I would like to call the water commission's meeting of April um excuse me May 13 2024 to order at 7 o'clock um meeting room is 54 Main Street um but we are meeting virtual this meeting is being recorded by zoom and uh tcam is recording it will be uploaded to YouTube uh shortly thereafter roll call members present Todd malanson share Nathan matala Vice chair present Jessica foli clerk present can I have a roll call of residents or others present please da Sean superintendent presid CH seon deranian leaz on to the select board uh 1.4 I have no additions or deletions 1.5 uh the minute meetings of last month are not ready yet um 1.6 RW correspondents or public comments I do not believe there are any um 2.1 is open uh 3.1 lawsuit funds um I think we all sat and listened to me talk about it last meeting um about what I thought um would be best financially planning wise for our future um especially for the rate payers of um putting those into funds primarily um depending on how much there is um primarily for the long-term operation and maintenance of the filters the change out of the uh GC which currently can be expensive um and I think as more of these systems come online that costs has the potential to go up so anything we can defay in my belief the defay the costs of that um over the long term and not rely solely on rates would be a good thing um so I we all said that we would sit and think about other things um it all depends on the legal language of what comes in on the lawsuit and what it can be used for um but I will uh relinquish the floor and let nateon Jessica Nate if you want to take up and then we can then Jessica can go SE after you all right uh can do we not have meeting minutes I missed that I'm sorry for not they're not ready yeah they're not ready yet okay just as a point of order can you we're on 3 one one yep um thought I so yes right so the lawsuit funds um as long as it's done as long as we can get a decent return and it's a responsible way to invest then you know I would certainly be on board with that okay um I I I'm am not familiar with any specifics or of of how we would go about that understand there's different rules that we have to follow from po yes so um yeah I've been doing a I've been doing a decent amount of research on it um and um kind of leaning on people that have done it in the past um uh talked to Town Council about it briefly um so I mean the mechanisms are there um it's I I think we would have a better idea Nate once we get an idea of how much there is if we dedic dedicate it solely to the the GC change out or if we make a couple and one have like an infrastructure fund and then the other be the GAC or whatever but it a lot of it will be determined how much it is and what we're looking at for GC costs so but just as long as we keep talking about it and you know it doesn't have to be every meeting but I would say let everybody know occasionally every couple of meetings or so that that's on our on our on our radar so I have some updates for that well let Jessica talk and then we'll get back to you Dave okay Jessica please um I would be down with anything that's legal and that's going to save us money or make more money if we can do something like that where we can put money aside into an account and it's okay for us to make money and put it back back towards something then i' totally I think that's a good idea well it definitely is legal um it's just there's different um different ways to go about doing it um and there are different types of funds um I think one Avenue is going to be better for us than the other um in talking to Adam um I didn't know Chaz did you talked to Adam yet yes um and I forget the way he said to do it but um well I also want to throw out that um in our in in the last um the last meeting that we had the the last town meeting uh the town agreed to um adopt The Prudent investment rule which basically means that um in the regular investment rule there's probably like five or six different vehicles of um available Investments to be be able to to uh to put those funds in um in adopting that it opens it up to probably 10 or 15 more vehicles that we would be able to do some are more volatile than the other volatile meaning some have higher interest rates than others um if you have a higher interest rate it's usually locking it in for a period of time um it's something that you'd want to also talk with the um the treasurer about to see what's available at the it each given time um but Adam feels that for at least this is how he communicated to me um is that this is exactly what um what these these rules are set up for to be able to um if you have sustain um if you have long-term maintenance uh in regards to especially a new building like you're doing having something in a sustainable account is probably the most wise you could possibly do okay Dave you said you had an update right so dupon and 3M are paying off the third quarter of this year on the first dispersement there're are they're going to pay the rest of it off over a 13-year period Tao is um Mid November for a payout and again they're going to pay the rest of it out as a me it's for for the next 10 years after that uh sometime this week There's a fourth company that is settling and he wanted couldn't tell me yet what company was because they didn't announce it okay so when you say third quarter Dave does that mean July to October okay and it's multi-millions no I that I knew well at least a few I would well is what we're looking at right now all right so as we get closer can you get Hank to put that in you know in some sort of writing