Wastewater Treatment Plant Present: Ken Troup
December 7, 2006 Jodi Ross
David Lavallee
Harold Brown
Bill Spratt
Burt Shnitzler
Mark Sprague
Present: Jack O’Connell, Senior Vice President, Ray Willis, P.E., Project Manager, and Kristine Chestna, P.E., Project Engineer of Tata and Howard; Board of Selectmen Panny Gerken and Curt Plante; Parks and Recreation member Terry Boots, and Ed Plante
PROJECT UPDATES
Mr. O’Connell reported that the Natural Heritage program released new maps that put the project site into the priority habitat area and they will be filing a Massachusetts Endangered Specifies Act (MESA) Project application. The town was not exempt from the $300.00 filing fee and a check will be issued for this filing.
Mr. O’Connell provided the Committee with an update on design costs for the Wastewater Treatment Facility that included Phase I – disposal feasibility, $12,500; Phase II – groundwater discharge permit, $61,800; and Phase III – construction documents, $37,100 for a total of $111,400. The information also provided a list of additional work items agreed upon by the town that included: Disposal area load test, $6,000; Lacrosse field site, $5,060, increase disposal area $7,000; stream crossing permit (budget $11,000) $6,734; OAR grant application, $1,830; for a total of $26,624 and a grand total spent of $138,024.
SITE ACCESS
Mr. Troup reported that two site walks took place over the past week to discuss access to the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The options included gaining access through the Florence Sawyer School, Flatley entrance and a couple of possibilities on each side of the Salt Box. The site walk started at the Florence Sawyer School and continued in the upland direction toward Berlin Road noting that the town owns some of the land. This Berlin Road entrance was not considered viable because of the large ravine crossing that would be needed.
Mr. Sprague stated that the access on either side of the Salt Box was interesting but he expressed his concern with the location of the wells and was doubtful that DEP would allow truck traffic in through the Zone 1 public water supply areas. He felt that extensive site work would be required for this option. Mr. Spratt said the Flatley entrance was most desirable, but that the culvert crossing should be fixed even if it is not the primary entrance to the site. Ms. Gerken agreed, stating that the Flatley access should be permanent. Mr. Ed Plante also agreed that the access through the Flatley property was the easiest access of the site and questioned whether the town should take the driveway as a public way. Mr. Brown, DPW director was favorable to pursuing as a public way.
Mr. Curt Plante asked if anyone had discussed moving the sewage treatment building closer to the school which would reduce the impact of crossing over the culvert. Mr. Troup explained that having the building nearer to the schools had been considered, but was moved based primarily on the expectation of using the Flatley entrance. Mr. Plante also stated that the traffic volume would be less once all the material was delivered on site. Construction could take place the months of June, July and August when school would not be in session.
Mr. Troup questioned whether the culvert could be built in such a way to meet DEP and the Army Corps of Engineers requirements. Mr. O’Connell stated that the historic aspect of the existing culvert would influence the discussions with the Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Brown said that if the walls are in good condition, we could save money and just replace the top stones on the existing culvert as a repair. Tata and Howard will research whether it would make a difference to the Army Corps of Engineers if the sides were not being disturbed and we were only replacing the top.
Mr. Troup asked if the Committee felt it was worth spending the money to gain access through Flatley property although Ms. Ross was not sure we needed to spend money at this point. Mr. Boots attended the meeting to make certain that additional field space is still a part of the plans. He stated that gaining access through the Flatley property would also be beneficial in terms of access to potential fields in the horse ring area of the property. Mr. Boots would be interested in finding out the cost of construction of a turf field versus a synthetic field. It was suggested that if there was any money left from the WWTP project it should be used to finish off the field which would add value to the town.
After a lengthy discussion it was agreed that the Flatley entrance was the most desirable, and that the town should attempt to obtain the Flatley driveway as a public way with a turn around at the end of the road. The Committee agreed that Town Administrator Jodi Ross and Board of Selectmen Chairman Ken Troup would schedule a meeting with Flatley to continue negotiations to gain permanent access through the Flatley property to the treatment plant. At the same time the Conservation Commission hearing regarding the culvert crossing will take place on December 19, 2006. Tata and Howard will contact the Army Corps of Engineers regarding the potential repair of the culvert crossing and what their guidelines are.
Mr. Ed Plante did not think that crossing over the Zone 1 area would have any adverse effect on the wells. He referred to a plan he presented approximately 20 years ago regarding access to the town property behind the Salt Box.
Mr. Spratt also expressed his concern with the drainage in the boiler room at Florence Sawyer School. Currently the drainage is tied into the septic system. Mr. Spratt’s recommendation is that a tight tank be installed to address the drainage issues. Mr. O’Connell suggested that we wait for DEP’s final approval before addressing the tight tank issue.
The Historical Commission determined that a filing of an Environmental Notification Form is not necessary to activate a Massachusetts Historical Commission requisition for an archaeological survey. Ms. Ross said the cost of an x-ray scanning of the property for archaeological purposes would be $800 per day, with two days requested from the Historical Commission. The Wastewater Treatment Plant Committee voted to approve the amount of $1,600 from their budget for the archaeological exploration with the understanding that this approval does not stake claim to the property and anything found will be removed.
Ms. Ross informed the Committee that we have change orders totaling approximately $30,000 above the original contract price. She cautioned the Committee to get estimates prior to any additional work requests from Tata and Howard.
Meeting adjourned.
| 
