meeting of the water department all to order um present Dave mesar commissioner John K commissioner pres Randy Brown DPW Director chrisy D offer okay uh any public comment no sir [Music] no okay review of the minutes uh we can't do that because Ed not here well I wasn't here we'll table that till the next meeting Elder elderly rate applications we have applications they meet all the requirements there's are six six they need all the requirements yes we have do I have a motion I'll make a motion to accept all six elderly rate applicants my second all in favor John K i Dave mes [Music] hi on to the next Dave sign yeah we sign that monthly commitments this is last month's DPW director's report yeah had a few things it's been uh a little while since we last met uh so the first item is the well to uh pump cleaning and refurbishing that work was done started in the end of February and ran through March overall the job went well the equipment wasn't is in very good condition um so the work included doing a free television section of the well casing they they broke down the well head uh cleaned it um replace some of the parts same thing with the motor did they kind of minor overall the motor and then they did a chem in chemical injection of the well screening to clean the any any debris that built up on the Well Screen so uh that went well it was about a three or four week process we had that well out of service but it went well it was during a low demand period which was planned so we didn't really rely on sprinkled water that much during that period we were able to get by on well one the next item is we're working on application for cyber security improvements through our uh skate for some skate equipment that is now considered obsolete um that grants can be through EPA uh third item is we're working on the lead service line inventory we've talked about this the last couple meetings time bonds our consultant working a with us on that uh we're trying to identify where any lead Services may be in the town um whether it's on the town side in the street or on the homeowner side on the private property so we've uh sent a survey out to Residents we did some door knockers a week or two ago on some select neighborhoods and we've got I'd say you know lukewarm response to that which is unfortunate uh but they are planning on doing more door knockers next week and hopefully we'll get some better responses we completed our annual statistical statistical report um one thing that came out of that was our residential gallons per capita day usage this is basically how much water per person per day is South using and this is a metric that D uses and Compares communities to each other they have a standard of 65 gallons per day we have been historically been above that this last year was at 78 gallons we were you know in that same range you know mid to high 70s is kind of like our our normal range however this year mass te is is asking for what called a compliance plan and they want to know how we're going to be able to get down to 65 gallons per day so I've kind of just started that process I don't know where that's going to lead to uh just looking at the you know a quick what's that no sorry continue oh start just kind of looking at the you know starting look at the data you know it's it's pretty clear that the usage is for you know outdoor irrigation um so if we don't meet that 65 gallons per day I'm not sure what the next step is but D could could cause um out out of compliance of our permit and they could mandate certain conditions on the water system so I will certainly keep you in the loop on that as we move forward but um I need to develop that plan over the next uh few weeks next item is uh Jeff fi he our backb inspector he's continuing those inspections um usually he does a big batch in Springtime he comes back in the fall and does his like bash uh item six Christy compl completed our annual uh consumer conference report there's a coffee here FR of Dave uh we do this every year it'll be published in the Westfield news Saturday and then we'll be posting this at various locations around town early next week um nothing out of the ordinary uh it kind of summarizes all the results that we have uh all sample results from last year uh item seven Mast DP did a sanitary survey of our water system about a month ago on uh April 17th this is uh something they do every three years and they basically they first they start their office they go through all of our records and then they walk to each facility or they go to each facility and just going to take a quick look around see if everything is up in order so I've not received the report back from that yet I would imagine that should be forthcoming soon and I'll be sharing it with you hope our next meeting and item eight is our agreement with Springfield Water and Sewer expires on 6:30 it's a currently a five-year agreement and so we're looking to do is um have an amendment to that agreement for another five years that's is that's what sprink of water has requested uh because that is a that contract exceeds three years it does require a town meeting approval so there is an article at the town meeting next week uh to allow the slug board to sign into a contract with springfeld water and sewer uh for that fiveyear duration that's all we got than thanks any questions John yeah so we just accepted this water permit for 1.7 million gallons but now we have to come up with a plan of how we're going to reduce our water usage I mean I would have liked to have been included in that past vote too but um so it's res so they're talking about the 1.7 any of that yeah this is residential use only so when we do our report we have to break out residential versus commercial verse Recreation versus water loss firefighting purposes all that's all broken up at category and we're looking strictly just at residential use here okay sure enough okay work order summary the next page has all our work orders you'll see a lot of seasonal turn on this is the time of year for that um and also pretty straightforward all right appointments you have any appointments uh we do sort of yeah kind of old business sort of appointment so this is