##VIDEO ID:L0rqWqZ4FnI## here we go okay it is August 27th at 6:01 p.m this is the uh regular scheduled uh end of August uh seore commission meeting my name is John Reynolds and I'd like to start the meeting with uh Pledge of Allegiance I forgot to ask Mike or Bill J Mike great start I'll start us out I pledge allegiance Al to the flag flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stand Nation invisible and jce thank you you weren't officially recorded for that your audio is off okay um in accord with the requirements of the 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 lunberg access YouTube channel after the meeting the following information is also available for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely to participate remotely from a computer please use the link to join the public meeting webinar found on the posted agenda or from a telephone dial the toll-free number excuse me 888 475 4499 and enter the webinar ID number 83187 24994 no participant ID is needed just press pound when asked I'm going to do a roll call vote uh Commissioners uh Mike Mackin hi here Brett Rams hi here I myself we have a quorum staff we have Paula Bertram here and Jane rley here and Bill Bernard okay is there any public comment from the public thing we don't have any any public comment from any of the Commissioners or staff uh just you know once again as I had said at the last meeting um um I want to wish you the best of luck Paul because whatever you know you will be bringing you know a great deal of experience uh and skill to to your new your new position and I uh I was reflecting today on you know how long you've been in service to the town and uh you know how Sly you will be missed thank you very much Mike I Concur and I would like to add that um we're jealous of the town of conquered already because we know what what we're losing thank you thank you Brett appreciate the changes you've made here and the time that you've put in and and all of your help so thank you good luck I I obviously concur with both Mike and Brett and maybe it is time for me to move to conquer I don't know just be prepared for a tax hike well I got a big one already but yeah you know um any announcements from anyone okay John John yeah go ahead bill just public comment I just wanted to add on that uh I really enjoyed working with Paula she's been amazing and she's been a good friend to me and and this week she's gone above and beyond to make sure that I can succeed in keeping the sewer department running and I don't know any body else who would do what she is doing this week it's I'm gonna miss her thank you Bill I'm gonna miss you guys to miss working with you we we will all miss you Paula and uh um I know how hard you're working to uh make Bill and and the new employee successful thank you greatly appreciated okay um current business any uh let's see the minutes from 88:13 did everyone have a chance to to read those I did not okay um we you don't NE we don't you don't necessarily have to read them to vote on them but BR if you'd feel more comfortable waiting uh we can wait um no I feel comfortable uh from change experience and expertise and um her amazing abilities I would be shocked if I found something that I didn't agree with just Mr chairman just to you know address um they're perfect I mean um and sorry to have cut you off on that no no that's fine that's fine um does anyone want to make a motion to um for the minutes of uh August 13 2024 I make a mo motion that we adopt the minutes of August 18 13 13th 2024 okay right and I I'll second that motion yes okay any further discussion seeing none we'll take a vote uh for approval Mike hi Brett hi and I for myself the motion passes okay the next item is the assistant business manager position I I asked Paula to put this on there just uh for no particular reason other than maybe we should just have a little discussion uh we obviously we just made an offer uh to person for the business manager who she she accepted um the job for the assistant manager is still posted and I assume if any resumés are coming in that Julie is working with those um little little concerned about having two new people start at the same time [Music] um and I guess I I had some thoughts maybe bringing temporarily for short term bring an attempt but I you know I'm not really sure that would be effective use of um Paul's time with training and effective use of the new business manager so just sort of thinking out loud here you know I bill you'll have a I think your input will be pretty important with this but just looking for any thoughts R anyone yeah so excuse me we have a few candidates um couple of them Paula and I were we were going to interview we kind of held off so I think at this point we won't have any interviews set up until after we have the new business manager in place so we'll have her input on it too and like um the interim Town manager said if if one of the Commissioners wants to sit in on that interview you are welcome sounds sounds like uh Carter is looking for Mike to volunteer that's how I always get in trouble yeah so I mean Mike if you if you're interested in doing that obviously I can't do it um just I of course I will okay so Bill you know keep M mic updated absolutely okay and then as far as additional help we still have um well we have Jane obviously and there's another volunteer coming in to do some refiling and cleaning up the filing cabinets is that right yeah Sam Sam had a senior tax work off program come in to help her um and there she didn't have enough so they're now cleaning out the file cabinets and there's always plenty of work for Jane um okay and there's a lot of cleanup to do here I I know okay okay Mr chairman yes go ahead BR um before we're off the subject on the assistant position um getting back to your comment whether we should whether it's a