Members Present: Chairman Stephen C. Lobik, Vice Chairman Douglas R. North, Clerk Joseph M. Prior
Superintendent: Craig W. Jalbert
Secretary: Dale Barnes-Johnson
Open the Meeting: The meeting was called to order at 7:30a.m.
Accept the Minutes: A motion was made by Doug and seconded by Steve to accept the July 8, 2009. Motion passed unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS:
S.R.F. Project ~ All our equipment survived the severe thunderstorm the night of Friday, July 17, 2009. However, a transformer on Bethany Road failed and caused one phase to drop out at the building which in turn caused a well pump fault alarm that Randy responded to. The surge protector was fine but we found out later that the VFD control panel reverted back to the factory default settings. Craig plans to place a call to the manufacturer to find out why. Flow pacing issues remain even after the onsite visit from the Lutz-Jessco representative last week, tests failed to reconstruct the situation on the spare pump. The next step is to look at the pump itself.
Tank Rehab ~ Bid opening is tomorrow, of the 10 that pulled the package, 4-5 are expected to bid. Craig bumped into Payeur from N.H. at the tank site; it was his brother who suffered serious injuries while painting the tank in the 80’s. This time the tank will be stripped down to bare metal, which was not done last time, thus being the reason it is the way it is today. As far as the project timeframe goes, the contract needs to be signed by February next year to secure funds; other factors that come into play are schedules and weather.
Sewer Inflow & Infiltration (I&I) Remediation ~ Surveying is going along, site paths are being cut to allow the survey.
Memorial Hall Project ~ Craig has been doing preliminary work to address the three other buildings that receive water service from within the basement of Memorial Hall (194 Main St., W&S Dept. and Art Council).
First is to have the water service removed from the multi family house, Craig met with owner Russell Bergeron, who has to first put in a pressure reducer first.
Second is to tap Main Street, Craig plans to hire WAS Brothers to bullet a sleave for the new service from the water main to the property. This eliminates tearing up the sidewalk.
Third is rebuilding the original service to Memorial Hall. Craig is working with Biermann Plumbing on interior plumbing.
NEW BUSINESS:
VADAR ~ Sorry to say the long awaited improved V2 VADAR Utility billing system has not had all if its inefficiencies addressed prior to being implemented. Similar to 10 years ago when VADAR was first introduced, the transition has been time intensive and wearisome for a number of reasons, VADAR’s philosophy appears to be “build what the user wants as we go” along the way designing functionality. There also seems to be a breakdown in communication with our contact person who has more of a salesmen demeanor vs. being program astute. If other then general processes are questioned our contacts response is generally “Lets Web-X so I can see what you are talking about”, “I’m not sure, I will look into that”, or “I will bring that to our
User Think Tank meeting”, or “That will have to wait until our next Revision Cycle”, “we want to hear from the user”. When first turned over in November 2008, Dale brought many issues forward, functionality in VADAR was not carried over to V2, some were addressed in the latest “patch” some other remain “future”, and some inconsistencies show on some bills which customers receive. Dale has had to create work arounds, create lists of required edits, and keep track of requests for repairs, as well as future proposed modifications, all of which is time consuming and burdensome.
Sewer Quarterly Usage~ A rate adjustment will be in order after an unforeseen decrease in usage and revenue experienced in Fy2010 1st Quarter billing. With the closing of M.D.C. usage was expected to decline over time, however there usage typically which averages 5-6 million every 3 months decreased from 2 million a month to 1 million a month. Because of M.D.C.’s vagueness it is unknown what was addressed, Craig has verified the Flow Meters operation. Further discussion will take place on the rates after data is gathered.
NEXT MEETING: The next meeting has been set for Wednesday August 5, 2009 at 6:30 p.m..
ADJOURN: Meeting adjourned at 8:10 a.m.
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Joseph M. Prior, Clerk
cc: Selectmen
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