Minutes of the WPCA Meeting, held in the Town of Old Lyme Memorial Town Hall
January 8, 2019
In attendance: Chairman Rich Prendergast, Vice-Chair Donna Bednar, Joe Carpentino, Dimitri Tolchinski, Frank Chan, Rob McCarthy, Andrea Lombard, Doug Wilkinson. Absent: Sal Cancelliere (excused), Steve Cinami. Also in attendance: First Selectwoman Reemsnyder, Selectwoman Nosal, and 3 townspeople.
Call to Order
Chairman Prendergast called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
Approval of December Minutes:
Motion by F. Chan to accept the minutes of the December meeting. Second by D. Wilkinson. Discussion: none. Motion carries unanimously
Chairman’s Report:
Nothing has happened since last meeting. Record of decision still going through DEEP review process. Hope that it will be completed by the end of the month.
Budget Update and Expenses:
D. Wilkinson reported that nothing new has come in since last meeting. Submitted a budget for next year haven’t heard back. Still have ample money to handle remaining testing expense in addition to some consultant bills.
Correspondence:
Chairman Prendergast sent via email (in advance of the meeting) a copy of the draft letter from himself and Selectwoman Reemsnyder at the request of City of New London asking us to recap what happened at their meeting regarding capacity and status of sewer project. Draft sent to committee, then final copy sent out with no changes made. F. Chan pointed out a minor difference between certain numbers in the draft. It was noted that the numbers are an estimate at this point. Also just received another letter from Town of Waterford asking us for the same information. Chairman Prendergast noted that we don’t need an IMA with the Town of Waterford. He will confirm that and respond appropriately, working through the selectman’s office.
Old Business:
Groundwater Study, Area known as Hawk’s Nest Beach
Received another set of test results, which will be put on the town’s website. There had been some feedback that we should try and re-order/re-structure our page to make it easier to find the results. There is a plan by the town to update the website to make it more configurable by each committee, so we will work within these new guidelines to post info to make it easily accessible.
Review of New London IMA Costs
Document sent in advance via email and it is intended to get us ready to understand the IMA with NL and if we have to do an IMA for East Lyme as well. Looking at agreement private beach associations already have in place. NL plans to use same model when crafting agreement with us. Chairman Prendergast reviewed the document, including breakdown of capacity and cost of treatment. Connection fee that NL assigns to us, hopefully similar to what private beach associations are charged. Discussion followed, including: potential cost of annual user fee that will go to a fund to pay for eventual repairs and improvements; the variability of the estimate based on flow; metering of the pump house; range of reserve of the private beach associations, and the fact that their contract stipulates they are not allowed to share with anyone outside of the
associations. The next step is for the chairman and the selectman’s office to try to craft a deal with New London that the WPCA members can review, then will do the same for East Lyme. This analysis will be a good reference for us to make sure we get a comparable deal. Will help us update our FAQ as we get closer to referendum.
New Business
Election of Officers
D. Wilkinson nominated Rich Prendergast as Chair. Second by A. Lombard. He accepts. No other nominations. No vote needed.
J. Carpentino nominated Donna Bednar as Vice Chair. Second by D. Wilkinson. She accepts. No other nominations. No vote needed.
D. Tolchinski nominated Doug Wilkinson as Treasurer. Second by D. Bednar. He accepts. No other nominations. No vote needed.
Public Comment:
Sandy Garvin, Garvin Family, Hawk’s Nest Beach: Looking over numbers on HNB groundwater test results, how do we interpret those numbers? Nothing to compare it to, no parameters. Who is going to tell us what these numbers mean?
Dave Mitchell, 61 Columbus: Good luck on transfer of power!
Rob Breen, Sound View: Congratulations to the officers, and thanks. Has been following minutes. Almost bowled over by comment by CT Water company to see the light, what motivated that? Concern about how the timeline is going to be laid out re: construction with private beach associations. Is that the time CT Water is going to work especially on Portland Ave? Understands that some info beyond the scope of this committee.
Chairman Prendergast responds: We are nowhere near the time for interpretation of the groundwater test results. Standards for pass/fail not clearly defined, too early to say one way or another. Testing will go on, and full evaluation will happen, not just the testing but the whole scope of HNB. In the end, the State will tell us what’s good and not good. Intention is that we’ll be transparent with all of this. As to CT Water company offering help, Chairman Prendergast summarized the meeting, and said he thought it would be rough, but it wasn’t. When road gets opened, makes sense to upgrade water pipes.
Selectwoman Reemsnyder conveyed that at the meeting, CT Water said they were very determined to get pipes in sooner rather than later. If Portland Ave is opened up and it makes sense, they will do it at first available option. Very agreeable meeting.
Motion to Adjourn:
Motion by D. Tolchinksi to adjourn. Second by D. Wilkinson. Discussion: none. Motion carries unanimously. Meeting was adjourned at 8:09 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Datum, WPCA Clerk
| 