Board of Public Works Meeting - December 18, 2025

This meeting is being held remotely by Zoom and is being recorded.

[clears throat] Members present. Um, Mr. Gier present.

Mr. Leavell present.

The uh chair is present. So we will begin the meeting. Uh Tim, first item is old business. Uh water enterprise rates and quarterly billing.

Um just I know Cody and Gary were we're going to be logging on. Uh I don't know if you want to wait for them and move on to new business.

Gary Gary sent me a message that they're running a couple minutes late and they'll log on as soon as possible.

All right. Well, while we're waiting, Tim, a couple of things. Uh [clears throat] would you have Jen look at the recording from um Monday evening's meeting and make minutes for us to review?

Okay, we'll do.

All right. Um and then if um those who are not with us are not needed for the new business of 579 Old Westport Road. Uh shall we take care of that?

Yes.

Okay. So, we'll move down the agenda to new business a uh approval of uh contract modification for construction work uh construction admin work at uh the Wellfield at 579 Old Westport Road.

Can you give us an an introduction, please?

Yeah. So, this agreement is an amendment to the original agreement uh to continue construction administration um of the upgrades at the 579 uh water treatment facility, including uh the CT uh pipe extension and clear well construction and and additional work associated with those upgrades. Uh I did visit [clears throat] the site this week and they they continue to make progress on on all the pipe work in

there. They you know all the exterior pipe work is is done for this the CT pipe and installed into the building and they're working on configuring that pipe to connect and we will work with uh with them uh water division and DP to get those online as soon as we can. Uh the plan is proposed to uh finish that up uh by June 30th, 2025, hopefully sooner. Uh this agreement extends their contract to

continue the construction administration for $50,000 and it it'll be funded out of an existing article that we've funded this this uh construction admin agreement in the past.

Uh Tim, [clears throat] is there um any chance those wells can be brought online uh before June 30th?

Um they can be brought online as soon as the uh the four log CT pipe is completed. Uh all the pressure testing and and chlorination and sampling is completed and approved and D approves the the wells to come back online. Um we're hoping to get it before June 30th, but uh you know we're pretty positive that we can get it done by June 30th.

And and are those approvals with uh DP or the town's health department or both?

Not the town's health department. It's with us and D.

Okay. Board members, any questions?

No.

No. Only one thing that [clears throat] Tim, sometime soon, if you have the time, I' I'd love to go out there and take a look at the project.

Absolutely. Yeah. Anytime. I'll take you for a tour. I I I'll give you a buzz.

Yeah, sure. That works.

All right. If there are no further questions, uh does anyone in the public have any questions?

hearing none. Uh I will entertain a motion uh motion to approve uh the uh what do we call this?

I think I believe this is a contract amendment.

Cont Yeah, thank you. Contract amendment to uh Weston and Samson for $50,000.

Thank you.

[clears throat] Do I have a second? Second.

I have a motion by Mr. Leel and a second by Mr. Gier.

[clears throat] Mr. Label, how do you vote?

Yes.

Mr. Devel Mr. Leel votes yes. U Mr.

Gier, how do you how do you vote?

I vote yes.

Mr. Gier votes yes. Chair votes yes. The item is approved. Uh Tim, moving back up on the agenda. Do we have uh [clears throat] the folks that we need for uh item A?

Um, they're not on yet.

Uh, is there any uh background information you can help us with uh to move this item along?

Absolutely. So, so you know due to an impending uh deficit in the water enterprise uh due to high water usage demand um forcing us to purchase additional water from the city of New Bethford in excess of our budget, we're forced to increase water rates mid year to uh meet uh revenues and expenses so we so we don't end up in a deficit.

We are morning Cody. We are also immediately uh planning to trans we immediately transitioning to quarterly billing for water and sewer utilities.

Um while this has been planned since the transition um to cellular meter endpoints um we we haven't transitioned uh yet to date due to staffing but now we have the staffing in place and and we are we're planning to transition immediately along with the the increase in rates and [clears throat] you know the the transition to quarterly billing will assist you know users It's a better budget uh for CO going

rather than by annually billing. And it'll also allow, you know, us the water [clears throat] division and the um in the in the finance department to better track our revenues and expenses um with the quarterly billing um rather than by annual billing.

The new the new water rate increase um is proposed at 13%.