Mike Shi from wall computer do Mike he's here on behalf of 18 Hudson Drive um if you recall a couple meetings ago we had uh Mr Wall-E well it wasn't Mr Wally two employees in talk about a bill that was issued to to the I think to the owner him uh for uh repairs to a water service or water M that was damaged or construction so we issued the bill and Mr Wally wasn't keen on paying it um and it kind of has sat for a little this is actually what happened last fall um so I kind of kind of sat for a little while then Mike reached out to me maybe I don't know six weeks ago or so for so and he asked to kind of come in and just meet with the board and talk about it so happy to turn the over you yeah and uh so you know I work at all the Computer Associates um you know um fortunately I'm their president so just wanted to come on behalf of uh we're building a new building there Randy was good enough to come in in and uh we chatted like we said six or seven weeks ago explained um you know kind of you know what happened I was traveling when when when that happened obviously I talked to John and Randy explained you know we the Water Commission needs the bill paid you know we can't give a water meter for the new building until that's paid I need water obviously so I said is and I know I think uh like you said I think a couple of folks um came to one of the meetings and and talked about it and I think I thought I heard there was maybe going to be an appeal uh to Dig Safe and maybe that was denied and I don't know if that's 100% accurate but um I wanted to come in and just kind of talk about it and ask uh if there's consideration um you know based on what I understand for the commission to relook at that bill um for the uh you know for I guess the bill was for the repairs um to the pipe so um you I know there were markings there I my understanding is we stayed you know within the markings there um and we hit the pipe not thinking it was going to be there so I did bring a picture I don't know if it was shown the last time I didn't know if I could show it to you um again I don't know what we show just trying to you know show you what I have in in my understanding about it for some consideration you know and as I understand it like this is the road and on Hudson I believe that was the marking uh that was made by someone from the town and it shows where the pipe that was hit was so you know off of where the marking was so um again I don't know if you had seen that already or you had your own pictures I just want to bring you that I had uh you know as far as that goes so I'm just asking for consideration by the board as the commission um you know on that bill um and I just want to come you know personally and and uh uh ask for that and um kind of obviously trying to open the building up we've got some other things that are on back order uh but we're hoping to be in there um you know at least get in there in between the June and September time frame depending on some things we're waiting on you know to get the building up and running but certainly obviously the water meter is a big piece of that as well so um that's kind of where I am again I just am here representing our company uh asking for you know thoughts on it and certainly I guess if you guys decide and have a discussion offline that's that's great but if you have any questions for me I'd be happy to try to answer to the best of my ability to what I know um you know but again I just felt if I could come out and see it you know hear your thoughts on it or whatever and explain what my understanding is of it so okay well I know the last time we spoke about it we referred it to digay for the Department of Public Utilities to let them look at it and decide who could have been at fault well I I was on the same meeting as Mr Wall-E that Dig Safe made us go to okay for a Dig Safe violation got so dig found found the operator or the excavator at F okay with that being said luckily it was during the time that the town's people could come and work on it okay and they didn't have to call a contractor okay because with the rates and the times you would have probably been three times the cost okay um I know that you had called to have someone come out and mark the water lines yeah but that's not how it works sure you know in an effort for everyone's safety you need to have all the utilities come out in Market yeah right which we which we did they expired right so we have expired markings you could have the roadway the plowing things change the markings there could have been two sets of markings right so you need to renew that Dig Safe especially if you're going to be doing a whole new project correct you know it's not even related to the original B sa correct so like we had said last time we were going to to try to take you know any type of I don't know conflict of interest out of it refer to apartment Public Utilities their their thoughts were as far as I understand is that Wally was at fault okay and I think um based on the the bill and the timing I think is a fair Bill and that's the cost and I guess on the so my I guess my rebuttal of my thought on that on the on the Dig Safe piece right expiring you know and someone from the town came out and marked it I look at it and say probably shouldn't have marked it probably should have said where's the Dig saake permit can't mark it you know it's so I guess I'm looking for some consideration with that being yeah I think coming out right as the water department saying okay that's the consideration that we gave we'll come out and Market we'll try to do our best on your becking call to come out and Mark this for you right the guys made a mistake if they had marked but we have no pictures beforehand right before you do an excavation after you called B sake the operator should take a photo M with some type of landmark around it I have all my operators do it I do it myself so you can concretely prove you say hey we're digging here the marks are here sure you have to have that otherwise you get into this you know he said she said yeah and that's Department of Public Utilities they take everything into it it takes the conflict out of it and they decided that the operators