good idea to have two new people my thought is if we get find the right person and you know we certainly don't want to lose them if they're available and want the position number one number two there can be as hard as it might be some minor advantages to them learning together um they might create a little bit of a support system together while they do it and maybe help each other out along the way potentially just some more thinking out loud I think that's that's those are good points and I I you know I keep going back and forth in this one which is why I said I would sort of defer to uh Bill and and follow your input to to determine the best way to handle that Mr chair this is just my thoughts is I think I think um the new person has to get on board and then her input is going to be really important to bill um as to whether or not she's ready to have someone else come in or if she wants to get adjusted first okay that's fine that's fine too okay any other comments on that none okay uh the next item is the um the mailing the recruitment of sewer commissioner volunteer letter um for a discussion did everyone have a chance to read uh the town manager's uh letter which Paula also edited I did actually okay any any input on on that I have just one one comment but I like to hear your you guys first well just a quick question I who is it addressed to and how is it being distributed so it's addressed to all sewer District's customers um and Carter and I had that discussion today as to how it's going to be distributed um so what I did is I went through the list of um our sewer customers I was able to extract it from Unice and I eliminated all businesses and all customers that are seriously in AAR um more than just this past billing um and I came up with a list of 751 um so I asked Carter um you know are we responsible for mailing them and and the postage and the response was yes um so we would be printing this letter and then mailing it to all of the properties um you know that 700 51 customers excuse me my voice I'm losing my voice um but the cost is going to be almost $500 in postage just to make you aware okay and it's not something I can do likely before I leave on Thursday I'm really trying to get this manual done and get things cleared up um but I will get them printed I have done the labels already um or get them ready to be printed um so I can get at least it ready to go out and perhaps Jane or the T the other person um could perhaps fold them and get them out um but I don't know how you guys want to move forward well go ahead um one thought on the mailing po would the return address say Sewer Commission or would it say Office of the Town manager I it's from it's from the office of the Town manager so I would put Office of the Town manager right because as Commissioners um you know we're responsible for the the budget but um the town the town manager is responsible for all Personnel uh issues hiring firing reviewing so um I think also the the interim appointments would have to be through the board of Selectmen correct correct so it I definitely it should be from the town manager or from the town of lunenberg the return address yeah I see that as a positive um because you know these people are getting mail from us pretty regular and they might not pay as much attention to it they see something from the town manager they might be like well maybe I should look at that so I see that as a good an extra good to open it up and look at it maybe people that's a good point it's a good point um I I took that from Bob P's uh view so I can't take full credit for that thought speaking with him okay um in in the 500 the cost of mailing you know I I I was hoping that town would pay for it but not really thinking they would so I think it's a cost we have to have to absorb so we have to try yeah the only the only suggestion correction I would have is um the third bullet item it says do you know they meaning the sore commission approves any extension of the existing system and various permits but we can only approve an extension if it's within the sewer service area um so I don't want someone to think that we can just extend the sewer system Wherever Whenever we want it has to be within the sewer service area I'll add within the I'll add that within the SE service area Okay um any other comments specifically about the content as uh as a commissioner who is not on the system is there any way that we can reach out to non-customers I mean would it be it put up a post on Facebook I think we've done that but I think Bill could do that on the Facebook page and we could also put it on the web page I mean like again you know is it you know The Ledger got a fairly wide audience and I was wondering whether they would do us a favor and you know just post something for us we spend a a lot of money on right public ads there could could um we do I guess the equivalent of a quarter PID ad and um put this letter in the paper or if someone wanted to write a letter to the editor they don't charge space for that to if you if if I was authorized I would write a letter to the editor okay um I think that would be great um we we can take a vote if you like Brett if you wanted to make a motion to um have Mike Mackin write a letter to the other editor about filling uh SE commission positions um I'd entertain that so motions okay uh Mike I guess you'll have to second that second okay all right let's take any any further discussion on that okay I'll take a vote uh Brett hi Mike hi and I for myself it passes go for it Mr chairman uh do we have to approve this letter going out to our from the manager probably not right um thank you he did want he did want you your approval um and he also would like you to sign the letter John before it goes out so sure as you saw on the copy he signed his first sign would like you do that I can only sign it