Which is will be implemented immediately um and implemented on all quarterly billing billing going forward. Um right. Um we have um in the packet there's a there's a a a back of bill example which includes the the rates the tier rates for water as well as the the tier rates for quarterly sewer as we're we're also transitioning quarterly sewer and along with that is we we're also adding a an

additional $3 charge per bill to to pay for the ion water uh program that allows our users to view their usage at real time. So [clears throat] they can, you know, set parameters to see how much water they're using uh real time and and including if there are any leaks in their system, they should be able to uh see that a lot sooner where with with one with annual billing and without the cellular reads,

we could only go back 90 days. So, so on a six-month bill, we can, you know, once we get the uh request to look at a bill due to a high due to a high bill and high usage, we can only go 90 days into that into that uh session. [clears throat] and and usually that's about 60 days into their billing cycle because you know but but by the time the bills went out the reads

were done the bills went out and then the calls came in you couldn't go back to at least four months of that billing.

So, so this allows you to go back real time. You can go back to any date usage and uh and it should it should help with, you know, with usage and and use users uh being able to monitor and manage their own usage.

Tim, that capability is now townwide.

Yes, it is. It is. It's all for all users. So, you have uh based on your account number, your your water and sew your water account number. So you use that account number to log in to the to the ion water system.

How would you characterize the reasons why the town purchased so much water from New Beth?

Uh the peak demand. Um so so if we look at uh the past usage uh in the past couple years that the the usage has been going up and the demands have been going up.

So I you know I would contribute that to growth in the town um uh es especially during during maybe seasonal residents along with a number of our wells being down for certain reasons. We, you know, we've had a couple storms that have knocked out uh power and transformers to a number of our wells. And uh know back in 2020, we had a we had a a big storm that uh actually introduced uh bacteria

into a couple of our wells at the Penelli site, which we were unable to turn back on after that, unless we were to either install the floor log system, which we are doing now, or issue a boil order, which we we we didn't want to issue a boil order Right.

This So once we get these back online, you know, that that'll allow us to turn three the three of our Panelli wells back online to work in in conjunction with the well field that that's currently on online and uh and that all goes through the 579 O Westport road facility. Um and then our future plans uh in capital includes work at two of our other treatment facilities to upgrade pipe sizes and and treatment to

allow us to turn on an additional two wells in the future.

Will we ever reach the capacity with the existing wells we have?

uh I don't I don't think we'll ever reach uh the capacity to supply 100% of the water during peak usage. So I think we'll all we we'll always have to rely on a supplemental interconnection and you know it's it's great that we do have that interconnection so we don't run out of you know water supply but we should also conserve water um especially during you know peak periods and dry

periods. Um, so we don't have to rely on on interconnections that cost uh 10 times what we pay to supply water, you know, 10 times the cost that that it cost us to supply water to our users.

And we've always, you know, we started off back, you know, back using 100% of of water from the city in New Bedford and we've transitioned lower and lower and and at one point we were, you know, we were at the, you know, 15 to to 20% usage and in the, you know, in the past like six or seven years that's that's crept up and that at one point uh couple years back we we

50% of our water came from the city.

method.

So that you know that hits our budget hard and that we're not we don't budget for that much use. So any other questions, Mr. Leel?

Uh no sir. Thank you.

We're hoping we're hoping to get back to that 15 to 20% to to stay within our budget.

Mr. G, any questions? I don't have questions specifically at this time, but I would like to make two comments after we take a vote on this particular matter.

All right. Um, I'd like to make sure it's clear on the record that we had an extensive discussion in our [clears throat] last meeting, uh, which was held in conjunction with the select board. Uh, at that meeting, we got [clears throat] a, uh, a detailed presentation by, uh, Mr. Hadad, the county administrator, and um we had an extensive discussion about uh conservation and how to um be sure that

we're using water as efficiently as possible moving forward. Um okay, with that, uh Mr. Hadad, I see you on the uh do do you have any questions?

No, I think we've we've pumped out hopefully as much information as possible for the board to make an educated uh decision.

All right. Um any comments by the public?

Hearing none. Uh I will entertain a vote.

I will motion motion to approve the water enterprise rates and quarterly billing.

uh as proposed in the materials uh provided as part of this meeting.

I second and these will go into effect immediately.

All right. So I have a motion uh by Mr.

Gier to approve the increase in water rates uh by 13% as proposed in the materials submitted to the board uh to be uh effective immediately and to shift to quarterly billings. Do I have a second?

Second motion. I second it.

Okay. So the the motion the original motion is by Mr. Label the second by Mr.

Gier. Uh Mr. Label, how do you vote?

Yes.