so the three of us um in Chaz as well more more than I've already sent you guys or something a little bit more recent all right um that you could send to us so we can just start looking and planning in number wise well the number they just gave they gave that uh the chot but there's nothing solid right now but they gave the chart about six months ago you can estimate could you send us the chart and kind of circle where you think we might be yep all right thank you we're getting we're getting money for each we okay Nate did it just raise my hand for me oh that's my cursor no you did you ra you're physically I was like wait a minute cursor is right okay anyway I'm like wow that's weird hey the technology I want what he's having right I tell you what uh so I would like if we could just include that information in a meeting and discuss it a meeting y that that be as long as it's appropriate to do so because if there's ongoing um I don't think I think we could do the ones that are settled dat I think the one that the fourth one that Dave just talked about where it's still litigant I don't think we can but the other three where they've they've already settled I think we can I just want to say you know personally I have reservations of accepting money from companies that have been had their hand swatted that are just going to keep doing this you know if if this lawsuit hasn't halted the introduction of the purpose of this lawsuit the chemicals and and the possible um repercussions from these chemicals being introduced into people and it's just it's I don't want to say it's a Bittersweet moment but like it it doesn't seem right to me no it's like there a conflict I I would I would say in that defense though too um that the the State Attorney General's office have similar actions going on um the problem being is if you look like uh asbestos the makers of asbest sued um and went all the way to the Supreme Court and one what they came to say is you can ban a substance but it if if it is the primary vehicle of your industry until there is a viable alternative uh you can continue to make and use it so like your car brakes are still asbest um so they do make them for C asbestos for certain applications um because they haven't found something that will work or that is a viable option so p and pfoa and pfos are already stopped there are very few people that do make that right now um and none of them are in this country um they've gone on to newer and better ones and those are some of the ones that are like in the hazard index under the EPA regulations um and some of them you know we can't still detect I mean there's anywhere depending on what Journal report study you read there's anywhere from 4 to 12,000 of these compounds we can only see 48 so it's but if it helps our residents and helps keep what our costs are I I I don't see we have a choice Nate I'm right with you I I it's I think you said it best Bittersweet is a is a correct way to put it but to do what's best for our residents or our water takers I think um I don't think we really can give can give up on this if it helps us uh keep the maintenance cost down oh certainly I don't suggest giving up I don't either um I'm about as stubborn as they come Nate um Jess you got anything to add on this one I got nothing else to add all right Nate you all set yes uh 3.2 master plan um I'll take the Commissioners first uh Nate you went first last time I'll let justess go first this time did you think about anything that you would want to add Beyond some of the stuff we discussed last meeting Jess no I think we discussed a lot of good things last meeting um okay yeah I like where the department is heading I like what Dave has come up with I like that we're adding more water takers I like that we're improving things I like I like everything about it good enough Nate you're up you got anything you would like to add to it master plan do we already have sections of main replacement in there yes sir okay I can't think of anything good enough um Dave actually sent if you got a chance to look at it let's see if I can find it um kind of like a master plan of um it's a man plan maintenance plan yeah of things that need will as they need to get taken care of um you know he's got a a fairly good you know you you want it to be anywhere from five to 10 years and it's a guideline um uh so that if something comes up that was uh unexpected you can move something uh that has a lesser priority and and fix what what is um what is broken so to speak um but I think that's good um and uh but I go ahead Nate are you referring to something that's out of the meeting packet because I'm not seeing this he sent it today I'm sorry it's called building planning construction schedule I did see that it's something for you to look at for the next month and and see if you want to add anything to it okay you send that to my work email because I don't have that in my other email I probably did okay all right so we can talk about that next meeting right can I throw something out there on that um sure Todd um we're looking at um for uh education and um Outreach especially for students in the area Dave um is there anything in your master plan for that that it will now because that that we've discussed that that's what the a lot of the classrooms set up for yeah and to to give Outreach and get and maybe when if we have a class there to to give it to some kid because we're going to get two um two seats per class right and and that since all all our operators are licensed we won't need that unless we have a new employee yeah but we can give it to