##VIDEO ID:-VhvyNOGuKU## yeah there we go excellent gentlemen um okay my name is Brett mson I'm the vice chair of the Sewer Commission our chairman is not present so I'll be running the meeting this evening um I would like to ask everyone to join me in the pledge of allegiance to begin the meeting I believe bill has a flag there it is how about that I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty Justice thank you everyone uh in accordance with the requirements of open meeting law please be advised that this meeting of the Sewer Commission is being recorded and will be able to be found on the lunenberg access YouTube channel after the meeting the following information is also provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely to to participate remotely from computer please use the link to join um the public meeting webinar found on our posted agenda or from a telephone dial the toll-free number 888 47544 N9 and enter the webinar ID number which is 766 316 7607 if you do not have a registered if you are not registered with zoom you will be asked uh for your name and email address no no participant to no participant ID is needed just press pound when asked um I will do a roll call vote to confirm that which members are here um each state your member's name when I call you please um I'm just gonna run down the list Eli Torres is not here Joseph Hurley here Scott doll here um Brett Ramson myself is here Mike Macklin and he is not here either otherwise I would not be running the meeting and then I'm going to do a roll call for the staff uh Bill Bernard I'm here thank you very much and Jane rley is not here yet uh is there any public or comment from the public I don't see any do you Bill no no public tonight pretty quiet meeting here um is there any public or is there any comment from the Commissioners or staff I would like to I would like to just say thanks to Bill Bernard for um getting our information together again and rolling as a temporary um manager of the Sewer Commission and be doing a bang up job sir so thank you you wel and keeping me in the loop um so current business moving right into it we we have the minutes from meetings stemming back to July 30th um bill I would like to did you have a comment Scott Oh I thought someone was talking um I would like to suggest Bill I don't know what you think of this um we could vote on the 92424 meeting but previous to which those other for meetings um really it was mostly Mike Mack and and myself I think we might want to wait to vote on those um is everybody good with waiting on those till the next meeting it's fine with me okay and gentlemen have you had a look at the 9:24 minutes and okay um would anyone like to make a motion to accept those minutes I'll make a motion to accept the minutes a motion is made is there a second on thank you Joe uh having been um what the hell I just drew a complete blank gentlemen and seconded um I'll do a uh we'll make a vote um Scott hi and CH hi and I for myself 9242 24 minutes have been accepted motion that's the word I'm looking for it was a very long day for me Gentlemen please excuse me wow okay um Item B on the agenda um current business is the mass one line repairs um updated cost estimate with a discussion and possible vote um bill could you provide us with an up on that yeah so uh CTE and their uh subcontractor Pride environmental were taking a closer look at the work and they noticed that there's two gate valves that are not working they must have tried to exercise them and they're not working so uh well these are valves that we will need to make these repairs you know the the cut the water off right the the flow off and so um good that they tried it so I asked them for a a price and then the other thing is we're going to be um digging um which we knew from the the previous cost estimate but they're G to have a a pile of dirt and we are right near a Wetlands so hey asked them to give me a price to put the a soap fence around it so if it does happen to rain or it doesn't wash off into the wetlands right so they uh came back with a cost estimate for that so the job was 66770 now the estimated cost is 88,2 or almost almost $22,000 more to do that additional work and they're still looking to do the work in the next couple of weeks so we're gonna so I guess I guess it's probably best if if um the commission you know votes to approve that extra work but it it is work that needs to be done so it's kind of hard to say no but it's up to you Bill how do they go about changing these vows and there's two of them yeah um are they located at the top of the street are they down near the The Pump Station oh you caught me off guard I should have looked at the plans to see exactly where they are I'm not not 100% sure these are the valves that would shut off the flow so that they could repair the original problem correct yep and they can't shut them off to change dollars no so that's good questions I wish I had better answers for you tonight sorry guys did they uh shed any light on why they failed or are we not exercising them or probably not yeah probably haven't been exercised in a while and they are at least 20 years old now so y question B um did you have any more comment Scott question no no no question another that that raises another question for me before we even continue the discussion is does every uh Pump Station have valves like this Upstream I assume they do yeah well the major stations are pretty much the same so yeah um I don't