Mr. Gier, yes.

Uh chair votes yes. Uh the item is carried unanimously. Uh any other comments on this, Tim?

I do. So um you know, in in in working with the select board and and the town administrator and Gary, you know, we all realize it's sensitive when nobody wants to increase rates. Um so you know you know we just you know we were forced to due to a budget uh deficit. Um and and we will be uh placing an insert into the quarterly billing uh to explain the uh the increase and the quarterly billing

and uh to uh users uh so when they do get their bill they they will understand.

All right. Um Mr. Gier, you said you had a comment.

Yes. Um, [clears throat] first, excuse me. First of all, I'd like to thank, you know, the team of Tim, Cody, and Gary for putting together a very good, clear explanation of the situation and the necessity to implement what we have just voted. But I think there's some significant takeaways from this. This is certainly a get your attention uh event in that um we have this particular situation and my concern

is that a couple of things maybe should be considered to uh be implemented. One in particular is the top 20% residential and commercial users of our public water supply should get a specialized tailored letter to them that they should look at the issue of conservation specifically. A lot of people in this community are very conscious of our aquifers and you know their supply but there are some

significant users. If we got residential units users that have three bedrooms and [clears throat] you know they're using significant consumption um they should get a specific letter that states that they need to look at you know conservation measures and the same with commercial and industrial.

uh there are water conservation measures that can be implemented in both commercial and industrial and those users should be looking at them. We're in uh a situation that I think you know need some uh specific target uh input attention. The second comment I would make is that we should get ahead of the spectrum on our future uh well in aquifer uh supplies in light of the acquisition

that we just obtained on the eastern side of the past commandit river. uh we have no wells on that side and the team that identifies you know uh cones of influence and well potential is going to need to take some time to develop whether or not that area has favorability for future water supplies.

We don't want to be at the brink again uh down a year from now when the penelli wells go online and we're still like uh having to buy you know significant amounts of bottle. Let's address how we can do it and how we can do in a timely manner so that if we have to go to high supplements from New Bedford that we're we're ready and we're getting ahead of

it. So I would ask that Tim at our January meeting come back and detail for us what is necessary to look at uh these additional locations and what the budget would be for development of new uh well fields.

Thank you.

Y thank you Michael Mr. Uh, Label, any comments?

Well, I I guess uh Mike W said that was, you know, that needs to be the future. People need to learn to conserve and we got to develop more water wells. Uh, [snorts] you know, couple of things, you know, have we ever tried to renegotiate with New Befford on what we're charged with the amount of water that we buy? uh we should we should certainly be getting or at least asking for a better price. Uh

are we looking for new resources with other communities and we should be you know looking at that and and in in an eye towards trying to lower those costs.

Um, you know, my third comment in regards to this, it um, it took us quite a while to get to a different billing process, but most people budget monthly, not semianually or quarterly. Uh, it's more affordable. Uh, you know, people get a quarterly bill and and it and they go, "Wow." Um, are we going to continue to work towards monthly billing? I think that's important for the public and the

affordability of water in the town. With the way rates are going up, um, we have to do something as the government entity to make it, you know, palatable to the public.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair.

[clears throat] Oh, I can I can comment if you like Mr.

Uh well why don't we uh these are uh these are pretty there are three items that have been raised um less per capita water use which is conservation um evaluation of new sources getting into that kind of a an approach and the third is uh a better better contract terms with our major source New Bedford and um fourth comment is um how we can uh change the billing cycle to reduce

the amount of each bill. We're going to quarterly bills and so uh Mr. Leel is asking whether uh it's appropriate to go to a monthly bill. Um but why don't we bring that package back, Tim? uh so you have a chance to uh uh discuss it with [clears throat] uh town hall and uh can can kind of get back with all the ins and outs because I'm sure these are uh some of these

questions are going to require a little bit of thought. So Rob, Rob, can I add one other thing? That is we know, [clears throat] excuse me, right now that there is a potential in the permitting process for 1,400 additional units of either condominium or apartment living complex u you know units of housing. I would like to have that added to that at for discussion at a further point and for the water department to

tell us what percentage of increase that would be in water consumption and um you know how that's going to factor in into the future. Um those projects if they're permitted potentially could be all online within two years.

The uh [clears throat] I agree the clear implication there is that um we may conserve but break even in terms of our [clears throat] average water use.

Yeah. Thank you.

All right. Um okay. Anything else from the board?

Uh Tim, I think you we were pretty clear on uh getting some kind of a report back.

