yes I do okay we'll use Mike's FL okay uh good evening everyone this is July 30th it's uh 6:15 p.m. this is a regular meeting of the Sewer Commission um my name is John Reynolds I'm the current chairman of the Sewer Commission and I would ask everyone to participate in the pledge to the allegiance I pledge allegiance to United States Amer the republ one nation God indivisible jice thank you okay um in accordance with the requirements of the Oprah meeting law please be advised that this meeting will of the swer commission is being recorded and will be able to be found on the lunber 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 participate remotely from a computer please use the link to join the public meeting webinar found in the posted agenda or from a telephone dial the toll-free number 888 475 4499 and enter the webinar ID 87117 68135 if you have not registered with zoom you will be asked for your name and an email address no participant ID is needed just press pound when asked okay um I'm going to do a roll call vote here um let's see uh Brett bramston here Mike Mackin here and I for myself uh Bill Bernard I'm here Paula Bertram here and Jane rley here okay um that's just public comment but I we uh obviously got a late start so like to make public comments as short as possible do we have any public comment from the Commissioners or the staff seeing none any public comment from the public public okay seeing none any announcements from uh the Commissioners or staff no any announcements from the public um I have an announcement to make but I'll wait until the end of the meeting um so that we can get on with our appointment so uh looks like we have Mr Proctor here good evening everyone okay this is regarding an extension request for 12 Kimble street so Mr Proctor the floor is yours great thank you very much uh would it be appropriate if I shared my screen yes it would okay great don't know if you're G to be able to Ryan you can try it uh yeah it's currently disabled it says yeah I don't know that I can hold on one second sure okay give it a try okay there we go all right so I'm Ryan Proctor with dyis I'm representing Richard McGrath the owner of 12 Kimble Street the application that we filed on his behalf is for sewer extension um north of Prospect Street our office had previously uh extended the sewer uh from Kim from Prospect Street up to Kimble Street we had a manhole installed in front of four Kimble Street uh on the lower right hand side of my screen here at the time of installation we had installed a 8in stub pointing up Campell Street for future expansion so we are proposing to tie into that and uh traveling up Kimble Street to our site um to 12 Kimble street we have about 132 linear feet of the 8 in sewer main that we're posing to extend along the way we would install an additional stub for the property located at 8 Kimble Street before getting up to an additional man at the end and then similar to the previous application that uh you you folks had approved we would install another stub on the west side of the super manhole in case there is future expansion up the street uh that I think is all I have to say we have reviewed the plan uh with Mr Bernard I don't believe there are any plan comments um I think um and Bill please feel free to speak to this as well but I think there was going to be a condition relative to Paving the entirety of the street um that we will be disturbing from manhole to manhole um but aside from that I I didn't see any plan uh changes or comments so if there's any questions from any of the commission members I'd be happy to take them Bill do you want to comment on yeah yep so I did review the plans um I am satisfied with the plans they're well done and U Ryan's correct um this road was paved just over five years ago so it kind of falls out of our moratorium but it's still in great shape and they're coming right down the middle couple laterals so I think the best thing to do here is it would be the to to pave the the entire length that they disturb from Curb to curb whatever you know a finished product that's nice and neat and matches the rest of the road we want to have that trench down the middle I think that's the best way to go okay uh any questions or comments from the Commissioners okay seeing none it sounds like we need a motion to accept this plan with the condition conditions as Bill uh Bernard noted so moved anyone want a second okay we'll take a vote uh Mike Mackin I Brett Ramson hi and I for myself it looks like you have the go-ahead Mr Ryan great thank you very much I appreciate your time okay right okay uh next is current business um you know Paula sent the minutes out from the last two meetings but we neglect we neglected to add them to the agenda so we'll have to vote on those at the next next meeting right sorry about that well I I didn't pick up on it either pa okay okay um Paula this is pretty much um your baby down here do you want to start with the uh uh Q4 uh 24 billing yeah so we were unable to do demands for a while so on July 9th I sent notices to anyone o basically a letter to anyone owing over $1,000 informing them what their balance was um and subsequent to that on July um 17th we did the demands unfortunately we had a similar issue with we had not a similar issue because the amounts were right on the demands but unfortunately the due date and the notice date were the same although that is not what was in the system so Jane and I um cut up little made little labels and put them over the due date um two labels per bill um and then the demands