high school kids around the area and and start training people to be water workers and give some some kid hope that he didn't have so one other thing too and this would be for Dave and uh Chaz to follow up on um when I was in chord I was part of a program called Innovative Pathways um it is a program being um pushed by the state what it does is it introduces as freshman uh stud high school students to different Industries in different brackets uh biotech business accounting um we filled in as water um if we have this ability uh with the new with the new facility and to have seats um CH Chaz if you could bring up the bread because there is actually monies available to get the program running and I think it's a it would be a good thing um for us to consider of the school to consider and you just need people to sign on as as Co like co-sponsors because you actually you the Junior and Senior year you take them in as interns so if they want to go to college they've had introductions to Industries and businesses um that they normally aren't accustomed to I mean how many high school kids work at dunks on Elm Street or Main Street McDonald's and some of the other places this actually gives them introduction into viable things they can go for like water they can go right into it um the one in chelsford um their program actually pays for the testing up to T2 in D2 so that would be something that I would um you know we can take advantage of the the facility and and kind of work in cooperation with the schools I think that would be something that a lot of people around here would would be supportive of um but that if you would bring that up to Brad I would appreciate it I I didn't even think of using the facility Dave in that manner and um which man kind of makes the two of them click um so get getting back to what he was saying that's why it's the only this is the only treatment plant in New England that has a classroom inside the treatment plant and it's a one it's it's uh we got lucky that we can put it we could put it in there okay but I I got that written down so that'll be incorporated but getting back to time ju I asked them to break break the they haven't given me the contract yet but for what because you have to have a contract for the master plan which I'm going to bring back to you when it's ready we're going to break it down into yep so and we're going to and we're going to see what we can afford all right and what we can prioritize too so that's correct but it's a lot of it like um doing a study on Flow may may take a year to be able to afford it because we right now we we have a lot that we're on our plate that we're doing and it's going to put us it's going to strain us a little bit and that the fact that we had wet weather last year doesn't put as much money into our our uh accounts no no I get that but I also I don't know about anybody else but anyone of I've talked to in town to get them to to buy into being patient with us was the idea that we would once the plant was up and running start working on clearing the system and I don't think without the um I I always mess this word up but the the hydro model and the unidirectional flushing plan I don't I don't see us being as successful as we need to be I'll go back to when we did the ice pcking and they they didn't have a gated off right because they didn't have the gate set right um I just want us to be able to to deliver on what we we've told people so that's that's that would be one of my priorities anyways right but it it's not that that is going to cost us for that PO of 75 to $100,000 well that's something maybe we put it out we can afford to do it or maybe it's something we put out to bid and we don't have to completely use one engineering firm if if something's out of cost maybe we see what the costs are but let's cross that bridge when we come to it right all right that that's why when waiting for the contract all right um if we're all set on the master plan um 3.1 signatory of warrants what is this about so I had um Bren to put this on the agenda because when I was on the school committee we had basically one person that was responsible for signing the warrant for everybody and because getting nine people to get to sign things was a chore so I just threw it on there just so we could have a discussion about it and see how you guys felt about that well I think Nate I I'll Nate I'll let you go first so we do have a signatory and currently or unless I don't know would that carry over from the previous board to this boort um yeah I I think I was the last designated signatory and with all the projects that were happening I said you know really we should have at least at the least other commiss the other Commissioners should be seeing and made aware of these physical invoices that we're receiving before a signature is actually put on it and while we do vote to sign out of session it's it's just it makes me very nervous to have one person signing where all these things are coming in on a week toe basis we only meet on a month-to-month basis so so I'm so I'm kind of with Nate especially where we have the uh stamps now um and where you know you're very specific in the email I've been um you know as responsive as I can I usually get done within a day or two of Brenda sending them out um I like that we pay everything week by week um um makes us more financially um responsible and hopefully it makes the town look good when the audits come at least makes our department look good if we're paying things on a week to week basis um so I I think where we only have if we had a border of seven or