till midnight Friday night so okay well I'm only going to be here through Thursday at three so okay okay all right so if someone wants to make a motion to approve the town manager um sending a letter to the uh sewer customers about uh vacant positions yes um I mean I could probably sign it Thursday morning it's just from it's just from John and Carter yeah I'll I'll it's about make making a motion to Sor have the town manager send the letter out yeah I'd like to make a motion out the town manager send out this letter to our 700 plus customers okay um anyone want to second that second okay any further discussion and one discussion Point um Carter as I said I called out the businesses and anyone who was in a more than a couple months um Carter wanted to leave up to that up to the commission as to whether or not to not send it to people that are in her years and I want to make sure that you're okay with that yeah I think I think so Brett mentioned 700 yeah 751 but yeah okay I think um yeah I don't I don't think we need to make a motion to amend okay that okay I just want to make sure that's okay sure sure no thank you Paula for clarifying um all right uh motion was made we had discussion let's take a vote uh Brett I Mike hi and I for myself the motion to have the town manager send the letter out is has passed okay uh potential special town meeting articles um so I'm not sure if I sent this out um did I send it out yeah yeah um so depending on what our situation is at the end of the fiscal 24 and I'm not sure yet because the year hasn't been closed there may need to be adjustments from our fiscal 24 budget um and looking back historically it looks like it's a pretty routine practice at the special town meeting um in some cases there are surplus funds and in some cases there's a deficit um and money has to be T taken from retained earnings and quite frankly I can't tell you where we are right now because unfortunately although I can tell you what we spent I can't tell you what we've brought in because we don't have a window into that um or we do have a window but it's not up to date um so I put together a couple potential um articles um I'm assuming you will have to do an article or two um so I've just left them pretty generic right now and in my ongoing project list I've kind of outlined what needs to happen as far as um submitting them and finalizing the numbers um but they do have to be submitted before the close of the warrant um so I just wanted you guys to be aware that these are going to need to go on to the the um the special town meeting and I don't know if you want to vote them now or if you want to wait until the first meeting in September but my concern is you may not have a quorum in September um so I don't know what to do with this Mr chair yes go ahead Mike um yeah I'm not sure either since what we're talking about is basically a fill-in theblank template yeah um we know we do know you're gonna have to do some sort of article so in some circumstances what barber has done in the past is just submit the article stating um the the very generic one stating that um to see if a town will vote and ra to raise and appropriate borrow or transfer from a available funds all sums of money necessary to amend the amounts voted for the fiscal 2024 sewer Enterprise budget so I know you're going to need that one okay so what you're talking about is just a placeholder Amendment right now exactly and so I would be in favor of acting on that now okay now would it be sufficient just when a motion's made to reference what Paula sent out or will we need to read these right I think if Jane could include them in the minutes would that be enough or do you think we need to read these now I took this from some generic wordings from bar but there may need to be additional um and I will be coming back to do training um so I almost think that because of the situation we're in that you need to to make a motion to submit placeholder articles as required to adjust the fiscal 24 budget that would be my recommended motion because what I've covered may not be everything um so I think the motion needs to be very generic and then bill and the new sewer business manager can submit them based on that motion okay so Mike if you want to make a motion uh for what Paula just okay so let's do it this way I was gonna say did you catch all that yeah um Paula you could repeat the placeholder language and that will be my motion well I think there's maybe need to be more than one placeholder so that's the thing is because you may need to move money around you may need to move money into the capital reserve you may need to take money from retained earnings you may need to put money into retained earnings so we don't know yet so what I would recommend the motion B is that the commission approves the submission of Articles to adjust the fiscal 24 budget as needed at the close of the year so moved okay Brett would you like to second that I would love to second that okay any further discussion on that um after this um motion is approved there is something I wanted to talk about that's related to this but uh it's not to step with where we are on the agenda but I I don't know where else to do it so let's vote on this and Mo and I have so we have a motion in a second uh there's no further discussion we'll take a roll call vote uh Brett hi Mike hi and I for myself the motion passes okay um Brett do you so go ahead this last discussion brought up something I meant to bring up and I don't know where to bring it up in in the agenda because it's not really a public comment it's more of a where the hell do we go from here kind of situation because if in fact we don't have a quorum available in the foreseeable future God forbid that could be weeks that could be it could be months I hate to say it how do we function period moving forward um I mean