went out on the 17th and and they are due tomorrow uh the delinquent notices um so that's really the status of of the Q4 billing um I am waiting for the year to close out the fiscal year hasn't yet been closed so I can't give you an update on where we are with the budget because I'm not clear on where we are with the revenue um because that's not always quite up to date in the system so once I have once the year closed out I can give you a better idea I can give you an um an overview of where we are for fisal 24 okay um question goad just just curious um number of delinquencies outstanding right now ballpark um Jane do you have any I want to say 253 we sent yeah Jan does that sound about right I think so yeah yeah so what's that around between 25 and 30% yes well let's hope uh well we'll have to wait and see what happens yeah okay um any other discussion regarding that okay thanks Paul and hopefully next go around you won't have to paste two stickers on a thousand bills let's hope let's hope yes well we had two last bills so we I mean I I I joked about it when I went in there and Paula said the dates are the same and I said oh does that mean you're going to have to put stickers on and sure enough she'd already done it but anyway the uh loofah Farms Paul I just wanted to fill in everyone in I don't know if everyone's aware several years ago there was a proposal by a company called bright Farms to do an indoor farm at a at the property next to Walmart um that that that project did not go forward however there's a very similar proposal being considered by the town by lofa Farms um it's an a 4 100,000 sq foot Warehouse on the bottom and then a 400,000 squet uh indoor greenhouse on the top so it's a total of 800,000 square feet um bill and I had a very short preliminary meeting uh with the building inspector and the proponents and and the Conservation Commission agent um and uh the Water District was also there it's not clear yet what the proposal will be from a from a use usage Point um that talking about um using rainwater Etc as much as they can to be completely green um but once we have more details on the proposal you know I'll certainly fill you in bill I don't know if you have anything else to add no not really yeah they they didn't have any idea how much water they were going to be using they did say they like to reuse a lot of water so I don't know so what goes into the sewer is totally unknown at this time right so just wanted you guys to be aware of the project in case anyone ask I have asked you know our usage will be based on the amount of air office space that's in the building as well as there's a rate for wehouse um and then we'll look at the number of employees um but we're not we're not there yet so once we get there I will let you know okay I mean it's it's pretty good size facility yes yes it is okay uh the next item is arpa funding the town manager sent out a letter saying there was uh $313,000 left in the arpa funding and um they're looking for projects they're looking for um department heads to send them um requests from M very similar to what we did last time um so does anyone have any thoughts about what uh the sewer department could request for arpa money Mr chairman yes I do I do have some concerns um and this kind of is further down in the agenda um but at at a minimum I think we should be looking at recouping some of the jend revenue that we lost um which I would estimate to be about $10,000 since we haven't been able to send demands except for this last run um additionally we have a consultant um that was arranged by the finance director who I worked with today who was a big help um he's a munus consultant formerly worked for munus and and is now assisting the town to try to resolve some of these problems his rate is $1,425 a day um I don't think that the Sewer Commission should be paying that um so I would certainly hope that we would request assistance for with that um and I'll explain what we did today and what's Ono but we're going to need to have at least another session probably more um so I I would certainly hope that the commission would request arpa funding to to replenish that um those [Music] funds I I agree with um both of those the loss and demand was a a real loss um you know it's always hard to rec recover lost man hours unfortunately and I'm total agreement that the sewer department shouldn't be paying for the Consulting fees um which obviously will add up pretty quick so I I think that um that should be requested and the dollar figure could be the um loss and demand plus whatever um the consulting fee is so any other suggestions for well it's no shortage of needs needs um chairman I'm sorry um I said there's no shortage of needs uh in our system it's a matter of you know what are the priorities that we know aren't covered at the moment um you know we've got we know we need to upgrade many more pumps so on so forth is there some kind of a priority priority list we should put together well if if I may John um I did Bill and I did talk with Robert this morning um you guys are aware that last year when we did the Big Fix on mass one um it was discovered that we should also be replacing the section line on mass one and additionally there are problems on Dana Street um so I did ask Robert this morning to put together um estimates for those repairs um so I'm not quick I'm not sure how quickly he will he will turn those around but those are real tangible needs and as he said to us this morning if the suction line goes at Mass one it the entire Pump Station ceases to work um so