TOWN CENTER SEWER ACTION GROUP
A Sub-Committee of The Harvard Board of Selectmen
Meeting Minutes Thursday February 5, 2009
Meeting called to order @ 8:06 AM at Town Meeting room
Attendees: Chris Ashley, Joe Sudol, Carrie Fraser, Wade Holtzman
Meeting Summary
Old Business
Approval of meeting minutes
Minutes of Dec 29 were reviewed and unanimously approved. We will review minutes from January 5, January 15 and January 17 meetings at the next meeting of the TCSAG
Review and Approve NRG Invoice
Motion to approve by Sudol, seconded by Holtzman, unanimous in favor to approve
NRG Deliverables
The write-up from NRG will be provided to Chris in conjunction with the invoice submission. This write-up should be consistent with what was presented to the selectmen.
Annual Report
Chris reviewed his write-up to the annual report on the TCSAG work to date.
Technical Support
- MRPC grant application was made by the deadline, we are waiting 4-6 weeks (early to mid-March). Tim is the liaison and may be able to get an earlier indication of the likelihood of receiving support.
- The Mass Development representatives reviewed our sewer scenarios at Leo’s request and said that they seemed reasonable. We don’t expect significant tech support to come from this group going forward.
- Technical assistance needs need to be outlined and detailed – begin adding these to the “open items” section of the spreadsheet
New Business
“In district” Outreach Program/Participation Survey
The approach will be to recruit and “train” a group of town center residents to help with outreach. The goal is to prepare training and train them by end of February
Critical Path – Timeline to Town Meeting
¨ Unknowns that need resolution for draft warrant
¨ Public outreach period: end of February through mid-March. Dependencies: O&M charges, betterment charges
¨ By-law to create a district requires a public hearing, which needs to be advertised on March 2nd
¨ Home rule petition needed to modify terms and reduce interest payments. This is optional but we need to understand the timeline for this.
¨ February 23rd selectmen meeting: review draft warrant summary outline with selectmen
¨ Populate draft warrant content by mid-March
¨ Draft warrant articles due in March (need date), go to print April 2nd
¨ Town Meeting May 2
Meet with DEP
Most important need for this meeting is to understand requirements for a sewer extension and to understand status of state revolving fund. Also to seek input, guidance, technical assistance on legal/regulatory parameters including home rule petition, district creation bylaw, structuring and approval of betterments
Meeting on financing alternatives
Discussion
O&M Costs Model
- Chris has identified a benchmark set of data from the MWRA regarding water and sewer costs.
- The committee agreed on the principal that sewer fees cannot be solely determined by participation rate and need to be managed through a combination of participation forecasts and a realistic view of reasonable private and taxpayer costs.
Future meetings:
Proposed meetings: February 19 at 8am
Actions:
¨ Joe to provide a timeline for by-law development and public hearings by the next meeting
¨ Chris to ask DEP for guidance on items
¨ Carrie to improve sewer fee details in model and explore tradeoffs between participation-based and managed rates
¨ Carrie to set up meetings for February 12, February 19 at 8am
The meeting was adjourned at 10:50 am
Minutes recorded and submitted by Carrie Fraser - secretary, TCSAG
Accepted by the TCSAG January xx, 2009
| 
