meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 a.m. No future meeting was scheduled at that time.
This summary does not include every item discussed by the Board, nor the full extent of the discussions. The full meeting is available on tope in the Commission Office.