were at fall and was there any issue with the town with Dig Safe or was that not I haven't heard I've not heard that no no one responded to me about that so the issue so there there were some prior markings around the property for the development but nothing specif no no di saap was called in specifically for this work okay I think there was some electrical work that was done there was a dig site called for and when so when that was called in we marked out basically the whole area this is we're talking I want to say months prior to this so Mr Willie never called in a DI say for this work specifically I got I got a phone call 10:30 on a Friday afternoon or Friday morning oh by the way we're going to start working today that that's that was my notice that this is going to happen yeah and then 2:00 that afternoon he hit the line okay and yeah again I and I'm here asking for consideration and um you know looking going looking back I'd rather would have said it may maybe wouldn't have made people happy but we can't mark it you know you have to delay the job and that's ultimately the the thing is that you know we're sitting here at a table in a conference room and we're debating a bill right y the thing is you don't know what util are in this in this road and for the operators they're going based on what their Forman or their their boss is telling them hey we're digging here and it's on it's on the operator to be safe and look for the markings but they're feeling pressure even more so than the the owners of the company right so luckily it wasn't a gas line or you know high voltage line because my company did this just recently same exact thing you know very similar we hit something we thought wasn't in the ground luckily no one got killed MH $4,000 bill is cheap to pay it's a learning experience for everybody these guys need to understand you got to call Dig Safe if it shuts the job down that's how it is now this isn't the the early '90s late 80s safety is a big thing we don't have the same types of people working in the trenches yeah and honestly I think the town did a great job coming out taking care of it and accommodating before after and and all now three different times sure yeah and again I don't want to get into it there's obviously you know a lot of good things you know the owners of my compy have done you know as well for the town so I appreciate that on the town and I appreciate what they've done as as a resident of the town you know that has seen that so again I I can't answer what we marked for Dig Safe or didn't mark you know I know John's very thorough with what he does but I can't answer that we Mark for electric and gas but not water so well you you don't Mark for that or by calling Dig Safe you you say we call Dig Safe and that totally which we did and you guys are continuing to you've been developing right yeah so we made a mistake and this is the the cost of making a mistake and now going down the road everybody's going to learn the operators are going to learn that we need to call Dig Safe And when we're working in the streets yeah it's a serious yeah and I think there was you know again I looked and I live in the town I think there was a mistake you know just marking it I think the answer should have been no can't mark it you know and gone from there so again that's the consideration I'm asking obviously I just want to make my my case if the decision is we pay the bill I'll go back to my boss and let them know what what the answer was I don't know if you need to discuss it or if you just want to tell me now I mean I can make a motion to you know the bill is the bill and have the bill paid and that we can install the meter so I'll make a motion to accept payment and go forth with installing the new meter so you make a motion to support the bill yes if he if they pay the bill and they can okay have the new meter uh I second the motion all right in Favor John Kane yes uh Dave M hi all right appreciate it keep it can no we have okay good stuff all right thanks folks appreciate it thank you one page okay that was old business new business Oakridge Estates development confirm no public water connection yeah this is more of a formality so in the town bylaws under planning there's a reg a requirement that if there's a new development town that whether will or will not tie into a water system the water Commissioners has to make a statement that you know they they are are not tying in so Oak just state is off more grinding Road it's the southern end it's far several miles from a water line you know we'll never it'll never have public water uh but they we do need to make a I guess a declaration that there will be no water connection all states okay do I have a motion to make that declaration sure I'll make a motion to declare that there will be no available public water connection for oakd estate's development I second that all in favor John kany i a mesar i no water for you two years all right uh water and sewer wholesale contract Amendment yeah I talked about this in my report yeah the um last few pages of your pack and includes the uh draft contract or draft just more for information I think I explained it um this is really I guess want say housekeeping item in my mind I did uh pass along the legal council we didn't provide any feedback um there's really no changes there is one one Amendment but it doesn't affect us at all um it's it's regarding to water restrictions uh through the Water Management act which we already we already have adopted we already you know are required to to apply to so and that amendment's now being written into the Sprint field yeah so the way it's it's it's very confusing uh but so we are a registered no I'm sorry we're a permanent Community I think I've talked this before we're a permanent water Community Springfield is a registered water community so because we have restrictions on our water use because we are permitted Springfield and agam and llo and other communities that you know are off Springfield Water System they are all they are they all registered just kind of like grandfathered in basically way'll get it but D is now putting uh more conditions on the registered communities to implement