Wellfleet Board of Water Commissioners
Meeting Minutes
April 12, 2010
Members Attending:
Emily Beebe—Co-chair, Steve Gazzano—Co-chair, Jean Schaefer, Dan Wexman, Lori Vanderschmidt
Also in attendance: Paul Sieloff—Town Administrator, Marilyn Crary—Town Treasurer, Mary Fisk—Water Commission Admin Contractor
In the absence of Mary Rogers—Board Secretary, Mary Fisk took the minutes. The meeting was not tape recorded.
Emily Beebe assumed the chair and called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM.
Prior to Emily and Paul leaving to attend the pre-town meeting, the board discussed several issues.
The board discussed the question regarding Gristmill Way and how to gain access to said road for the water line and/or if the Town Meeting article should be amended.
It seems the water system was developed before Gristmill Way existed.
It was suggested that Paul Sieloff could help. If this is not resolved by Thursday, the Board will need to have a meeting.
Emily made a Motion:
To contact Chet Lay of Slade Associates to investigate the ownership and possible easement for Gristmill Way. Dan seconded. The motion carried unanimously.
Action item: Steve will call Chet.
The Thursday meeting is still up in air.
Lori made a Motion: To abandon Loop One on the proposed water expansion plan and substitute the Hay Road Loop. Emily seconded.
Discussion
Dan stated this would allow the water pipe to get into town with an 8 inch main.
The motion carried unanimously.
Dan made a Motion: To replace Loop One with a new line from the Coles Neck well down Gristmill Road to Hay Road under Rt 6 to Old Truro Road to Coles Neck Road to Route 6 to Money Hill Road to Briar Lane. Emily Seconded
Although Steve voiced a potential problem with Wellfleet Woods Road as a portion might be private, the motion carried unanimously.
Emily stated that Paul Millett has put together different cost estimates for these changes.
If the plan takes out loop one and replaces it with the Hay Road Loop, it would be an additional $400,000 to the current $3.592 million which then becomes $3.992 million,
call it $4 million. This additional cost includes contingency, design, storm drain improvements, directional drilling, permitting, bidding, and construction oversight.
Lori stated that the Route 6 estimate was doubled to be sure they had enough money also for Money Hill Road. There is a spreadsheet with connection numbers for each section.
This eliminates a need for a loop because it feeds directly into the system.
Advantages are that there are lots of people on Old Truro Road and Money Hill who may wish to connect and this provides fire flow to the area.
Paul Millet was also asked to look into an expansion from Old Truro Road and Coles. That cost would be another 479,000. Call it 480,000.
Dan’s conclusion is that the Board should do it because of the availability of stimulus money. Even with the difference between $4 million and $4.8 million, there is no risk because it won’t go ahead unless stimulus funds are available. The Board felt there would not be resistance at Town Meeting for $4.8 million based on the contingency that if the project is not funded at 50% with stimulus funds, then it would not go forward. Also a half million ($500,000) for contingency funds for planning is included in the present article.
The Planning Board has asked if we should replace the whole Coles Neck Line now? The Board felt they should be proactive. The present pipe is already nearing the end of its projected life. The present 4” pipe is plastic and already nearing it 20 years projected life. In addition, new connections can’t really be stubbed off the present plastic line.
Jean made a Motion: To include the balance of the existing Coles Neck Road system in the Hay Road Loop (Coles Neck, Pheasant Run, White Tail Lane, Oak Ridge Road). Dan seconded.
The motion was carried unanimously.
At 6:55 PM, Paul Sieloff left to attend the Wellfleet Community Forum – Pre-town meeting.
Marilyn passed out copies of the budget the selectmen will need to approve at their next meeting. They need to approve the budget tomorrow night. Took out reserve fund.
At 7:05 PM Emily signed the rewritten Rules and Regulations before leaving to attend the Wellfleet Community Forum – Pre-town meeting.
Steve assumed the chair.
At 7:10 PM Marilyn left.
The new Board of Water Commissioners/Wellfleet Municipal Water System telephone number is: 774 722 1947. This is a cell phone which will be answered during the Water Systems office hours and the voice mail monitored during the rest of the business week.
All board members signed the rewritten Rules and Regulations.
The Board moved on to Town Meeting Preparations. Lori felt they needed to assign jobs for distribution of the handouts. Lori volunteered to go down to the dump with it. Dan felt they couldn’t nail down the handout/flyer until after the meeting on Monday when they knew about Gristmill Road and which articles and plans were going forward.
He and Emily had discussed the handout and proposed a two sided flyer with a map on the verso without a tremendous amount of detail. They have all the text they need. It need to be condensed and bulletized. Lori will help. The flyer can be distributed by email to the wait list people. There will be no room for photos in the handout.
Dan will work on the newsletter Tuesday and will email it to Lori. Then Lori can hand it out on Saturday at the dump. Paul Millett will print it, but then will have to be overnight mail. Could get it done at Staples for $600.
Presentation at Town Meeting
Steve proposed they get Planning Board input. Be positive. The perception is that since the tax bills went up, it’s because of the water system expansion. This is not true. It is not because of the water system. We need to make this point clear.
Lori will send Steve an email with pictures. He will go through and pick eight slides for the Power Point presentation at Town meeting. Emily, Dan and Lori will work out the pictures that will be in it. Dan and Lori will coordinate via email. Send format in Publisher and content to Mary Fisk to put into Word Document for printing.
Given the time constraints, they’re not going to have it done for Saturday. Handing it out at the dump will be Saturday 24th.
Steve needs copy of backflow regulations.
Anomalies:
Both Jean and Lori are members of anomaly groups. Therefore, with Emily not present, there was not a quorum of voting members to vote on anomaly issues.
In her capacity as a private citizen, Jean had sent an email to the Board in regard to anomaly issues. This email is hereby incorporated into and made a part of these minutes. These questions were not addressed when the Board voted previously on the anomaly issues.
Lacking a quorum for voting purposes, in an informal discussion it was determined that:
The board needs to make a decision on applying the same rates to the old hookups.
The board has not yet sent a letter to those people involved.
The board has not yet decided how to equalize the payments.
The board needs to decide on giving incentive discounts to the anomalous accounts and whether this should apply to all affected properties.
The Board needs to decide if the ones who paid $4000 will pay any more than that.
The Board needs to decide if WHAT, which paid a $7000 engineering fee to connect, owes any more.
At the next meeting a Motion should be proposed as follows: Properties on the old Marina system which became part of the Wellfleet Municipal Water System as outlined in the email from Jean Schaefer will not be charged any connection fees.
At the next meeting a Motion should be proposed as follows: As stated in Appendix A of the Wellfleet Municipal Water System Rules & Regulations adopted April 5, 2010, those properties not yet connected to the system previously known as the Coles Neck Water System will conform to current connection fee rates.
Jean made a Motion: To approve the minutes of the meeting of April 5 as presented by Dan Wexman. Steve seconded. The motion was carried unanimously - 4-0.
The next scheduled meeting is Patriot’s Day, April 19th at 6:30 pm at Town Hall. Jean will get the key. Mary Fisk will attend and take the minutes.
The office hours of the Water System will be: Tuesday noon to 5 and Thursday 8 to 3 at the DPW building. The Admin Contractor will attend the Board meetings as directed by the board.
Jean made a Motion to: Adjourn. Dan seconded. The motion was carried unanimously — 4-0.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:22 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Fisk Steve Grazzano
Water Commission Admin Contractor Co-Chair
The Water Commissioners approved these minutes at the meeting held 5/18/10.
| 