obviously that would be a major concern both from a sewer standpoint and environmental standpoint there are wetlands right adjacent to that pump station um and obviously from a from a customer effect I mean they would not be able to to utilize sewer so obviously that's a real need now we thank you Paul what was the cost for the uh that repair at Lem 60,000 mass mass one you mean Mass yeah it was 41,000 41,000 so the the cost would probably be about the same I I honestly couldn't speculate Bill your thoughts probably higher because they have to excavate down to reach the pipes outside of the tank so probably more okay um my Venture in a $60,000 range okay um my only concern I guess is and I did not pick up in this earlier that the deadline for submitting the request is July 31st oh tomorrow yeah that was gonna be my next question okay do you need sleep tonight Paula Paul I can't put it together I'm waiting for for it's got to be easier than [Laughter] shers so CTE is working on it I I I don't know that they're going to be able to provide us a quote by tomorrow well that's why I was asking if we if we went with the price of the mass one because we know it's the same work plus bill would have to come up with a estimate for the excavation and it it could say in there you know this estimate is based on the work done at Mass one I would think yeah I will say that Robert seemed to think Dana was more of a priority but we did put funding into um our budget our fiscal 25 budget for the Dana repairs um and the fact that M Mass one will completely I mean so with Dana we would have major issues with Dana as well so they're both priorities but we have a better idea of what the cost is going to be for Mass one okay so Bill do you think you'd be able to come up with some kind of number for tomorrow yeah I can work on it okay so we're talking about submitting two requests or um if we don't ask we're not going to get it I would say three I think we should separate it I think we should do the demand request the consultant fee request and then the work on mass one okay okay so Bill you're all set for your work for tomorrow as usual my work is cut out yes I I I won't come over tomorrow and bother you okay how's that you're welcome anytime okay um any other discussion on the arpa money okay uh PA the L IMA um just to give you an update that the Selectmen voted to approve the excuse me one second sure sure um so the Selectmen approved voted to approve the IMA I'm just waiting for the actual signatures um and then we will record it and get a copy over to Lemon so they can record it um that's just the update okay um end a year uh 24 commitments to be honest with you I I worked with the consultant all day I hoped to finish it I didn't so I will email it out to you guys um and you know it's it's some minor adjustments that have occurred um but I would need a vote for you guys to approve the commitment pending the final total um and then I'll send that out via email I don't have a problem with that does someone want to make a motion some motion second uh roll call vote Mike hi Brett hi and I for myself motion passes see how easy we are to work with Paula um okay the the uh Paul sent out to to versions of an ad for the newspaper regarding clogs did everyone have a chance to uh take a look at those yep any preference any comments right did you have a chance to look at them I did briefly yes okay okay just to fill you in before you talk about the ads the cost of a half page ad is 350 and full page is $400 right that is full color yeah I think we voted on that the last meeting that we would go with the full page ad okay okay so it's a matter of looking at these two when I made the presentation to the select board at least two of the Selectmen at the end seem to focus on the the short list which is only flush toilet paper and nothing else versus listing out the things not to flush because obviously the six items on here absolutely shouldn't be flush but they're you know probably a plethora of other items um so that that would be my only comment from the select select board and you know looking at the two of them I think the simpler the better and I you know So you you're you're thinking the one with the on the bottom left it has the flush toilet only right right okay and I I agree with you and the only thing I might change on that is the the top paragraph um bold toilet paper only like on the other one you have the word only bolded Paula you're muted apologies um so I'm gonna if I'm going to just share it so then we can make the edit sure sure okay so this is the this is it what is it that you want so this word right here on the other one you had the word only bolded yeah yeah so I guess I'm only suggesting three words toilet paper only bolded anyone else have any thoughts on that no I agree No it should be toil I agree as well and definitely full color it's easy to read it's straightforward it leavs it all right out there without the only thing that I'm wondering is whether it would be useful to um have a bit of text that talks about what our costs have been to to repair clogs during during the past year um I don't know that I can articulate the cost we can certainly call out how many clogs we've had um that would be good yeah keeping yeah you've been keeping a running track John do you know where we are we just had another one at France right right and I I think I I counted um to twice so when I said 30 at the select board meeting was probably 28 that we have had another one since then we've had three more since then so three three more