we can't function as a commission officially where do I and Mike's uh Mike and myself stand um and relation to um Bill Jane our new manager how do we you know do we exist anymore Where Do We Go From Here well I mean you you you will still both be SE Commissioners so I would hope that bill mostly bill and the new business manager will keep the two of you updated with what's going on within the sewers and uh pretty terrible timing with the new manager too right yeah the timing is bad even if we had a quorum um yeah I'm gonna just follow up I'm sorry to interrupt I'm just gonna follow up on this because you know the number of questions I have in my head is that you know can we sign off on you know you know the various you know documents that are required to sign for the for the you know the Enterprise fund to do business I mean I'm concerned about you know how this will work or whether the town uh char has any fallback to you know the commission I mean at one the board of selectman were the Sewer Commission went back when yeah I don't know all good questions I can tell you that from my research even if you if you don't have a quorum you cannot meet um and betit Shed from two members because you're a five member commission it really does handicap you how does it how how will it affect the day-to-day uh ability of the the office to do business so I think the office can do business um I think it's going to be imperative that you get somebody before the November meeting um at the latest and the reason for that is because the only ones who can authorize a commitment is the Sewer Commission um and that's the billing commitment um so you know that concerns me as far as day-to-day operations my assumption would be that bill would be making those decisions and informing you guys and certainly seeking input from you um but ultimately making the decisions so for example about repairs Etc um that would be my guess Bill I don't know if you want to chime in yeah yeah I think you're right I just looking at the charter to see if there's anything there there's got to be something we have to look I haven't found anything because I did look so um again you know there from time to time we we have to sign off on you know certain commitments certain expenditures certain contracts so on and so forth can it be done with two Commissioners no so there's going to be there's also going to be when the project at 7-Eleven massab is complete are also going to need to assess a privilege fee and that requires a majority of the commission um and that document has to be signed and recorded um that's on my list of ongoing projects so hopefully we have someone in place before that project is completed um is there a time frame expected for this project I honestly don't know the looks to me like they're a ways out um just from you know driving by um and it's upon connection to the Sewer so bill would be able to tell you when they actually connect and what about um any other nearest deadlines that you're aware of where we would need some kind of quorum to sign or meet vote on something that's absolutely a deadline somewhere coming up so the the special town meeting articles which I think you guys just just covered um the nip plan is a ways out um the manhole ifb is going to be awarded based on cost and responsive bidder um so typically that would be done by the procurement officer and Bill um they would certainly let you know who who was awarded the contract um the connections Bill typically um does anyway any sewer extension won't be able to go forward um without a full commission um privilege fees as I mentioned would have to be approved once we get to the budget cycle which is fast approaching um that has to be approved by a majority um so the only the only somewhat pressing item would be the warrant for the town uh meeting um well don't we have to sign off regularly on financial commitments yes but that won't be due again until November okay and um I don't think there's too much in the pipeline if if someone was interested in uh assour extension um I mean that's that's a fairly long process um and there's there's no one that I'm aware of Paula bill or you aware of anyone who's interest interested in an extension right now I am not it's a difficult situation and I'm I'm thinking may maybe the town can reach out to someone who was a previous sewer commissioner and maybe they would willing to be appointed until the time which a new commissioner is found I'm sure that could be done because they can appoint someone what about a selectboard member because they they used to handle this right they can't serve on two elected bodies no individual can serve on two elected bodies good idea though John we good all right I'll I'll I'll today's Tuesday right I'll try to talk to Carter on tomorrow or Thursday and run that kind of thing by him and um maybe reach out to someone on the select board about the same thing and get this letter right out um come one come on yeah and certainly uh can help stuff and fold letters I guess I've done that to sore bills in the past and thank you Mike again for offering to do that letter to the editor okay any other further discussion about um um being a short SE commissioner we have three until the end of the week okay uh the next item is the line repair Paul or a bill do you want to talk about that so I had sent out the estimate from M um he reminded me he had done this at the end of last fiscal year or um last calendar year um and we didn't have the money at that point um actually it was in March and so I tabled it and put the funds in for this fiscal year I had budgeted 70,000 I'm now estimating it's going to be higher than that um CTE this is for replacement of the section lines um on mass one as you guys know we repaired the Force main um and were informed at that time that the section lines had to be replaced