nine Jess I I would agree with you where we got three um you know and technically only takes two to to to sign it um but I think having all three of us sign it it's the least we can do for for the water takers because we've asked a lot of them in the last couple years so if you don't mind I I I don't think we need a vote I think keeping it the way it is um you know is is in our best interest uh anyone have anything else to say on on that well just so you know I only spent $1.6 million this month on the building only only you can do better than that Dave don't worry this next month don't encourage him um let me see uh all right Commissioners updates and reports uh 4.1 W water quality testing vendor I had put this on the agenda I so I had some discolored water today I was I was uh went home to fill up my water bottle and I said oh gee um like this I had like coffee coming out of my tap and I said this is kind of that's like really a little bit of discoloration but that's that's what I was seeing was like when someone is has a full open hydrant or something like that so I called the water department and then I called the highway department I called the fire department but I didn't nobody there's nothing conclusive I don't know if you guys found out what was going on we did a two line went went went uh broken somebody's basement wow the who has the twoin line in their basement where that one's actually was two separate breaks but the first one was the ice cream stand on Main Street oh okay and that's a 2 in that's a 2in line and the other one was the rec center but the rec center was much smaller the rec center was 250 gallons per hour and the other one was 850 when did you discover these leaks well we discovered first thing in the morning we told them but we didn't know how bad bad they were because we when we we tell all the residents if they have a leak but then we found out how bad it was this after this afternoon so the discolor water came when they after they shut it off and when you shut it off you if you shut it off too fast it creates a rebound in the water lines Dave maybe we put that on the when we're done here if you could put a discolored water notice on the Water Department Facebook just so yeah it was it was three houses and and I call it the mixing line between the wells and what happens is that moves and it creates a line right on the map so it was 20 Nate's house you're you're 21 right 23 23 23 20 and two School Street those are the three we got okay f a line where they're mixing is all right um but just put that on with the instructions on how to clear um the other thing is we're noticing there was a group of us talking at least out my way um with the irrigation systems coming on that first kick if you notice an irrigation system coming on in your neighborhood I would maybe wait an hour or so before trying to use any water because that K going off topic all right well no disc colored water he brought anyways back to um water quality water the um yeah but back to the uh water quality vendor or testing vendor so yeah hi I um I've been seeing invoices for melport which is on Elm Street in Milford and I was looking at the numbers and I I was like you know through my rigor of going through all these old documents I have I said wait a minute I said we use nooba and and I was like why did we switch so I I didn't get any like good answers so I did a little bit of sleuth thing and found out that we can save um about 2,652 years I mean dollars a year just by switching or going I guess going back with nooba I I can answer that one because no Dave Dave Dave can I finish please yeah um and then i' like like and not only that is that it's it's closer it's going to and then once you open up your your facility I mean in relation to to the pH facility home base whatever you will uh it's going to be even closer than and you know well I don't know if the company's actually in Massachusetts but and regardless of how I personally feel about the state of Massachusetts it's nice to keep the money in the state versus bring it to New Hampshire so couple things um I would agree with you I knew the owner of um noova um it is not the same um it is owned by Granite State analytical out of New Hampshire they have made some corporate changes um they are um it make it puts the operators at risk um they do not notify so if you there's different levels if you test positive for total Cola form that's an indicator it's not a boil loader it's nothing um but they are supposed to notify you the previous owners of nooba understood the importance to the operator because you have time to resample and you can resample so many times um they made a corporate decision to change that to an email and sometimes you wouldn't get the email till later that night potentially the next morning um that puts your ability to resample at risk um and um you know operators like Dave um myself and some others made choices to move move away from that um because it does put the the utility and the operator at risk of not being able to respond appropriately um water testing is probably one of the places I'm not going to go to the I would I couldn't support going to the cheapest entity or the the most f um uh not cheapest is the wrong word but the lowest cost um so I would say that that that is uh part of the reason why a lot of people have changed away from that um I was sad to see the changed it was a lot more uh customer friendly I would say and they had a good understanding of what their service meant to um utilities that especially smaller ones like us um and I know there have been