##VIDEO ID:tV1_SzwcD_U## meeting of the water Commissioners is called to order Thursday January 16th 2025 at 6 PM meeting is being recorded chairman Ed Johnson present commissioner Dave mes present commissioner John Kane present uh Randy Brown DPW director here uh barl Wagner DPW office manager okay is there any public comment is there any comment are we supposed to do a public comment no that's we have an appointment for you guys um now if there's no public comment we don't have anybody waiting and nobody else signed in okay so we can start our first appointment okay so as long as we can see they here they're on okay so this is a sewer water Dess for 12 Eagle Street okay you guys need the floor is your if you don't mind just introduce yourself name and address and then um floor is yours 12 Eagle Street uh Jessica guay and 12 E Street Anthony Gallow okay so we had I know we had spoken Jessica when you and I went through um the leaks and water use for the last few months they had two uh leaks register with our system back in August and won the first week of September um they had a leaky toilet that they were unaware of it's in their basement it was an intermittent leak um so it went on you can see little sections um where I okay see calculated all the gallons used um so it didn't trip our system every time and only hit a certain value certain amount of times um so they were not reached out to um because it did not um produce no alarm on our uh weekly report um so Jessica and I got into contact in October um and you can see I think it's the third page that have been in there they fixed the leak and their is back to being routine um so I went through and figured out what the um uh about gallons used was throughout those three three weeks and so it's about 35,000 510 gallons um so doing out the amount here one two and three um their water abatement request is 28222 water yet okay so our system never picked it up no so I went back and I looked through our um we got like a a weekly report that is y and then I notified one and it it wasn't on them um and even in October um I only noticed it because I looked up our um your weekly our weekly in a different way I looked it up in our R system and that's when you picked up on it yeah um so I have to reach out to um probably Tom Schmid and see why that that happened with this one meter because it's happening with others we want to know um but as soon as you noticed that You' got all them then they fixed it right away yeah okay da it's R John see where oh yeah yeah yeah I think because it was intermittent it probably didn't hit that or something and then it would go back and then so they're looking at 28222 for a rebate a batement on the water end of it okay with that I have a motion then make a motion to aate the water bill 28222 on the second second motion all in favor if Johnson i m i John Kane yes Moran carries you're all set Jess is that second sheet that I sent you is the sewer amounts um so I'll reach out to you probably tomorrow um and I can I can kind of help you through um through that so I'll I'll give you a call tomorrow okay perfect thank you thank you very much I really appreciate you taking time okay you're welcome have a good evening as well thank you y okay Dave did you view the Min December meeting I did December 2024 meeting yep I make a motion to accept the minutes as written second the motion yeah all in favor Johnson I John Kane yes okay Mar carries now we have no elderly rate applications no monthly commitment Randy okay we'll get we'll sign in after okay yeah been uh relatively quiet since our last meeting with the holidays in particular um so tyan Bon is doing their next round of basement inspections they put out uh flyers and door knors I think there about 1300 homes uh last Friday and Monday so these are properties where we got get information the first round we went this process about a year ago yeah I got one on my door you did yeah you did oh okay you L you did yours right I I sent you the pictures yeah oh they're they're going to come in next Friday noon yeah you s you the pictur remember yeah remember yeah anyway so um they're they're taking appointments for inspections they have five days lined up at the end of this month and early February and uh so hopefully we'll get enough information where we won't need to do this process anymore on the private the private side um we are doing some vacuum excavations in the spring and summer I think we have 10 days lined up to do that work okay obviously we'll wait till better weather for that so we'll keep you in the loop when that happens uh we did have a waterm break uh earlier this week on Monday uh 707 College Highway that's west of River Brewery um there was a uh service pipe da popped out of the corporation a new pipe new service it was installed prob five years ago but it didn't it popped out in the morning early morning and uh and uh it was quite a quite a flow coming out in the street oh yeah there yeah so our guys took care of it that day and it was I back up running by uh I think by early afternoon yeah they did a good job they fixed it quick they did yeah then I came back later and they had it all done they were starting to do the the black top back yeah uh our budget requests are out for FY 26 uh there is some information in the packet which we'll talk about a little bit but I put that together for tonight's meeting and uh our back inspector Jeff uh did his inspections 24 and he'll come back in the springtime for next year's inspections okay work order summary burshire Avenue burshire Avenue grind pump repair meter inspection F gr sewer issue not yeah on South Long yard going up the hill yeah what happened I meant the put that in here too is that another water break so uh we had a service we had a service leak on that as well link to some um that's been repaired a couple times it's been a couple times yeah so