as well um so the cost from our contractor is 64,65 and on top of that you need to add the pumping um which was in the $88,000 neighborhood for the replacement of the Force main so I'm assuming it will be similar um it may be different um but right now what I'm budgeting is for it to be similar um so I would need your authorization um to go ahead and and move forward with that project um if you so desire okay I just want to clarify the estimate that you spent out sort replacement of the two pumps correct couldn't be no so they're going to remove one line because each line is attached to a suction line yes so they're gonna remove one pump and one line and use the other pump and then okay yeah I'm confusing two different things here yeah yeah so it's not replacement of the pumps it's replacement of the lines attached to the the lines yeah and so the cost is going to be the 64 625 plus uh the pumping correct and how much was that again Paula I'm estimating the the pumping for the last repair was 8,000 and since it's the same line maybe bill you can maybe it will be double because it might be longer I don't know what do you think so what estimated time three to four days per side oh wow yeah so it's the pumping will be a lot more holy cow okay last time read yeah maybe I'm looking at the wrong document um I'm just going to read it subc contractor proposal to include int intention is to remove one unit and they prar at a time and have a system run on one p to reduce the or eliminate pumping costs the attached proposal so it sound like they were going to try to keep one line going one pump I read it while they're working on the other one and when the first one is fixed that one will be working you're right and then it just says any pumping if required by others on the second page right so you know perhaps we could vote on this estimate and somehow word it um and and to include necessary pumping I would put an amount on it an up to amount just so that um well then why don't we I I don't know Bill what do you think yeah well it is an estimate so it could come under or could come over it takes three days is probably little less if it takes five days it's going to be more um yeah well let me ask you how how soon do you think this project would start he could gave me a call to remind me that it needs to be done and I think that you know he'd have to line up the the company that they work with um but I would think within the next couple months okay let let's be optimistic that we'll have a quarum within that time period um so if maybe we could vote on this estimate with you and include up to $6,000 in pumping and if we don't need it that's great I would recommend up to eight okay so are we all on the same page with this yes okay right absolutely but this goes over the budget we had aside for this where do we go from there it it doesn't and that's actually on the well it does but it doesn't we're still within our the total number of our budget and I want to go over some adjustments because the postage is going to throw us over for um the mailing there's a couple other things that I want to go over so there are going to be some line item transfers that we need to do and I did when I talked to the town manager today about the letter I did let him know that that will be coming um but we certainly have enough money within our existing budget to cover the cost of the project okay great okay so all right so if someone wants to make an um a motion to accept the um estimate from CTE dated 3524 estimate number 3278 for the repair of the lines of at $ 64,65 plus an additional up to $8,000 for pumping so move okay Brett was that you seconding it I'm seconding that yes okay any further discussion seeing none let's take a vote uh Brett I Mike I and I for myself the motion passes okay the next uh item is budget adjustments Paula I'll let you take this okay I'm GNA share my screen if that's okay that's fine yep okay can everybody see the screen yep yes so our betterment revenue is down um based on the estimated amount um there was a we had been using numbers provided by The Pri prior Finance director which are significantly different at this point um so there's a decrease of 18,000 in our betterment numbers um so I've you can see here this is the this is the original amount and the revised amount um so in order to some of the that shortfall I decrease the Consulting Services line item which this is the new line item that um we had added when Barb left um that may or may not be a a number that we need um but that number is included in the Outsourcing um so if we look here I decreased it um so basically this this um Outsourcing line item I decreased to 7,000 330 from 14 um excuse me one second hello oh sorry sorry I got nervous the cleaning lady came in um I'm in the office um so I've decreased that line item utilities our costs are way up um much more than I anticipated so I've increased that line item um Unitil did have a rate increase and that is certainly affecting us um I decrease legal because we did not use our legal budget last year um engineering I don't anticipate a huge amount in engineering although we are going to need to do some engineering with right Pierce on the nift's permit um but I think we can phase that because the first report is not due until 2026 um so we still have 2,250 in that line item office expenses I have increased to cover the pot postage overruns plus the stamps went up to 69 cents which I had not anticipated um Capital expenditures I have I decreased the contingency amount um and I move some items to fiscal 26 to cover the the mass one line repair um the um supplier Capital contribution I increase because actually and I have to ad Adit there was an error in the spreadsheet so I've increased that um supplier connection fees although we had raised the connection cost I didn't raise that