since then it should be something like we've had you know number X number of clogs with significant cost to repair okay okay I can add that SEL like this you don't have to you know tell people you can't flush cats in the toilet right um I mean Tom Alonzo asked a good question at the presentation is you know about the cost mik and um you know we know that if someone goes there off hours it's a minimum of four hours that we have to pay them and if they have to bring in a second person that's another minimum of four hours um so some of those clogs are handled during normal work hours uh but my my concern always my biggest concern too is that the alarms don't work when we get uh a clog and it could lead to devastating results um and as I mentioned at the presentation we did have to replace a motor one time because a pump one time because of the clog but I think it I think it would be the nice to have it would be difficult to come up with the the cost of the clogs it would be a lot easier to track it going forward I think we could come up with the number but it would take a while I think Paula has other things she needs to be doing right now and I don't I don't think there'd be enough time to get it to get this out out because I'd like to get out in a fairly timely fashion do you know when we when you started counting John do you have any idea when I started counting the clogs yeah because I want to say there have been 31 clogs since well since um I've always been going by since um Robert started which was in September okay so so how many months is it how many months is that well let's see September o well I think it started towards the end of September so October November December January February March April May June we're at the end so that's 10 months yeah that's a lot in 10 months the the other question that was asked the presentation was um do we know what some of the other towns who have sewer systems with pump stations what are they experiencing uh I know it's an issue for all sewer systems but is is ours worse for some reason according to Wade it is a it is the biggest problem in sewer systems biggest problem in sewer systems yeah so is is that enough that I just added you guys there have been 31 clogs in 10 months at significant expense works for me is that okay or did you want to say something different no that works Jane has her hand up yes um I just looked through the minutes and they discussed the paying 400 for an ad but they never voted on it thank you let's do that okay thank you Jane took me forever to figure out how to raise my hand but I found it okay would someone like to make a motion for the uh sord uh Department to pay for a $400 full page color AD regarding claws so moved that much okay let's any further discussion no uh let's take a vote Mike I BR I and I myself the motion passes okay and everybody's okay with this wording because I can get it off to The Ledger yes okay now you only want that $400 cost is one addition do I'm assuming you would want it to be in the townwide Edition so that's 400 for the one ad one ad one for one week for town the townwide I don't I'm not sure when the townwide goes out but I will check tomorrow oh oh I see what you're saying the townwide is I it makes sense to have it the town White Edition yeah I I agree D your hand is still up I don't know but I will say um that they should be doing one pretty soon because they always put the bus routs in oh great okay yeah all right let me figure out how to shut put my hand down I will have to um resubscribe to the paper so oh I can get a copy of this well the town wide one goes to everybody it's the one time that everyone gets the paper that's why I'm okay saying should be in that addition all right um any other discussion regarding the ad no okay thank you Paula John I have I have one comment sure sure I don't think anywhere it says lunenberg Sewer Commission in the ad should we add that in somewhere yes yes um I think we probably actually should very much had yeah yeah cat Bell I'll just put a message from the lunenberg Sewer Commission at the top if that's okay that's fine for me okay Michael you're not you're muted Michael would it be too much to say members needed is that too much of a mixed message probably is I was just it probably is it's probably not the place to do it it it might might cause some confusion good idea though okay uh the manhole inspection AFB um I don't know if anyone had a chance to peruse through it I'm I'm fairly familiar with it because I've been Paul has been showing it bits in pieces to me as time's going on uh Bill have you had a chance to go through it yet I have not but um I'll work on that this week not tomorrow though well I'll try maybe I might be able to start tomorrow we'll see see how far I get Paul remind me when when are you hoping to get this in for as soon as possible Heather's asking um when you know when we're going to be able to do this this and obviously I want the work to get done before um the you know the cold weather sets in so the quicker we can get it out the better um it's been delayed quite a bit just because of all the other stuff going on in the office um and then CTE wasn't able to do the inspections until the end of when did they do the end of end of June um so but we got a lot of really valuable information from Robert um and and the other staff at CTE so I think I think we've got a good um a good handle on what needs to be done I did sit down with Robert a couple weeks ago and we went through each and every manhole um to make sure I had everything checked