we're going to we're going to we've been putting bandaids on it we're going to replace all service line next year we worry about that again there's a couple of them that we got a Target trouble trouble issues yeah yeah that's one of them anything under old business Randy new business budget so time the year for a budget yep so there's a couple of spreadsheets here I'll walk you through Page by page so the first page list um it has elected salaries salaries operations and then move on the next page is capital and deck and then interest those are the main categories we're focusing just on the operations and capital right those are our requests everything else is still been through the cting office so this year's request um the uh Finance committee has asked us to fill out the last two columns which are shaded m one being a level funded budget and then a second being a 5% decrease from last year's budget so this spreadsheet shows what the FY 24 budget was what was actually spent in FY 24 and then what we have budgeted for fi25 so looking for you either level funded or 5% decrease from fi25 so I went through and uh plugged in the numbers which I think fulfill those conditions I really didn't go up or down on any category right exception being Springfield Water and Sewer yeah right y not that we want to draw more water from Springfield it's just the rates are going up they're going to go up a lot yeah they are this year yeah um so our impact is about $8,000 um I think you're in agam right John you got property in aam yeah I think the rates are going up like 30% yeah too it's a lot yeah shouldn't say that they don't know yet but yeah so you know we talked to Kevin and you try to like minimize our water use as M as possible through Springfield to minimize that bill but the way we are build with the estimate our bill and we get we get a estimated bill every month okay for the year and then there's a recap bill at the end of fiscal year if we use more or less water then we're you know expect anticipated and there's a recap bill so sometimes you get a credit sometimes you pay a little more okay yep what how does this budget compare to like the growth receivables of the water that we're charging for so we're pretty close so our last year or two our receipts have pretty much mashed our expenses okay um I was actually you know thinking it's been two over two years since we've last adjusted rates right y um I think it may be worthwhile though consider that maybe not today but kind of see where the budget lands and then and then next meeting or two okay talk about maybe a small increase to the rates I don't think it's a big increase um but uh go up I think it's you know just you know we're trying to keep our operations lines it items level funded but things like salaries and other other costs like springful water things that we can't control right as well they are going up yeah well they'll probably look into a small increase yeah so I think it's fair to to to look at that but we'll get to that point in future meeting um so the operations I think are pretty straightforward like I said everything the level funded is the same as last year's with the exception of Springfield Water that went up I'm trying to find 72 to 8 yeah yeah 72 to 8,000 very first page um and then everything else a little fun that I did take a 5% decrease on some light items maybe there's a little bit of extra there you know not much like the first item advertisements went down 100 bucks uh truck and repair $500 you can kind of I I went back at the last couple years kind of see what we spent on their budgets okay and so if was a little bit where I think maybe we can save a little it's nice to have in there but so I did I did include the 5% decrease I was requested by the finance committee and then trying to decrease our water budget and they're finding money all over the place yeah tell you what others um Capital let's see the only item I have for Capital as a recurring item is hydrant Replacements right we do that every year um $10,000 it usually gets us a couple hydrants replac each year yep does that include the hydrant itself so yeah we can buy the materials and then and then install or higher higher conall yeah we can get we can get two we can get two hydrants for that cost yeah how many hydrants do we have total we did that years ago remember when we tagged them yeah oh yeah I have an inventory I just don't have the number out that I can't remember when we tagged them 100 under 500 it could be could be I could just like kind of curious where the yeah the problem I see a lot of these departments having is they you cut the budget like oh it won't do a hydrant and then all of a sudden it's like oh we need to do 50 yeah and a house burnt down or two houses happened with Adams y those kind of things I like to keep kind of level well we can we can talk about this is here to talk about this is our budget here so if you want to adjust anything we can do that um let me just move on to the next couple pages and we can go back to that discussion turn if you want uh third page there's nothing on here that's all that b salary right and then if I move to this page here where say water Vision fi 26 yeah there are salaries operations and capital items projects so I do have a couple of um new items for Capital um the first is a hydr replacement which is listed before although I meant the change on here to $112,000 it was 10 on this sheet but I was a on there um the next item is water tank inspections we're required to do these inspections every five years and we're due in FY 26 so I'm asking for $6,500 to do those inspections we do both tanks in one shot and then the last item here is uh doing some water made improvements we have a a pum station North longyard Road that ties into our water system yeah sprinkle water sprinkle water system we can't serve water past at PM station so they're