line item so I've increased it to cover four connections we haven't seen a plethora of requests because I think the cost is now offputting to people but I do want to cover at least four um so we still our bottom line Remains the Same but our total expenditures goes down slightly as does our Revenue thank you thank you Paula yeah thank you very much any questions for Paula on that no okay with a if if you wouldn't mind Mr chair I would like an authorization to request these line item transfers officially okay does someone want to make a motion I'll make a motion for that transfer that Paula just mentioned second any further discussion John I have one comment we're we're only what two months into the fiscal year so moves like this normally you wouldn't do this early in the in the fiscal year but seeing now we're coming into a new business manager it's probably good that she has the budget you know all balanc out the way it should be so I recommend going forward with it at this time thank you Mr chair I'll just comment that's exactly why I did it build normally you wouldn't do this until the end of the year but since I know some of the numbers are off I thought well at least let her start with what I think is realistic right um she may still have to do additional transfers honestly she probably will but at least she can start the year with with the correct budget yeah and the thing that I have always found very frustrating being a commissioner responsible for an Enterprise fund it and this is no fault of the business manager whether it was Paula or Barbara it is so hard for us to know where we are on a week- toe basis because we rely on the the town's input the town's numbers and and we're always behind in in getting the information that we need and I'm not critic sizing the town I I think it's probably not unusual but it just makes it very frustrating I mean I couldn't run my household that way anyway we had a motion on the table um just imagine what the government running the government it's like yeah okay uh we had a motion in a second um I'll second that yes okay I think I did yeah I think you already did um we'll take a roll call vote Mike hi Brett hi and I for myself the motion passes okay um Paula the business manager report um so the grease trap update just stop sharing um I did send out um or I've drafted all the renewals for the for the establishments that have grease traps both internal and external um I did want to just give you an update on non-compliance and find out what you want to do at when you made the changes to the greas Trap Regulations in last year last February you set the fee at $150 and there's no difference between compliance and non compliance however you did leave a $100 fine and and I don't know if at this point you want to enforce that for anyone that that is non-c compant or if you want to just send a send a note with the letter saying thatr currently non-compliant um The Establishment that's currently non-compliant right now is Kindred Spirits um they have missed a couple of their of their first Tuesday reports um and then from the Interceptor report um we everyone is compliant except we um a couple of the establishments have not wind dver has not been using our form they're just sending uh their report which is really not sufficient it doesn't give us the information about the fog or the sludge or the amount of Grease um so I've instructed the two establishments that that has happened with so to make sure that when gber submits the reports um but other than that all the externals are compliant there have been a couple slips with a couple establishments a few days late but nothing egregious other than that one establishment all right so you're you're looking for us to just de side where we want to impose the fines exactly the these finds didn't come about I mean we can't blame this one on munice right nope so I I would I guess my feeling is because in the past if we let these things slip um I think it only can get worse the only thing that I would say Mr chairman is to be quite honest is this office has been completely consumed by billing and in the past we would send reminders um and I haven't done that because quite frankly I haven't had the time um I did do that today to a couple people who I haven't received their August report for their July reports um but that's the only reason I'm kind of on the fence about it because we weren't as diligent as we had been in the past about sending reminders okay that's that's good information um Brett Mike what are your what are your thoughts well again given that there's no reason for the lateness there's no extenuating circum ances I think it's appropriate that we we impose the F right well this is probably our last chance to make this decision for a while potentially as well um I think I might I think we might have to impose it um because it could be a couple months could be a month or two before we have a chance to come back to this okay and I you you already heard my view about and posting it so I um does someone want to make a motion uh point of information what what would be the amount of the fine this time $100 oh I make a motion we impose the fine I'll second that motion okay any further discussion say n one one one comment um when I talked about non-compliance I was talking about for fiscal 24 um there are three establishments right now that have not submitted their July reports which were due uh the second week of a second Tuesday of August um I have sent reminders to those St lishments do you want to hold off on finding those individuals until a future meeting or what do you want to do there well they're but they're late right yeah okay we're we're a month behind less so I I would say let the motion stand as is um unless it's any further discussion so meaning just that one establishment right now yeah okay is that