quite a few that have changed over I mean they got rid of a lot of stuff they don't there's very few things that that are left that are done in the state of Massachusetts they're more like a brokerage stuff comes in and they send it out that makes me uncomfortable because the more hand you have in the pie there's the greater chance of um missing a sample dropping it um losing it in transport uh violating a whole time I I I would have much preferred everything stayed at nooba but that's some of the reason why I know that people like myself changed um so I'll let Dave explain why he changed and then we can we can talk about it but getting down to it it is an operator's decision because it's his license on the line right so several times that noober failed to tell us there was a positive callif form hit callif Farm is an eoli it's just an indication and I got emails from a hit on Tuesday on Thursday or Friday and they they're supposed to call right away because we have 24 hours to respond by law to respond to a positive hip to retest we we asked them to to correct it and it happened three times in a row and then we look for then I could not in good conscious stay with that company and we look for another one who's going to actually um respond to us e and they'll respond to us even on a Saturday and they'll give us a phone call and not any and they they do their testing on site right yeah they do so so nooba doesn't do their water tests on site they yeah so there's two things they they won't take samples on a weekend um they still do bacteria in house but a lot of the other stuff that they used to do um they don't they ship to wherever Granite State is um so a lot of stuff that came in a lot of the instrumentation that they had um I I guess it's a corporate decision because why main certification on instrumentation instrumentation at two different facilities um I I I can't speak to it um of why um they did it um they got rid of all their Wastewater certifications or work so they you know just like us uh Wastewater has certain discharge permits some testing requirements um and from my understanding is they got rid of all of that so there were a lot of like local small water operator systems that um operated Wastewater um package plants at a facility um that were left high and dry and had to find other places so I can't speak to why they did it Nate I just know that um there were more than a few of us that were unhappy with their unwillingness to change uh to a certain degree um and kept to that policy I never got the two or three days but I did have something more than once that exceeded 24 hours um let's just say my army Sergeant came out out in more than one conversation um it's not something you want to screw around with um so those were the changes that were made um I don't think there's anything closer to be quite honest with you between the show um the only way you could do it is a Labs have Courier Services but then you end up paying for that too so I I I think we have the best of bad choices I guess I would have Nate I would have preferred to stay with nishoba where it's right AC right around the corner um and they were always so responsive and um really understood the importance of what they did and the importance to us and that changed at some point and um I don't have a good reason for it I just I just know that Dave isn't the only one that noticed or was made mention of it so um do you have anything else Nate no that's that's good I wish I had gotten that answer when I initially asked um but yeah certainly you don't want to mess around with very important samples but I thought I was doing us a service by trying to make a savings so no can I can I say something keep doing that you know it because it it's just a a check that's what I I want most from the Commissioners is is you if you can it's you know if there's something that I may have overlooked I want you to bring it up so keep doing things like this I agree with Dave all right see something say something alrighty um let me see um let's Lea's on update and reports there's nothing here but Mr D uh uh you have nothing to add chess I always have something to add but no sir I don't all right good enough um 6.1 superintendent report please okay first is construction um right now the water Line's installing Gates on hydrants and they'll be doing the dam directional drill sometime in June which is uh on Emory Street tese what who's doing the directional is it shephards chefco is they they bought a machine okay good and uh then they'll be doing testing in June to put the um water man in operation in July then they're going to be adding the services and Paving the road in August in September the building is moving along sheet rock the roof and BR improvements and the in retention fond are beginning this week and it'll take about a month Main Street our generator was delayed till for a few weeks to Mid June June the skater system up upgrades are are commencing we're waiting for DP to sign off on Main and cross street for chlorination but that we don't have to have that till the treatment plant goes online which DP has said we must chlorinate at that time but all the tanks and pads are in place the meter in Le service line inventory is at 45% and that's it um does Jess I know Nate and I have we've discussed it in meetings before but do you want to know what horizontal drilling is a brief description yeah that would be great basically everyone thinks drilling goes straight up and down horizontal drilling allows you to not have to dig a trench through a brook or stream and be able to go in at