getting water directly from Springfield all those residents that are North Station so talking with Kevin and others um you know I think we provide better water quality than Springfield and them that better water quality but we can't right now so what we'd like to do is actually kind of take that pump station offline so there's the intake and suction line suction discharge line The Pump Station outside in the street basically just just connect the two out in the road so that way water can flow through pass the pump station go north into Westfield and then we can put a put a valve um wherever that lines can terminate past that last the last our last customer okay so I think that's a good first step and then take them and take them off Springfield right and totally disconnect us yeah up there yeah okay it's nice to have that connection from Springfield and I would do want to have some coordination with them on this um so right now we did that Jerry dry Pump Station a couple years ago remember that was that was a big ordeal adding a new chlorination system we had a priv disinfection right um we would have to do that same home station basically on North long if you wanted to keep it online service which would be a very costly costly item and it takes a lot of real estate um but I think in then in term I'd like to get those customers off Springfield put them on our water and then we can revisit what to do with that Palm Station okay that sounds like a good idea next year um whether you know we did the new the new pumps set un Drive is was bigger capacity you know it was intended to provide water to the town if our wells ever went down M um so we can we can do that through that home station just that one that one feed and if we left it in the in line not in line but in the system if we had to could we start it and run it or or when we take it offline you're you kind of shut it down and to restart it is more of a process I you know I don't know I mean I if we could keep it kind of like mothballed yeah um I would do that for sure if we can you know get the valving right and get get all the connections correct I I wouldn't mind doing that yeah that'd be a good idea yeah yeah I mean un unless unless there's no benefit of that infrastructure when we go to if we have to upgrade it you know if it's like you have to go in and rip everything out and redo it then maybe there's no sense in spending the extra extra money to keep it I I think you could probably keep some the infrastructure the piping going in the facility but the building itself is probably too small the pumps are not under sized yeah that would all to be upgraded the proper maintaining that yeah unless if there's ever emergency dire emergency where we needed water and you know our went down Jerry D went down and we need you know a third a third Supply yeah yes that's the only you know that be nice it's nice to have that that there available if they ever needed but now do we have are there customers between the Westfield line and the pump station there are yeah so yeah there's probably a dozen so we would actually have to do something closer to the Westfield line for a pump station because if once they go to Raw water right we're going to have to treat anything that comes in and we can't open that valve and let them get raw water of this this will solve that problem right off the bat and then we can decide if we want to put in a pump station further down if you remember so the original College High Pump Station was wasn't at the Town Line it was further down right pass uh I think by the uh the hash house right right so all the customers North you know American in and wind Winfield and Rosewood they were all off Springfield but ideally you put that pum station at the Town Line like was Y and so that that's one of the other weaknesses ofation something with that yeah you know once they go to the raw water supply we to do something for them anyways and that's why you want to get them off right now it's okay but we want to make sure we want to get them off right that's right for water con service get them off while we can when you know when we can plan it so it's not emergency right so that's the plan for this year uh for this line item is to to focus on that that part of time and then so that's this page that's what's kind of this year's budget and then the next page is they ask for a fiveyear projection so FY 27 and then I do have some Capital items you know again the hydrant are in there Leaf detection is done every 3 years uh we are going to need a a pickup truck for the to the crew at some point in the next couple years um we we'll be back on our water tech inspection in FY 31 and the last item is you know kind of other other water main projects that we'd like to tackle down the road um talking to Kev the other day I think the first one we like to probably Target is the Well Road it's a 12in AC line that runs up there that road and that's critical infrastructure right there if that line ever fails um you know we we're going to have trouble supplying water oh that's 100 Grand easy so just for that yeah yeah so then that's probably you know I put 75 in here that just I think more of a bonding borrowing number yeah um yeah that that well water man would be a big big point so that's where I'm at with the budget I think that's the last page um but certainly uper question any questions on there we've been replacing hydrants every year so I think our hydrants are in pretty good shape I think I can't think of any that are really bad no I mean we've been doing this for years yeah we get a couple done here yeah yeah I won't be opposed to you know going back you know higher on the hydrant number if you want and uh any other upgrades you could think of I mean I think we we got to figure out what's the life cycle of the hydrants that we're seeing divided by the number we have make sure that