off that needed to be checked off um so I I think we're in a good place um now it's just a matter of making sure that all of the specifications are right because you know basically what I did is cobbled to all together from looking at other ifbs from other communities um because as you know it was cost prohibitive to use right Pierce so you know once bill has a chance to review it I did I just sent it to him today so yeah yeah okay um I I'll take a look at it tomorrow Mike and Brett if you get a chance to look at it in the next couple of days I'm sure Bill and Paula would appreciate it yeah and if you have any comments don't copy all just send it to to me and Bill individually okay any other uh manhole questions okay um business man your efforts uh business business manager report and the uh ongoing software issues so that's really all I have to report on because honestly that's where my focus has been um and continues to be since we started mun um I will say prior to this upgrade it billing was a very simple Endeavor it took two days and the bills went out and there were no issues frustration is extremely high um but the consultant did come in today his name is Randy Mercier and he was very very helpful um we were able to make a couple changes in munist to do simple things like being able to we were not able to generate PDFs before so when we did the bill run we were not able to retain a copy of it without doing two Bill runs and keeping a physical copy of the bill um but he was able to go into the administration settings and make it so that we can now print a PDF so we don't have to print two huge volumes of bills um which was really helpful um he was also able to figure out how we can streamline the import process um which will be very very helpful and I've already sent an email to lingster um asking them for the data in a different format um and the and we work through how to change the the to normalize the data from the lunberg water district so that was very helpful currently I bring everything to an into an access database and then export it in a file um but we're not we don't have it 100% but we're working on it um he was in the midst of working on why we can't do an account inquiry um when our system went down we had asked for um the it the IT department to suar it to update the data in training so that we could do the bill run and make sure there weren't any issues he did took a take a look at the the adding issues and the things that we've had problems with on the bills and the labels that have been done um so we were going to test the bill run so we asked for the data to be updated so we could do the test and by trying to refresh the data it pegged this 100% of the CPU on the server so everyone in town hall went down um and we were down so he waited an hour um to see if it would come back up it didn't come back up he did say to me this is unheard of um he used to work from munice and he has over 50 clients that he works with on on munice issues um and refreshing the data should be a very routine simple process um so he's not clear on why lunenberg is having so many problems and we did go through to see how he was shocked at how often munice goes down and I went back through May and munus was down approximately five times in May um because I said to him this is a pretty routine situation um and he did talk with it a little bit and asked them who configured the server because it should have been done by munus um Tyler Tech to configure the server so we're not quite sure who configured it so I sent an email to um the town manager it and the chair of the select board um asking exactly that question I outlined you know what we were able to accomplish today and that he was he was very helpful um but that he has questions about the server configuration and he also questioned um why we have an on Prem contract um and he was asking about contract specifics um and it's his recommendation that we get an on Prime contract um so I've included that in the email as well um and I asked that that email be sent to the entire select board I I will send you guys a copy um I I did this just as I was leaving um but he is going to we're going to try to work together again on Thursday remotely um he's not going to be back on site um but we're going to try to work together remotely and do the test Bill run but it's critical in order to do this that the data be updated as of the backup on Wednesday evening um so hopefully suar it is able to get the the training environment up to date and then we can we can do the bill run test um but we've also had an issue with training Thea training environment which is used for for exactly this type of thing is run through and making sure there's no issues and the live production environment and we've had a problem with the synchronicity of those two environments a lot of times one environment will have one update whereas the other doesn't and in order obviously in order for it to be a true test the environments need to be exactly the same um so you know we've related that to it and they are working on that so hopefully Thursday we will be able to run the bills and Jane and I will hold them stuff on fr Fray at least that's the plan no you're muted Mike uh you referenced the consultant talking about a specific contract that he recommended could you he recommended an on Prem service contract and what what would that do it would have somebody from Tyler Tech actually be on site to make sure to manage the server um and to deal with immediate problems understood he said that's a you know that's