4 Turkey Hill Road Richard B. Zang,
Newtown, CT 06470 Chairman
Tel (203) 270-4300 Marianne Brown
Fax (203) 426-9968 Louis Carbone
Philip Cruz
Fred Hurley, Alan Shepard
Director TOWN OF NEWTOWN Carl Zencey
WATER AND SEWER AUTHORITY Richard Conte
The Newtown Water and Sewer Authority held a regular meeting on Thursday, June 12, 2008, at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, Commerce Road. Chairman Richard Zang called the meeting to order at 7:10PM.
Present –Dick Zang, Carl Zencey, Marianne Brown, Richard Conte
Absent – Phil Cruz, Lou Carbone, Alan Shepard
Also Present: Ruby Johnson of 16 Chestnut Hill, Sandy Hook, Chris Kerin of Kerin & Fazio, LLC, Sara Cwikla from Stearns and Wheler, Fred Hurley, Public Works Director and Jason O’Brien of United Water SUEZ
Public Participation – Ruby Johnson had comment. She is attending the meeting to hear how the assessment about FFH will be handled. She asked if it was correct that there is no cost to the town for water and sewer service at FFH except to the users. It is up to the WSA to improve the FFH facility without any additional cost to the town. She had done some research as to what money is available for the WSA to improve the Water and Sewer and asked if there is a feel as to what the WSA might contribute to FFH?
Approval of the Minutes – Upon motion by Marianne Brown and seconded by Carl Zencey, the minutes from the May 8, 2008 meeting were unanimously accepted.
OLD BUSINESS
FFH Benefit Assessment Analysis from Chris Kerin of Kerin & Fazio, LLC– Chris was asked to look at FFH in general and to determine what a benefit assessment might be for the Sports Academy. Independent of the demolition of what was previously there. What was and what is there and what is proposed to be there are some of the questions. Will there be a one time charge or build it into a common charge? If there is demolition of a building worth $1 million and it is replaced it with a $1 million dollar building there probably should not be a charge for sewer assessment on the same square footage since there is already sewer and water on the campus. Dick wants to know how we can figure the current assessment. The market value of the shells at FFH is approx $50/sq foot.
That is the shell value contribution. The sewer assessment runs about 11% which is 5.50/sq foot. 285,000/sq feet of buildings are planned to be restored. 70% of the campus is slated for demolition. The sports complex is separate. A possible benefit assessment for the sports complex is $180,000 if no other factors are considered. However the owners should get a credit for the current sewer. You are always going to take down more square feet than what is going to be put up. Someone puts up a stand alone building as new construction, should they get credit for the buildings that are torn down? Chris used St. Rose as an example. They are putting up a new addition but they are going to be demolishing the hall and they were already charged for the hall so that is credited to the new assessment. The WSA would like to provide the FFH Authority with the extent of the sewer benefits. There may be a formula for the
credit that applies to renovated buildings and then a separate formula for new construction. There may need to be almost 1.3 million square feet of renovations before there will be a new assessment. The shells value is the ability to build. 1.3 million Sq campus assessed at $5.50 that is close to the original $8 million value of the original system. Dick would like to work up a plan to give the FFH Authority. Dick asked any members that have impute on the subject to e-mail all the members. Ideas will be collaborated to produce a proposal to FFH Authority.
47 Church Hill Road proposed sewer benefit assessment is $18,000. This is for a re-work of the gas station property. They are going to be putting in a good size mini mart and they have been approved by P&Z. The square footage will be increased from 400 to 3318 square feet.
St. Rose Benefit proposed sewer benefit assessment is $23,000 – There are three separate properties that make up the facility. The building that they are demolishing is on a different property than the addition however it is all from the same owner and a previous assessment was applied.
Richard Conte moved to hold a public hearing on July 10th, 2008 at 7pm to hear the benefit assessment for 47 church Hill and St. Rose. Marianne Brown seconded, motion unanimously accepted.
Gallons processed vs gallons billed study – The bid for the videoing of the sanitary sewers system has come back. The pricing is better than anticipated. The low bidder is National Water Main Cleaning Co.. Jason went through and identified the gravity fed lines and marked where there may be 4 potential areas to meter to get a better idea what section has the highest flow. That area would be the first area videoed. Dick questioned if it makes sense to take a small area of the sewer system and check out the piping. Marianne questioned if we can do 2 meters instead of 4 and Jason replied that it is better to have all the meters at the same time or you will not be able to compare the different areas. Metering is normally the first step but Dick said that it doesn’t
have to be; we can do some videoing in a small area and take a look at it. Grand Place, Queen Street and Hanover Road due to settlement are causing concern. Dick asked how long to mobilize and Fred replied almost immediately Fred recommends to award the bid to the low bidder. Dick estimated that a quarter of the system is 3 miles, which would be about an $8000 cost. Marianne Brown motioned to recommend to the purchasing authority to award the videoing of the sanitary sewer system to the low bidder, in each category and to authorize camera work not to exceed $8000. The choice of the sections to be camera would left to Fred and Jason. Carl Zencey seconded, motion unanimously approved.
Final report from Sara Cwikla from Stearns and Wheler – They have compiled what has been done for the last 2 years. The storm water was in good shape; however the sanitary system was in poor shape in need of replacement but workable for now. The water system has already been mapped and the water lines are in good shape. Jason suggested that if there are new pipes being put it, we should update the water as well. The construction money for The EDA grant will not be available until next spring or summer.
NEW BUSINESS
Report by Public Works Director - The Bid for the Water Tank Restoration came back and there was one bidder, Hartford Restoration Services. The outside of the tanks cost for restoration is $121,000. The interior is all based on time and materials since there is no way to know what is needed until they go inside. Carl Zencey motioned to recommend to the purchasing authority to award the Water Tank Restoration bid to the low bidder, Hartford Restoration Services. Marianne Brown seconded, motioned unanimously approved.
Fred has agreed to check the current budgeting to assure that the money is available.
Scott Sharlow from the Towns Tech Department and Julio Segara from United Water Suez have talked. There also is a need to look at the computer systems at the plant. We also need to look at upgrading our lightening protection. Off sight back-up of data would be best.
Report by United Water Suez - For the month of May the nitrogen removal was 90%. We are back to our low numbers for summer. In two years the SCADA system will be obsolete. The Bristol Babcock will not have parts after 2 years. There are a lot of large companies that work with SCADA so that can go out to bid. To replace the system, we can be looking at $500,000. On the water side we have a problem with well #3. Two days ago we noticed that the output from the well was a lot less. The pump is pulling down to the water table if they run greater than 45 to 50 gallons per minute. There is some type of silt or calcium build up. Stephen B. Church came in and gave Jason an estimate to flush the screen – $10,000 to $15,000 and it can take anywhere from 3 to 5
days. After the well is cleaned, we might throttle the pumping of the well down to extend the life of the well. Well #7 has PH that ranges from 6.3 to 6.5. If we take well #3 out there will have to be a ph redistribution. Jason will look at starting the approval process with the Health department to put in a ph adjustment for well number #7.
Approve pending invoices – None
Any other business – None
Having no further business meeting was adjourned 9:55 PM
Arlene Miles
Clerk
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