we can continuously upgrade them and not have to borrow for it you yeah I can tell you two is not we're not at two it's more than two you're you that's a form you want to do well I mean I think that's that's the long-term planning that hasn't taken place through a lot of things trying to keep the the rates low and that's why everyone's like holy crap in the past five years we triple the rate because now everything's failing so if it's I mean maybe go up to try to do three sure and there's I mean if you think like what do they got they do One A Day is that yeah or yeah yeah get I don't I don't mind going to say 15 or 20,000 at all I mean if that's what you think you were we want to be um it just goes back to the rates right so we talked about maybe adjusting the rates again any anything that we're adding to the budget you know will have to be captured in in a rate increase and so if you want to say go to $20,000 on that item I'm perfectly fine with that yeah and then what I'll do is I'll come up with a number at the next for the next meeting what the rate impact would be it yeah why don't we go for 20 and see what happens yeah I I just I'd like to see us slowly be able to take care of the problems that we have as they come up and not have to make it like a whole big issue you know so it's hey we can do a little water man replacement here and there and do some hydrants as we need to when we see a problem happening you I think we can carry money for you to do that sure and the rate will be affected very minimally with that kind of change but I think the longterm you know benefit of that and if we have to maybe we don't even put it as a line item of hydrant Replacements you can do that as hydrant replacement and like Associated type of small upgrades or valve replacement or something like that so we do have a light item for contracted equipment John yep right and so that that's kind of a catch all for if we have like say water M Bears or break or we use after hydr Replacements as well um so another item where we could you know potentially yeah where is that on the first page third one down cheed equipment 52070 Z yeah I definitely wouldn't want to see that reduced you know I think if we could keep if you keep that how it's been I mean if if we're spending a little more than we have already I don't think it's going down you know I don't think we're gonna have less problems and we have two watermain braks and now we just exhausted our whole yep our whole money for the year and now we're going back to try to borrow more so I think if we could mix another say like day or two of construction crew into that number would be helpful to you know kind of save us if we have another problem or if we get to a spot and it's like all right let's go do this valve replacement or something like that that we need to do so you thinking going up on contract equipment Contra equipment maybe put go to 40,000 okay and then the 20,000 or yeah 20,000 on the okay I just see a lot of these little problems happening all over the place not not just in South but all these towns that you get these with ac lines and the older copper and whatnot stuff is just it's old you know and then the more resurfacing we do you know the more vibrating and all that it's just going to be we're going to have more of those little problems I think okay s anything else but I think with the 5% decrease and then the increase with those line items would probably be relatively close yeah I'll just line the decreases 5% of decreasing what we're asking for 11 yeah it should be fairly close it will any other questions on the the [Music] budget master plan oh let me just go back to you real quick here um I don't know if I got the dates on the budget hearings probably going to be March 1st just so you're aware March 1st and March 8th of the two dates and you we were on the first it's earlier this year than yeah that's a Saturday that's a Saturday right that I usually go with Saturday yeah exactly yeah well just let me know what the time is or whatever I well once I hear confirm that's two March 1st or 8 okay you'll know better by the next meeting anyway right yes yeah but it's usually a Saturday morning it's always Saturday yeah I'll be there next item want to talk about the next item yep after plan Master the plan so I think I talked about this a little bit at the last meeting there's a master plan implementation committee that's been formed the master plan committee which I was a member of we met for I think almost two years and developed the plan and now there's a committee to implement the recommendations in that plan so the committee is just getting started with their efforts and within the past uh week they sent out emails to pretty much every board and commission and Department in town with a summary of all the items that were identified in the master plan and how they relate to that particular border committee so the Water Commission has a couple really one item here and it's um I'll just read it off here established a multi- community aquafer advisory committee um that is inclusive all towns that happen in aquifer located in southw so this is something the the the um the the the implementation committee would like the this commission to talk about consider and adopt if possible so I actually we've started this um in the past two or three months I participated in a meeting that was spearheaded by Piner Valley planning with other Water Systems in the Barnes aquafer and great aquafer um which is West Spring Westfield West Springfield at eastampton Southampton um so all those Water Systems we kind of like met and we talked about you know what are things that we can do to collaborate and work together on as far as drinking water quality issues public Outreach rates I mean anything that we anything that comes up I think that fits in well with this recommendation through the master plan and