know if we talked about it but Dana Street isn't too far behind in the condition as as mass one here is so Dana Street to be at the next one we tackle and that's that's our main station we really don't want that one to have issues gentlemen I'm just wondering if it might behoove us to have CTE while they're doing their regular service is it a big deal for them to try those valves on Dana at least it's not that big of a deal yeah function at all you know so we're not cop a good well yeah it can be put in the original bid um I did get a look at that new bid did you gentlemen get a look at that I did that was a couple days ago right when we sent it yes bill sent it yeah yeah I looked at it then I don't have a copy of it in front of me right now okay Phill you're not able to put that up are you uh sure oh yeah screen how do I do it here whoops should be a share screen on the dropdown menu there it is I got a whole bunch of windows open so I gotta pick the right one can you see it now yes I see something yeah so the extra work is that 2,867 right all right let's get a look at that sounds like a really messy job and riser boxes um is there a price for the silk Pence on this one I don't uh it's built into that 20867 oh it's in there okay yeah I mean in the end it is what it is because you can't you can't do it without it right I mean these are the the shut offs to the flow of what they want to fix um are we just replacing with the exact same kind of cuto offs it failed after 20 is it you know an upgraded version or just better technology now or with what it's being replaced or they just unseizing them yeah it's probably very similar technology but yeah should get another 20 years out of it and like you we're talking about I can have them exercise them once in a while so get some longer life out of them well I mean I look I didn't even know if it was a thing it was just more of uh you know kind of the whole flesh and hydrant thing thing you know what I mean if it's something that has to be in a maintenance but yeah I mean look we as far as I'm concerned we have to do it we have to defer to them of uh you know I mean I get it you got to cut off the waist before you try to replace any the all right bill I got a question for you on subjects got brought up um there's been a couple of things recently that we're learning about older system that we should have been doing one is draining Wells occasionally all the way um did we not say we should you know do this now annually or every couple of years maybe to get a good eye on things instead of letting things go too far where things might be savable yeah so the the pumping out of the the wet Wells that is um I think we said the major the three big stations would do every year and the smaller ones kind of as needed so actually uh Robert from CTE came in uh yesterday and he mentioned that uh Francis Street and West Street need to be um drained and cleaned so I will be scheduling that too okay I didn't know if we want to somehow get this on there regular radar and include turning on and off these shut offs yeah just checking the cutout yeah yeah see if they work see if they turn and then yeah I didn't mean to cut you off but I'm thinking in my thought process they might want to be checked couple times a year the shut offs we're talking about something that can rust right yeah yeah so I'm just thinking I I guess uh the next time we go out the bid maybe I could put in some more of the scheduled maintenance that we expect so it'd be in the contract so everybody would be aware of it that's exactly my thinking thank you yeah just a straight PM right we have some language in there now but yeah we're fine they know there's more that needs to be done right so add that in also in general Scott we're a pretty young system yeah and um so what was the whole town on H private you know 30 years ago right well sections of town went to lemonster and or fittsburgh you know the Wham area some of that's really but most of most of the stuff is about 20 years old yeah m i mean I'm on massab so I just assumed uh it would definitely be on public anyways just because the state road or whatever you know but but not all the massav is on SE the sections without interesting I guess I'm lucky that yeah but yeah I mean eventually everyone will be on that's on mass app for sure do we want to votee this in tonight as not to delayed or do we want to wait until we have others here I mean um no I think we should we have a quorum and I think we have to yeah I think there's something we need to do unless somebody has an objection and I know he couldn't be here but I'm sure he read his email a couple days ago and he would have uh yeah messaged any concern so yeah everyone's had a chance so let's uh let's see does someone want to make a motion I'll make a motion to accept the additional bid for the mass one I'll second it that mass one repairs all right it's been uh motion that's been made in second and we'll do a roll call vote Scott I and Joe I and I for myself we can move forward with these repairs Bill I just wanted to talk it out a little bit that's all no that's good that's what you're here for right yeah oh yeah I mean it it has to be done and we're not going to stop a contractor who's scheduling huge work within weeks that's like as a contractor I can tell you that's tomorrow to feel the contractor yeah right um okay gentlemen thank you um now we're moving on to the DPW um updates director updates and uh we're going to start with