WATER POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19. 2018
7:30PM
TOWN HALL CONFERENCE ROOM
PRESENT:
Rich Regan, Chair; Dave Pattee; Amy Atamian; Jim Miller; Kirby Klump
Todd Eubanks (Absent)
ALSO PRESENT:
Eugene Burke and Carlos Paiva, Veolia Water; Katherine Stauffer
Chair Regan called the meeting to order at 7:35PM in the Conference Room of the Town Hall Building.
ITEM 1: APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM NOVEMBER 21, 2018
On page 5 of the minutes, the sentence, “The building is where the Redding Brewing Company is coming,” should be changed to, “The building is where the Redding Brewing Company is located”.
MOTION:
Mr. Pattee made a motion to approve the minutes from the November 21, 2018 meeting with the changes requested. Ms. Atamian seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous, and the motion carried.
ITEM 2: REPORT FROM VEOLIA WATER PLANT MANAGERS
Eugene Burke and Carlos Paiva informed the WPCC about the plant operation.
Operational and Maintenance:
– Weekly power washing of the on-line primary drum screener.
– Internal wasting totaled 10,802 gallons.
– 6,492 gallons of waste sludge were removed for off-site disposal.
Regulatory & Compliance:
– There were no permit violations for Redding in the month of November 2018.
– The plant is approaching 16 years without any loss time incidents or safety hazards.
– There was a pump station pump failure alarm. The functioning of the plant was normal at the time of the alarm.
– There was one CBYD (Call Before You Dig) on 8 Main Street. No mark out was required. This was done out of protocol.
ITEM 3: MODERNIZATION PROJECT UPDATE AND SCHEDULE
The SCADA upgrade had no issues and the plant is operating normally. NIC will be visiting the plant soon to do a check-up on the plant.
Ms. Atamian asked if the code can be backed up. Mr. Burke stated that the code has already been backed up. He said that as changes are made to the code, additional back-ups occur.
Mr. Pattee asked if Veolia has received their tablets yet. Mr. Burke said they have not received them yet. He said that he does have access to the plant through his phone. Mr. Miller followed up this question by asking if the computers have been upgraded to Microsoft Windows 10. Mr. Burke said this has not happened yet. He said the Mr. Johnson will be back next week to follow through with this upgrade.
Chair Regan asked how the computers are affecting the plant. Mr. Burke said that the plant is fully operational and that the computers are not affecting anything critical. He said that the new system allows for off-site control and crisis management.
Chair Regan asked Mr. Burke about Veolia’s relationship with Decian. Mr. Burke said there will be a discussion with Decian concerning fees. He will update the board on future decisions concerning firewalls.
Mr. Pattee asked Mr. Burke if there were any noise complaints during the plant shutdown/SCADA upgrade. Mr. Burke said there were no noise complaints.
Mr. Burke discussed the pump truck situation during the SCADA upgrade. He said it took each pump truck 37 minutes to fill up. Each truck had a capacity of 6500 gallons. The total amount of trucks that were filled during the SCADA upgrade was 50.
Mr. Burke said that NIC had two two-men teams working on the SCADA update. This made the update efficient and stress-free.
Veolia Water left at 8:06PM.
ITEM 4: GREASE TRAP PUMPING PROCEDURES
Ms. Stauffer explained that restaurants in Georgetown are required to pump their grease traps quarterly. Two restaurants are starting to hit their depth limits. The WPCC can enforce this regulation by fining the owners of the properties or giving them a time frame to pump their grease traps.
Ms. Stauffer said that she doesn’t receive receipts of the grease trap pumping.
Mr. Pattee said that some restaurants don’t produce enough grease to pump to justify the quarterly pumping. He said that these restaurants could provide evidence via pump receipts so that they would not have to comply with the quarterly regulation.
Mr. Miller said that it has been 10 years since there was a formal letter sent to restaurant owners about dealing with grease traps. This letter was written by former WPCC member John Shaban. Ms. Stauffer said that she has sent letters since she started working for the Town four years ago. Mr. Miller asked if there was compliance with these letters, and Ms. Stauffer said some restaurants complied.
Ms. Atamian said that reminders about grease trap pumping should be sent quarterly with the sewer invoices, and that during the annual review, this can be brought up. She volunteered to work on drafting a letter to the restaurants in Georgetown about grease trap pumping. Ms. Stauffer said she will start working the letter tomorrow.