it's something that I I think we've started the process now obviously this is not just a southw you know we're not the only participant in it takes other towns and to make it successful but I think I think we are doing what you know the intent of this is and I'm going to continue to have those discussions with that that F from P Valley planning and those other Comm okay and see where that leads to um so I think that was really the intent of this item here was to kind of get us establish that advisory committee which like I said we're we are in underway okay so I think that's really the big item for this for the water Commissioners as a lead item and then the next pages are there's some items that you know not necessarily directly or or the water department would not be responsible for but maybe provide some input or advice as an ad or an advisory role for other items and um so those are listed here under the support role page well I think the first one is kind of like the same thing I think they're calling the lead on the advisory committee both the water Commissioners and the select board that's why it's can hear uh but the next one is under open space and organize an annual meeting among lead and supporting parties to collectively update and prioritize Parcels of land that are of significance for protection so we would be interested that if we had any properties for you know water water conservation purposes um so that's something we can we can consider we can talk about we've had properties in the past where we've talked to Property Owners about they haven't you know didn't fall through I the one I'm thinking of particular is the hen property lexingon Circle U but there are grants available for drinking water supply protection properties so we can come up with a A list of areas or properties that uh if we think it's it's worthy to protect for drinking water purposes you know we can come up with that list that's I think the intent of this item and then the last item here I think is more of a probably a housekeeping item it's more or less to do with a master PL imp implementation committee and kind of just working with them as they develop you know their recommendations and work with other boards so I think every committee has that last paragraph in there so really is just the first two items is the advisory committee item and then the item about um identifying properties for breaking water supply protection okay so I think the the lift for the water department is pretty late um I know other poor boards and commissions they've got you know 20 30 Action that they need to go through prioritize and fight and put on you know ours is Prett a question about the advisory committee what you said you met with them through the planning was what was the the feeling that that you got from them was it was were the other towns amenable to the process yeah I think we're all feeling it out right now what I mean what works right so there was South's never been part of an advisory committee but there was one that disbanded in Westfield was Westfield Southampton eastampton it was the Barnes aaer protection committee and they met pretty frequently they met like once a month and uh anything even projects that were like over the aquafer like say development in Westfield would have to go before this bayac committee and they provide comment on it I think that maybe went a little too far or what they probably could be doing I I see the value you in just kind of collaborating with our departments what are you doing what are you doing well where do you help you know where can I help you where can you help me you know just kind of getting you know bouncing ideas off each other I think that's where the value is and we don't have that right now for for for at least for the water group um I am a part of a storm water committee we meet every two months and we're exchanging ideas you know all there's probably 30 40 communities that participate in this it's uh we meet on Zoom every every two months like I said and uh that's a good meeting where we can kind of just just collaborate and I could see the value in that for drinking water as well we did have some um I think from Southampton or eastampton they fairly new to the position and so their prede left and they didn't really have any guidance or anybody to kind of help them you know through the transition so a lot of questions they had like hey how we do this what I what should I do in this situation you know like things that I've been here you know I can help out other and I want I would want that if I was you know new to the position so I think just collaborating really the value yeah sharing ideas I know you met with them they put it they put it as an action item and then we have to get other talents interested well that's what I say is we can only do so much right like others have to be involved and they have to get the Buy in as well but at least it it's it plants a seed well there's one other town that uses our aquafer right West Springfield so I think that's what the push was was that during the water restrictions when they didn't have one that that was a talking point that came up so I think that's part of yep where this comes from y yeah wood West Springfield is are they included in that they were there they were so I think that would touch that base good yeah so just it's just southw West Springfield and Russell are in our aquafer Great Brook aquafer and then the Westfield river is Westfield Southampton East sampton okay anything else on there new business wel comont the board we just want somebody sign on for the meeting I don't I don't know if we they miss we comment or if we comment Who's here they public comment so they weren't on the agenda right yeah can I have a motion for adjournment gentlemen I make a motion to adjourn second the motion to adjourn right hey red Johnson I yes meeting is ajour