the business manager position Bill to uh see what you've learned recently if anything update us yeah so last meeting we talked about the the woman that we had interviewed and you know we held off on ratifying her be because we didn't um check our references well it turns out we still haven't checked the references because the one that she gave us never responded won't call back uh we asked the candidate to provide other references and she has not so it's not looking good not looking good if yeah we don't have any references and she's not pounding us you know where's the job why AR I hired so yeah it's h i don't think it's gonna work out yeah she's not talking to you about it that's terrible sign yeah yeah so so to make up for having not having a business manager uh I've been doing what I can but uh Paula Bertram our former manager uh came in and helped to me uh one on Friday last week I had a huge stack of paper for her to go through and she made it through everything so that was good and talking with the town manager uh um the DPW has a executive assistant and they said that she could have a a few hours overtime to help enter some of the invoices into our accounting system so we can get all our vendors paid so between Paula and and it's her name's Samantha Paul and Samantha we're keeping things going in myself of course um can I just real quick should we reconsider the decision to not hire the assistant um if we have candidates I mean in a in a in Another Universe the the main person quit and the assistant was still in place it's not like anyone assuming this position is would always be guaranteed to hire their replacement and they could at least take busy work off your plate and you can have some time not at the office yeah Joe I was thinking the same thing today because we do have a couple of candidates for the assistant um position and some of them look pretty decent so yeah hate to lose them yeah my first thought is oh it's wait to hire the the business manager but maybe we should start interviewing does anybody in that pool seem like they could potentially take on the larger job and yeah that's what I was just you want to hire for people's ceiling right like where are they going to be in 18 months not what's the worst they could be tomorrow like I I don't know yeah they're all applying for that you know the part-time 19 hours so I don't know 40 hours yeah yeah right but having said that gentlemen with the overload bill has right now and freaking you know we're we're going to be using his executive assistant Paula when she's available I mean at least if if we can get somebody who wants the job and seems decent and she's not going to have someone to show her all the ropes but at least they'll be some more help for you though 19 hours a week is a Chun you know doesn't know the job yet yeah I mean at this point I wouldn't S I would you know strongly urge you to move on uh to the best possible candidate you can have in the role and then yeah all right the cards just didn't work out for the business manager right now but well you don't want to potentially lose somebody and who knows maybe down the road maybe she's just looking for something parttime right now but you never know life changes in a in a year or six months or couple exactly so you never know if that you know person's needs will change and you know maybe then you have your your built-in person that at least knows part of it at least knows the system which you seem to have indicated it's been the hardest part um so it's not ideal you know but at this point at this point you need something I don't think the town's going to be too happy if bills aren get going out and vendors are like well we're not coming out to help you until this is paid and you're coming into a probably but I'm assuming is a a important purchasing season too you know before the winter and um no need to have bad uh vendor relations right I concur um you don't need to vote from us to move forward to that DAV I don't I don't but I will uh reach out to the Human Resources Director tomorrow and tell this is the uh the will of the commission and I agree with that tomorrow now well she's she's home now but very well that I mean that's good you did you got the hardest part of getting the overtime Ade for your assistant so right right yeah still don't turn that down keep keep her in the lo oh yeah I needed to in a bunch of invoices because yeah like you said we have to pay our vendors right that yeah yeah given so and a couple find any way to get that done a couple hours of overtime is not going to equal the salary of the two missing people over the course of several months like got it we're still in the green not also Bill leads me to another question that I thought of earlier um invoices to vendors is a great thing and keeping them you know happy and functioning which is really key um however when is our next quarterly billing do to go out and who the heck is going to handle that with our existing software situation it's just somebody had to ask you this that's a good question so the billing has to go out at the end of the month so gez two weeks away right a week and a half away so Paula is gonna come in and H help me do it and Jane Jane is here now and she's gonna the envelopes thank you jam all right so the the challenge is just basically being able to get the information into and then back out of the system it's not it's not a physical demand it's not a it's not of a you know GE should we send out an estimated