an angle go along they actually control the head and it can come up fairly close to where they want it to be so instead of having to dig past the dam and stuff like that they're going to horizontally drill and pull it up on the other side that way you don't disturb wetlands and and they do it under Rail lines um and things like that you you put what's a jacking cone in there and then you go through with the line or they drel and then you pull the plastic back through um if you get the chance it's actually really really cool at least for a water geek like me um science is amazing but it is there you go um but but it it is an incredible technology um it allows us to go places we probably didn't before with water lines or not easily anyways so there's that Dave on the chlorination pads you were talking about we have the containment areas we need for those are are the containment areas okay that you said pad and I was the containment areas got P there are Hollow pads okay good enough that's all I wanted to to here um uh if does anyone have anything else to add to the Water superintendence Report Nate no okay I have a question go right ahead sir um Dave did um with your updates to scada are they doing patches and stuff for um to keep those updated what do you mean as far as the computer and your reporting right so the only doing is um we're going from a Radio based system yeah to a cellular okay because right right now our town six miles wide if one of the stations goes down we lose the whole system with skater if one of the station goes down only that system goes down and for cyber security the the cellular is um much better than the skater system okay because it's it's direct line of uh it's radios and it they have to be direct line antennas and your your frequency is actually listed with the FAA so it's a lot easier to to get hold of that so Dave's right cyber security wise um it's a lot more protective um and you're not riant on the um direct line of sight with the radio antennas because that can be a pain in the neck a windstorm can come in and move the antenna and you lose the whole system yeah so and it has okay um and then you have to call somebody in to realign it um if nobody's got anything else to add um put something on on for next um um for the next meeting meeting and uh J Jess you you want to talk about um yeah so I wanted to add for the next meeting just an a discussion and possibly a vote um but needs to start with the discussion um financing financing of system development charge so I would like that to be added if possible so we can start that conversation now before the tank and everything else goes in and we're looking at what to do I think we should start this conversation early could be one of the things we talk about um depending on the numbers we get from the F uh lawsuit maybe that's part of what we use that money for to defay those costs also it's not bad to to have debt if you're improving the system uh investment in the system actually um gives you a better rating um I found that out going through srf um so balancing the two out isn't a bad thing um but I like the idea but let's just see what where where we are next month um in what I would do in the future when it's something like this and something you want to propose submit it as um oh what's that line on the thing um Commissioners updating reports because votes can be taken in that so in section four like with Nate's here um just tell Brenda to put it on and put your name at the at the back end of it and that way it's on the meeting it's on the agenda and everyone knows what we're going to be talking about all right perfect awesome okay um um what's next month looking like for everybody looking like June I'm I'm available every day all right hold on the only the only thing that only holiday is juneth which is the 19th all right what would be on normal what would be our normal one the 10th all right no the 17th 10th is the second week the 10th is the one I've got nothing going there so I'm I'm okay with it Jess you okay yep that is the night before the election well you'll have two late nights yeah that's for the schools story of my life all right um you're not alone there chess I know I know chess Nate if you would be so kind could I have motion J do you wantan you wantan to get your hand diry with your first motion on thec I move that we adjourn the meeting no what no no back up back up oh oh different motion on the floor yes we have to we have to uh 7.2 and 7.3 and 7.4 7.2 so review monthly abatements and adjustment lists out of session out of session second 7.3 review and approve end of month reports second second all those in favor no wait a minute you want to roll call vote no what well we do roll call vote but what we've and we probably should have explained this we kind of roll all three of them together so we only have to take one vote oh I see what you're saying okay all right so I move to review monthly abatements and adjustment lists review and approve end of month reports and sign reports and Bild payable warrants out of session second motions been made in the seconded any uh further discussion seeing none roll call vote Todd malanson i a matala i Jessica foli yes well that would be unanimous good job Jessica there you go helps if we explain it it does Nate Nate thank you for giving her the opportunity I didn't even think of that so good job on that as well um I make a motion to adjourn second second motion's been made and seconded roll call vote Todd meansa Todd malanson I Nath Mata I Jessica foli yes I the meeting is adjourned at 7:47 pm on May 13