water restrictions this year and next year so uh you know as as we do this time a year we monitor stream flows in the W River if they dip a certain level we have to imp restrictions there are other other conditions that will require these other communities to have to implement restrictions Environmental inies so it won't be you know in the past few years it's been really just Southwick in the area that's had restrictions I think I think Southwick Northampton and no Westfield and I want to say like Adams like we're the only communities in all of this side of wer that have had to put in restrictions um the new conditions that D placed on the registered communities they were adopted about a year ago but they gave communities two years to Implement so this is the second year so there may be some towns that Implement restrictions based on those criteria but I suspect a lot of them will probably wait till next year to do that will registered Water Systems have lower or higher like you know thresholds compared to permanent you know or higher restrictions so we we have two conditions now one is a Stream flow and the other condition is there's a there's a drought declaration task force that meets once a month and they look at the state as a whole and they look at the region so we're in the Connecticut Valley region and they'll make a determination whether this our region is in a drought and so if they make that determination then then yes we will have that's in our permit also is that we have to impl restrictions okay it's either or but would Springfield have to necessarily or no so yeah it's for us it's either or whether it's the Stream flow or the the Declaration for them has to be both so for the registered it's just the Declaration so there's no Stream flow conditions on registered they're not looking at that they're looking just at the task force and whether they they say our region is in a j or not that's the difference okay so they would their restrictions will most likely always be less than ours would be regardless yes I'll tell you one year it was it they're not always in theory they they they align right yeah but the reality is they don't necessarily and I can go back to one year probably four or five years ago where you know I I I follow both right you know in one year like we were our stream I forget what what happened but I think our stream flows were going down right now stream flows are going up so we're going to come out of the restrictions for the stream flows okay but at the same time the jop declar was going to put us but put us in the restrictions back like it was it was like they were conflicting the two just the way it is but e either way we would have been in the Restriction gotcha okay fair enough so it won't be just Southwick you know maybe this year but hopefully next year it'll be the amendment's not going to pumps water out of the West River Cobble Mountain Reservoir so yeah doing that fny let not go there let's not open that can of worms do some painting all right any other new business oh I got my water bill so I was wondering is there a savings if we don't put an envelope in there what you like a mailing yeah what you mean yeah like a you know to mail it back because I think a lot of people pay online so I don't know if there was like a sign charge for envelopes or it's not it's not posted but it's still a envelope you know and I know some some banks you know some loan companies and stuff has have stopped sending envelopes because they want you to go online I don't know if it's better for us to get them online maybe that help I know the officea love to push people towards online payment but I think think they can't require it either no they can't but I mean if you have to get a stamp anyway you can get an envelope yeah that's I was if there's a savings I don't know might be a way to I can get a cop and take a look at it yeah you might be so not be wor I just happened to pull it out and I was like I'm gonna pay this online I don't need the envelope yeah so people do return them though all the time if they come to the window they'll slip to through yes I think people like to see and then you get a SE charge for restocking the envelope putting it back in a new a new bill I something to look into okay now we're at the next meeting date yeah first yeah I'm good early June I'm Gone the end of June I'm just that just got my calendar I won be around the 6th but I can always make sure everything's set up June 2 third yeah I'm good the first week of June SE 20 so we did uh I didn't mention it but we did Issue water bills and they're due next week the 23rd so we may have some abatements that comeing none of coming so far do we want to wait or do we want to we can play by year I can we can reach out to you you know the first week of June and see if you're available and see kind of what we have for a a workload for the meeting too yeah I'm good the first two weeks for sure so the SEC the sixth or 13th yeah I think I'll be I think I'll be okay the first all right so it's six that's fine the 13th actually juneth oh that's Ober I thought that was the 19th oh was it 19 19th oh I'm sorry is 19 that was the first teth we can make them all holidays got a week of holidays choose your own any one of those teth days right yeah well if Christy can't make out on the six that if there's any abatements might be tough it's a lot of pick yeah well the sixth is Friday isn't it sixth of Thursday oh no I'm in 2025 I'm in 2020 now I'm in 2023 I got nothing going on yeah the sixth the sixth I should be okay the 13th no the 13th I won't be 13th they be so well if you guys do the six as long as like the abatements are due the 23rd okay by 4:30 so I can make sure all the paperwork's done and I might be able to zoom into the meeting I can't I gotta look at my the breakdown on the schedule that day but we can figure it out a to yeah the six works that's well we'll pen on the sixth and then uh we'll be in touch with you the week of or the week before just to confir okay anything else any new business want to bring something up no hearing none a motion to adjourn a motion to adjourn I second PA in paper John Kane yes Dave Miss yes and empatic yes