rate you know so it's basically strictly technological y the technology isn't exactly up to par as the problems gone but yeah it's just it's there we just need to know how to use it yeah right right there's about 50 steps you gotta take to to get the bills out us how to do it pretty well so you know I'll try to follow with her so I understand that a little bit well maybe the part-time uh person is uh you know I don't know how quickly they can be onboarded but you know the sooner the better if she accepts true see what she's doing tomorrow all right that that's a little bit jumping bye do what you can all right all right gentlemen um that fun um moving along here what we get I lost my screen and thank you for being here Jane it's great to have you oh I was muted and then ome excellent um I guess uh we already discussed the assistant to the business manager position um and we'll move on to manhole repair um ifb update and William what what would we sit there for an update all right easy the bid opening is tomorrow I got my fingers crossed we get some good bids and we can get to work great very good and uh then we've got a special town meeting articles coming up um do you have an update on those articles by chance though yeah so again the like last time the last thing I heard was um fiscal 24 hasn't been closed although it should be closed now but I think it's too late to get the article on to the November town meeting the special town meeting so it's probably gonna have to clean up our business in the May town meeting right yes we did discuss this yeah yeah yeah we're just keeping this on the agenda to have it there I believe as I recall y very good um how about any future agenda items does anybody have anything I mean obviously we're going to want an update on the assistant we're want an update on any possible new business manager um yes you know possibilities um could we also have on there um whether or not the bilding is successfully expedited by the next meeting just to know how it because it may still be in progress knowing our current facilitation of um hudge podge of help we have definitely for a challenging moment um so that would be good to have um what else do we need on there oh obviously if they've started some line repairs we're going to want m one discussion up there um obviously the um the acceptance of the past minutes includes including tonight's minutes and then um anything else I'm missing bill before we ask everyone else um yeah I have um a change in use that we will need to vote on for a business it's a real simple one I I didn't get it on the agenda fast enough for tonight but I'll add that on there and uh thank you and I appreciate you keeping the agenda simple tonight with me command and um uh Joe or Scott do you have anything you can think of that I that bill and I have not mentioned um I I do not no me neither right very good all right uh and of course Bill you'll keep your eyes open for anything else that Springs up um any new connections and so forth and so on absolutely all right and is there any public comment from the public still don't see any public is there any public uh any comment from Commissioners or staff that would like to be mentioned done all right um well let's talk about the upcoming scheduled super commission meetings and activities um our November 5th is going to be our first time bread meeting um to be held at the DPW at 700 p.m. in person for those who can make it that should be exciting and new I'm looking forward to it um the November 19th meeting is going to be a zoom meeting and then December 10th um is going to also be as we voted on we're going to be doing the Hopscotch from hybd to zoom so December 10th will also be a hybrid meeting at the Town DPW building so we have one meeting we need to talk about um Bill put question mark question marks next next to the December 24th meeting for a good reason see those of us who celebrate Christmas may or may not want to be meeting on Christmas Eve um some of us might be shot by our wives or um interfering with some family traditions um and uh I would like to uh talk about making a motion and a vote to not meet on Christmas Eve and just skip that meeting is there anybody that wants to discuss that further is there any reason that we would have to meet before the end of the calendar year anything imperative or anything no yeah calendar calendar year doesn't usually affect us very much B does it no it doesn't I I mean I don't have any concerns with skipping a Christmas Eve meeting yeah very good are you all set with P well we'll just make a motion can someone make a motion to uh to skip the Christmas Eve meeting on December 24th I'll motion to skip the Christmas Eve meeting on December 24th a motion in there and uh Scott can I have a I want my wife to hear me second it I I I do I do second the motion all right Vol call vot show hi and Scott hi and I for myself so we get to have Christmas Eve off everybody all right very good um and then um that leaves one more motion to be made everybody and that's a motion to close the meeting for tonight yep I'll motion to close the meeting and Scott gonna have a second for that motion oh sorry that was me the motion to close the meeting yeah oh right Jo sorry I'll second the motion I was looking at Joe calling of Scott all right um this to a a roll call vote on Joe hi and Scott hi and I for myself um we are officially closed for the evening thank you everybody appreciate it good night lunberg and um I'm