everyone else's understanding yes yes all right so we have a motion in a second um's take a vote uh Brett hi Mike hi and I for myself the motion passes okay Paula the next part should only take like 60 seconds right well I sent and I thought of a couple projects after I sent that that I have to add um so this is going to be kind of an evolving list um but I did send out a document that outlines the various things that I'm I've been working on or need to work on um we talked about the special town meeting articles the manhole ifb is out with Julie the procurement officer and we're waiting for that to come back it is imperative that that goes out as soon as possible so that we can have contract in place so Bill anything you can do to follow up with Carter and Julie to get that out um yep so Carter had that discussion with Julie and um actually offered my services to Julie to review some of the other contracts to just to give her a hand so I'll do what I can to get it out okay okay um an emergency response I could just interrupt for a moment y um this list Paula and I talked about even if we hadn't Paula would have done this anyway coming up with a A list that really it serves a few purposes one it's sort of a checklist for Bill a checklist for the new uh business manager and a checklist for the remaining Commissioners just so they can keep track of um all of the ongoing uh projects and issues so go ahead Paula um so the emergency response plan that was something that I I really wanted to do when I first came on board but then then munice happened um so that needs to happen um and especially based on the couple situations where we've had especially on Harris Street we do have to have an emergency response plan in place so that we know who to call and what occurs um what the reporting requirements are Etc um the nipy permit you know that would went into effect on March 1st of this year um we need we need to do an adaptation plan an update our operation and maintenance plan and there is a component of an alternate power source which I'm not worried about because we already have alternate power sources in all of our stations um but that has to happen there's several connections that are in progress and permits that are in progress and one extension um that is going to need to have I just got the approval for the purchase order to um get a check cut so that will be ready to be recorded um when the new business manager is on board um I mentioned the privilege fees that are going to have to be assessed um the budget we just went over um that's an that's a living thing it changes all the time um grease trap permits the renewals will go out tomorrow um oil water separators that will also go out tomorrow um Capital Improvements we just approved the mass one suction line um but there's also a significant amount of work that needs to happen on Dana and I did budget for that work um so once obviously I don't think you want to take on too much at one time but the money is there for the Dana repair um so that money should should be that project should go forward time permitting um um the energy Grant we had worked with the green community um committee last year um or over the summer and we found that we weren't really eligible because we didn't have significant Energy savings however we were told that the Dana Street project would potentially um qualify and so we could potentially have funding available of $45,000 from a grant um so I sent an email today to the green community's chair asking if they do plan to sit submit a fall budget their intent is they want to go for the maximum amount that can be awarded because once they get this award they can't go back for another three years I think um so they wanted to bundle a couple projects together so the email that I sent today was asking if they do intend to submit a a Grant application and if so if this project could be included because we have all the data we need Bill had had worked with um a couple people to get all the data together um that we needed so it's ready to go if the green communities agrees that they'll submit it w you've been busy I have um she's still in the office what are you I'm still in the office um the ongoing Unice issues um you guys are all aware of um and then the other thing that I've really been working on is just cleaning up stuff um there's some files at the TC that really should be here um the betterment documents the easement documents the sewer extension documents are all kind of bundled together they really should be in the appropriate files for the various properties um so that's something I I had been working on and hope will continue and then there's an enormous amount of unnecessary paperwork in the file cabinets and as I said there is someone working on that and I know James worked on that um but that's something that I hope will continue you just because it makes things a lot easier um and I'm sure I'm going to think of several other things I already thought of one so that list will keep going until I leave on Thursday and then I will be back you know to do training and hopefully can help Paula you'll always be part of the sewer department what I said you'll always be part of the sewer department um so I'm you know hopefully I can I can help the new business manager get get off the ground right okay where where where do we stand right now with um renewing CTE we have renewed them through um August of of 25 okay good so that's and we actually just got a communication from them uh we need the procurement officer to send the letter of extension and bill sent an email to Julie today asking her to do that okay so basically what what situation we were in is we can renew the contract up to three years without going back out to bid um and there was some concern from CTE that they were going to go to another vendor for generators