a a common contract it would have a cost associated with it but it but it's a pretty standard contract um so that that was his recommendation so as I said that's what I included in my email okay thanks that that would be a contract I would hope would be funded by the town at the seore department because it's that uh the server running at 100% capacity is a townwide issue not just a sewer department issue right everyone was down right right right okay thank you Paula yeah any other um questions for Paula regarding the uh software issues I'd like to say um I'm just glad to hear there some progress it's been such a frustrating issue and you know as a commissioner feeling like our hands are tied wishing we could help our manager our office manager and um you know make things forun smoother and not being able to do a thing about it and obviously turning over every stone like we have uh or like Paula has it's really great to see a little bit of relief and uh and progress in the right direction um I commend you Paula thank you for your efforts and I'm really glad to see it's heading in the right direction thank you I want to also um send out a thank you to a um Al I don't know how to pronounce his name Ezekiel a um who is our finance director he's the one who um disc discovered this Consulting service and recommended um and organized this this session today um so he has been a fantastic help um and hopefully he can help this consultant can help resolve a lot of the issues we're having in town I I feel like he he appreciates the pain that the sewer department has gone through these past many many months um so uh yeah I I appreciate his effort and and not just the Sue department but the taxpayers and the rate payers have gone through yep here here uh good point Mike okay um uh next on the agenda we have old business but I think pretty much any old business was just covered in the um as part of the current business so unless anyone can think of any old business we'll move on to public comment um John I do just want to mention and I see that Dave plos is on I do just want to comment under old business we had not received the grant because we couldn't show significant enough savings Energy savings this is the green communities through the green communities um Dave come in and talk to me about the Grant and they're working on another Grant proposal for October and our hope is that we can bundle in some of um the one of the pump stations I believe it's Dana Street into that Grant proposal um so hopefully we can get some funding to to to upgrade that pump okay great great Dave do you have anything you want to add about that or anything else okay I guess that's a no okay I I mentioned earlier uh that I had an announcement to make and I would use the public comment um time and I I've spoken to everyone here except Dave obviously and and but everyone connected with the sewer mission of sewer department I've spoken to except Jane and I apologize um I will be stepping down from the Sewer Commission at the end of August so my last meeting will be the August um 30 or 31st whatever that Tuesday is um I was fully expecting to be a sewer commissioner for a very long time it is just not in the cards for me right now um I I've enjoyed working with it and I hope that I can get back on the sewer commissioner at some later SE commission at some later Point as I said it's just not in the cards for me right now and I will uh send an email to the select board the town manager and the town clerk so that they um all know is there anyone else Paula I should officially notify no that's it okay all right well that was my announcement SLU comment any I know we have I just want to comment I know we have a couple more meetings but I really have valued your input John and I think you have been an an integral piece to this commission um and your dedication and your thoroughness have been truly appreciated um very often I see you come in and go to the library as we call it which is all the data for the Sewer Commission um various sewer projects and you are an incredible dedicated volunteer and I just want to say you're stepping down is a great loss to the to the Sewer Commission and to the community and I just want to say that I really appreciate all the work you've done I I appreciate that Paul thank you I would like to Second what Paul has said and say you've been a a hell of an example of leadership and um professionalism and uh really appreciate all your donated time and wish you all the luck on the future and thank you for what you've done John thank you thank you Brett thank you John as I expressed to you earlier I um you know my short time on the on the commission I've you know looked at you as someone that you know I could trust to you know have a a handle on you know the facts you know what what what's going on um you know ideas you know how to untie problems um and it it you will be a great loss and thank you for what all you've done thank you Mike um it's been great working with all of you I think the Sewer Commission uh I think it's a little bit of a unique Commission in town uh we we sort of run a small business and and I think everyone always seems to get along and we've had a great business manager with Paula and before that Barbara and Bill uh thank you for everything so on that note do we have a motion to end the meeting I'll make a motion to end the meeting second any further discussion there never is uh Mike Mackin hi Brett Ranson hi and I for myself thank you all good night everybody good night thank you John good night everybody