Yes. Uh, Cody and Gary, do you guys have anything you want to add?

No, I don't think so. Happy holidays.

Okay.

Happy holidays.

Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Um, everybody be safe and and enjoy. Um, so we'll move down our agenda to uh committee updates. Um, any board members have committee updates?

I have nothing.

All right.

Um, uh, Rob, one thing I would like to bring up, Sure. is that uh the regional refuge district had a meeting yesterday and there is a signed memorandum of agreement between uh New Bedford and Dartmouth um on the issue of an evaluation of a centralized transfer station uh concept with the district. uh the composition of that committee will require uh one technical person from the city of New Bedford and one technical

person from uh Dartmouth. So I would ask that maybe Tim think think about who that might be and at a future meeting uh we could then take a vote on uh having that technical person added to uh that uh steady committee.

I definitely will. Thank you, Mr. Gier. Do you anticipate that needs to be done uh before our January meeting or is it is the January meeting an acceptable time?

Uh January is fine. Government moves slow.

Sometimes they move slow.

Yes, it does.

Uh all right. Uh anything else on committees? Thank you for bringing that up. Uh Tim, director updates.

Um, so first off, I I would like to give a shout out to all of our staff who came in to treat and plow the roads over this past weekend storm. Um, you know, the storm that was forecast to start late evening on Saturday and end early afternoon to early evening on Sunday continued through late evening. uh and with uh plummeting temperatures uh and freezing conditions uh you know they

they were out there working to keep the road safe for all of our motorists and residents. uh the conditions were were tough and uh you know they were out there all weekend and then then they reported back to work on Monday morning for no more operations and uh an additional cleanup where we had a water mane break early morning on on Monday where the DSI crew went out and and took

care care of that and repaired the prepared the break promptly Monday morning and it's a shout out to all of our crews that that were did a great job.

Yes, they did. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you to all of them.

Tim, uh just as kind of a question of curiosity, my my impression is that the crew does a really good job. And one of the ways I think to be able to see that in some kind of uh I don't know numbers or whatever is to understand whether there were were any serious accidents during that storm and if there were none then I think it would be appropriate to report that to the

select board as the you know what it what it means when the crew is out there doing a good job. Absolutely.

So, if you could maybe you could ask a couple of questions and and then report to the select board so that there's a little bit of visibility for these guys because otherwise they sort of work in the background and all the good work they do um people don't necessarily notice or understand what it's all about.

Sure.

Right. Um anything else, Tim? Um not on the storm, but I I do have some some updates. Um okay, just a project update. Um uh the preserve 40b in regards to water and sewer connection fees. Um we're unable to charge the fees that were approved in uh 2023 by the board as there is case law that uh that requires us to only charge the fees that were in effect at the time of the comprehensive permit

approval which was approved in 2018.

So that's unfortunate because we have costs that we have to meet um that that have escalated a lot since 2018. But the, you know, the housing uh commission in the state, you know, has and requires that. And this, like I said, this this case law going back to um cases that have that have turned out in the favor of the developer.

Mr. Chairman, on on that particular matter, [clears throat] I would like to see if Tim could ask for permission from the select board to have the legal representative that's advising the town on these comprehensive permits.

I'd like to see them uh get a written opinion they could share with us relative to utilities and the issue of the market uh rate units, not the affordable units, but the market rate units on the applicability of charging them the rate, the present rate and basically dividing it and what Tim has just said on the 25% of the affordable units. I think we need something in writing on this. We're

we're heading down this path. Uh our superintendent has just mentioned that we incur cost with this. I just mentioned the issue of development of additional water supplies. I think we should have something in writing from a 40B expert that the the town has engaged on this and I would ask that he put in writing a request letter to the select board in this regard because I'd like to

be able to read and see the citations that develop what Tim has just advised us on.

Uh Tim, if you uh that's a pretty uh clear request.

Yes.

Uh if there are any issues with that, would you get back uh to Mr. Gier?

Absolutely.

Um work through what it what it takes to satisfy his question because I think that's a very important issue.

Yeah. What what would be the split on that market rate units versus the 40b units? 20 25% of those units have to be considered affordable under a comprehensive permit.

So it' be 2575 split.

All right. That's uh that's a big value.

Yes, it is. All right. Um anything else, Tim?

Um we we had our walkth through tour of the wastewater treatment facility. Uh it was last week after the board of public works meeting. uh for uh consultants who are interested in uh working on or submitting an RFQ for the comprehensive wastewater management plan. Uh the tour went well. There was a good amount of attendance um that that came out for the for the tour and and uh it it was a good

it was a good day and we expect to see some competitive fires. How many uh how many different groups did you have roughly?