and they might have to adjust the contract price and what we determined is if the contract price is adjusted then the contract then the entire contract has to go back out to bid so CTE has left the the costs as as um stated in the original contract so there have been no changes and we extended did it for a year and then can extend it for another year okay great great and then um the only other thing is when Paula you Bill and I met with right Pier several months ago now one of the things they talk we all talked about State revolving funds and it's really from pretty major projects but I if I remember right there was some discussion about uh the possibility of applying for funds for you know a five six 10e Capital plan if I I think I remember correctly s like $250,000 sort of the minimum number that you would want to submit to the state but just let's you know sort of keep that one the back of our our heads that still might be an opportunity uh to help fund some of these repairs for aging system I'll I'll add that to my notes under the Capital Improvements um Wade did mention that there are a number of generators that are nearing their their end of life so replacement of the generators would be a fantastic thing to get State revolving low funds and in the event that the Dana Street project doesn't go forward this year that would be another excellent project to to potentially use State revolving funds okay um the only other two are little ones which I've mentioned to Bill uh the telephone wire Ora Street I know you have that in your notes and um I keep forgetting yep yeah um the telephone wire Dana Street I called Verizon I actually got a call from a tech who couldn't find it so a tech went out there I didn't get any feedback to see if they actually fixed it but uh I'll have to go over and take a look it might be all fixed well I'm I'm feeling kind of optimis uh optimistic that it is because you you can't miss it because it's draping over the the fence unless that's not a telephone wire I I no he couldn't find the station he couldn't find the station Dana Street okay yeah okay he had it as zero D Street I said now the other end the Dana Street yeah you can't miss it all right well at least they're trying to look at it okay um and the other was that getting the stand for the the meter to measure uh flow yes and I reached out to U Hony and uh yeah they said it would take care of it but he said he got right on it didn't he yeah right feedback since then no yeah okay uh that's all I had on on the list any questions from anyone regarding that no um white 24 budget review so unfortunately I was hoping when I put this together that the fiscal 24 budget would be closed and it's not so I can't really really give you a complete overview I can tell you that I believe we will have a surplus um this fiscal year um and the reason one of the main reasons for that Surplus is that um there were a lot of properties sold and our EMB betterments were paid off um so I believe we will have a surplus but I'm not comfortable saying how much until the fiscal year is closed yeah and of course that impacts our sorry that impacts our stream down the road right exactly okay uh any questions for Paula on any of the business managers topics okay seeing none um I think that pretty much covered the old business do we have any um public comments from anyone chairman I just want to thank you for your service to the Sewer Commission John you have been a a true advocate of of this department and you're going to be greatly missed your guidance and and willingness to to step in when needed whether it be folding or whether it be meeting or or whatever it is you're always there to to help out and I just want to thank you for all your time and dedication and I've really enjoyed working with you and I wish you the best and hopefully we'll see you back on the commission at some point in the future thank you Paul I appreciate that maybe we'll we'll come back to sewers at the same time who know maybe and and again I I would you know second that um one of the things that's going to be missed tremendously is you know the depth of experience and history and knowledge that you've brought to the to the commission and it'll be sorely missed thank you Mike to be terribly missed um I thank you for your constant input and your professionalism and um handling this commission um with the greatest of ease and uh we're going to miss you and we do hope to get you back when you're able I appreciate that and thank you as I've said before being on the Sewer Commission has been uh fun enjoy and it's been great to work with all of you yeah John I just want to Echo what everybody else has said and it's it's been a pleasure working with you and um you've been amazing you you always are in the office want to know what's going on you're you're reading all the manuals and uh I don't know too many Commissioners that would come out at midnight with me Chase a spill but you did you were there that was that was way past my bedtime Bel I think when Paula called me I was about ready to go to bed anyway I was glad I could help um okay you're John thank you very much sir thank you thank you thank you uh any other public comments all right um best of luck Paula thank you I know we've said this but I'm gonna miss congratulations can I miss you too okay um the upcoming meetings are September 10th maybe God will September 24th October 8th and October 29th and I'm being uh optimistic that at least you'll have one on the 24th great um does anyone want to make a motion by final meeting to close close the meeting I'll make a motion to close the meeting this evening second um seeing no further discussion we'll take a vote here Brett hi Mike hi and I for myself the August 27th 2024 meeting is concluded thank you all thank you good night everyone okay thank you all good night night