Mr. Pattee said that Mr. Hartline’s statement conflicts with Mr. Shaban’s letter from 2008. He said that the regulation is clear, and that the grease traps need to be pumped quarterly. If pumping records indicate there is not a need to pump quarterly, then an exemption can be allowed.
Chair Regan asked if the assumption about the depth of the grease traps is correct. He said that 25% of 48 inches would be 12 inches. Mr. Pattee said that Mr. Hartline knows the depths of the grease traps and what 25% would be.
ITEM 5: FY 19-20 BUDGET
Chair Regan discussed the loss of revenue from Meadow Ridge. This is most likely due to the population declining at the facility.
Chair Regan reduced the proposed revenue to $275,000 to FY 2019-2020
Chair Regan said that Ms. Stauffer’s salary will be split more evenly this upcoming year. He reduced the salary budget to $22,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan maintained the Recording Secretary budget at $1,200 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan maintained the Contract Services budget at $345,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan maintained the Computer Services budget at $7,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan maintained the Outside Services budget at $10,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan maintained the General Legal Services budget at $2,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Mr. Miller said that the trash pick-up vendor should be discussed.
Chair Regan explained why he chose $345,000 for FY 2019-2020 contract services budget.
Chair Regan increased the Lab Services budget to $25,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan maintained the Sludge Disposal budget at $18,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan increased the Telephone budget to $3,700 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan reduced the Postage Budget to $75 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan increased the Legal Notices budget to $300 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan increased the Electric Service budget to $88,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan increased the Fuel Oil/Propane budget to $4,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan reduced the Materials and Supplies budget to $22,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan maintained the Pump Station budget at $10,000 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan reduced the Water Utility budget to $2,850 for FY 2019-2020.
Chair Regan maintained the Other Expenses budget at $1000 for FY 2019-2020.
Ms. Stauffer suggested that a new account should be created in the MUNIS accounting system for the Cal First Lease Payments.
Chair Regan asked Ms. Stauffer to remove the Cal First Lease Payment from the “Other Expenses” column of the Year-To-Date spreadsheet.
Upon review of the total cost of the proposed budget, discussion followed concerning reducing expenses or increasing charges.
The proposed operating budget is $627,125.
MOTION:
Mr. Miller made a motion to accept the proposed budget of $627,125 as presented by Chair Regan for the Friday, January 11, 2019 meeting. Ms. Atamian seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous, and the motion carries.
ITEM 6: DISCUSSION OF TRASH PICKUP VENDOR
Ms. Stauffer told the board that the Oak Ridge trash pickup rate is increasing by $37.61 per month starting January 1, 2019.
Mr. Miller asked Ms. Stauffer to contact Veolia about Oak Ridge and ask the Town of Redding about moving onto their contract.
ITEM 7: DISCUSSION AND ACTION ON INVOICES AND FINANCIAL STATUS
Ms. Stauffer asked if a purchase order will be necessary to pay Edgerton for the HVAC project. The board said this would be necessary.
Do not pay Veolia Monthly-December and Veolia Reimbursable-November 2018.
MOTION:
Mr. Pattee made a motion to pay all outstanding bills except for the Veolia Monthly December and Veolia Reimbursable November 2018. Ms. Atamian seconded. The vote was unanimous and the motion carries.
Bills to be paid:
Aquarion Monthly: $149.74
EDF Energy Services: $5,337.57
Edgerton HVAC: $2,849.50
Eversource: $2,834.29
Frontier: $307.33
Hocon Gas: $1,224.57
Hocon Gas: $15.00
Keough’s Paint and Hardware: $34.99
Keough’s Paint and Hardware: $9.89
Veolia CBYD – October: $15.00
Veolia Reimbursable – October 2018: $5,443.46
Veolia Monthly – November: $27,678.05
Total: $45,899.39
ITEM 8: COMMISSION MEMBER COMMENTS
Mr. Pattee attended the Tri-Board meeting on Monday, 12/17. The auditor at this meeting said that the Georgetown Sewer Fund is an enterprise fund, which is supposed to be self-sufficient, and asked the BOF if they expect to be paid back for funds expended by the Town to support the fund.
Mr. Pattee said that the Town should not expect the WPCC to pay the Town back, and that the only thing that would be a net positive for the Town would be the completion of the foreclosure of the GLDC.
ITEM 9: PUBLIC COMMENT
The floor was opened to public comment. There were no members of the public present for public comment.
ITEM 10: ADJOURNMENT
MOTION:
Mr. Miller motioned to adjourn. Ms. Atamian seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous, and the motion passed.
Submitted by,
Zachary Smith