Yeah, maybe about five or six.

Good.

Yeah.

And then um moving on to our our Ellswick in Route 6 pump station upgrade. Uh we had rebid that uh project and we had the pre-bid held on December 9th uh here at the DPW. Um and that was that was attended well. I it wasn't a mandatory pre-bid meeting. So I you know but I still would have liked to see more attendance. But that ended uh with a tour of our two pump stations, our Route

Six and our Ellswick uh street pump stations. Um so there was there was a good amount of of sub bid uh attendance and and I I think only a couple general bid attendants, but hopefully um you know hopefully we get some good competitive bids uh this time and we can move forward with that project.

And we have we have permitted uh four or we're in the process of permitting four uh building units to be connected to water and sewer on the preserve property which is why the fees came up. Um Tim Tim, there are uh I believe three lift stations in the city of New Bedford that are in the midst of uh rebuilds and expansion. Um I'm drawing a blank on the name of the company, but it may be uh

West but it is West.

Is it West? Yeah.

Yes. Um, I think certainly uh drop a line to them and advise them because they're they're pretty well staged throughout the city right now. And uh I would strongly encourage which the procurement law does allow to advise them that we're going out for this. If they had missed it or something like that, it's a good opportunity to get somebody that's already staged in this area to give us a good price.

All right. Thank you.

And they're good.

They're very good.

Yeah.

Good to know.

Okay. Anything else, Tim?

Uh just um a quick staffing update. Uh you know, our new new admin clerk, Stephanie, is working well as we bring her up to speed on all things DPW. Um he's coming along learning learning everything needed to learn in that position. Um, we also, our new associate engineer, John, started working in the engineering division on this Monday. Uh, and he's falling right into place as well, and he's happy to be here. We're

happy happy to have him. And then lastly, uh, the DSI has been working with HR to bring on three additional HMEO staff as well. So, we've been we've been working a lot with with our HR, uh, director and staff and, uh, moving forward on these new hires. So, it's great.

Sounds good. Um, I noticed that the um sewer extension is uh to the winery is uh looks like they're done with the saw cutting and they're working on the trenching and I drive by it almost every day. So, yep. Well, just uh for your information on that project, they're looking to start some of the cross trenches for services. And when they do that, they will be detouring traffic. So,

yeah, I saw that yesterday. Um I waited and watched one of the uh saw cuts come across the travel lane and to the to uh one of the driveways. So, um, so the the, uh, [clears throat] the detour will be what? Up, uh, Smith Neck Road around to Gulf Road.

Yes. I mean, you can come around from uh, Rockadundy to Russell's Mills or out to Smith Neck. Yeah. Right.

And then uh, lastly on projects, we also um Is that about it?

Yeah, I think that's about it. Sorry.

Okay.

And then Yeah. And I'd also like to look at scheduling our next meeting in January.

So, we have no I think there are five th Thursdays in January. So, we're looking at either the January the 15th or the 18th.

I I would only [clears throat] ask that if we're going to choose the 18th because I have a refuge district meeting on the 15th. I mean I meant the 15th or the 22nd, not the 18th. Sorry. So that Yeah. So we So yeah, if you have a meeting on the 15th, we can look at the 22nd.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Right. I'm available the 22nd. Okay. So Right.

Now that Yeah. All right. The weekend before is a three-day weekend. So, just as a heads up.

Anything else?

I am not sure, but I may not be available.

Um and I'm not doing these things on purpose.

Mr. Chairman, we don't judge.

Don't judge.

I would uh I I I will verify that, but All right.

Thanks.

Please do. I mean, we could always bump it up another week if needed, but uh All right.

Yeah, we have plenty of time to work on it.

We do.

You know, it's it's next year. We have plenty of time. deal, as they say. Um, Tim, anything else?

That's it for now.

Okay. Um, well, I would like to wish everyone happy holidays and, uh, be safe and we'll look forward to seeing you all in the new year. Uh, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn.

Motion to adjurnn.

Second.

Motion by Mr. Label to adjurnn. Do I have a second?

Second. Second by Mr. Gier. Um, Mr. Leel, how do you vote?

Yes.

Mr. Gier, yes.

Chair votes yes. The meeting is adjourned.

Everybody a merry Christmas and happy holiday.

Merry Christmas everyone.