Sewer Commission 1/9/2025

(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

Join us as we unravel the complexities faced by the Board of Sewer Commissioners in their January 2025 meeting. From the successful sewer connection of an eight-unit condo to challenges like the integration of a larger grease trap for the revamped Gap restaurant, we explore how these projects redefine the town’s infrastructure. We also delve into the innovative, yet, costly solutions devised to address issues with the force main at the simulcast building, including a cutting-edge lining technique that could save the day without extensive excavation.

We also provide insights into future developments, such as the proposed parcel service garage on Paramount Drive, and detail the meticulous process of biennial billing preparations. With the urgency of generator installations at various pumping stations, listen to how the team tackles setbacks like gas meter upsizing. This episode promises a comprehensive view of the sewer operations, offering a front-row seat to the decision-making process and strategic planning that keep our community running smoothly.

Transcript

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Speaker 1 0:05

Good evening . Call a monthly meeting of the Board of Sewer Commissioners to order on January 9 , 2025 . Boy , another year . Approval of minutes . Last month Mr Bickel was under the weather and he wasn't able to attend , so mr Kelleher and I will process the minutes . Have you had a chance to review ? I have both online and in person , but the minutes look good to me .

Speaker 2 0:42

All right , so I will be a motion to accept as I will second that motion .

Speaker 1 0:49

Are there any further discussions or comments ? Being none all those in favor , aye , aye , one abstaining . Okay , now we get to correspondence . Next time I'm gonna mail you a letter , superintendent not what nomin , so he doesn't know who it is that may be a complaint . I think if he wrote a letter and didn't sign it , you'd know exactly who . It is all right , I I got those when I was on the school committee and get the letter I open it and then I just looked at the signature .

Speaker 1 1:32

There's no signature . I fold it up , put it back in the envelope , tear it up and throw it out . Never read them , and I caution people you want me to read them ? Be man enough to man up to it .

Speaker 2 1:47

Yeah , here we gointendents report for january 9th 2025 . Uh , chairman , mentioned another year going . Another one started . Uh , department of operations . We've had one sewer connection in december and since our last meeting , that being the completion of the eight unit condo on the corner of lond Carroll seems like I've been speaking to that one probably around six months now that means there are eight . There are eight units there , correct ? Yeah , that are connected . Yeah , okay , we've made a failing septic that may have been loading up a sale over there , so I'm sure they're happy to have that finally completed .

Speaker 2 2:22

With the rehab of the old Gap restaurant and with the addition of addition of more seating , the larger grease trap is now required and would be getting installed . Also , they will be excavating and relaying the existing sewer service , also now including pumping chamber , this being due to rerouting of the plumbing within the building and with the installation of fixtures in the basement . So the old plumbing work used to come out the side wall of the basement and flow gravity into the grease trap and out to the street . With the new fixtures now in the basement , it flows underneath the basement floor so it will not make it by gravity to the street , so they're going to have to put a pumping chamber in to handle that and pump it to the street . So a lot of work yet to go on there related to that .

Speaker 2 3:11

No resolution yet on the force main for the simulcast building . I mentioned that to you last month about that force main failing once again . I believe that was the third fail in that line . The parking lot in which the force main is located under has been paved and lined with pavement markings . So the contractor is trying to come up with a solution to limit excavating in disturbance to the area . One idea they have is possibly lining the main , the sewer main you may have heard that term before . We've done that with some of our lines . Name you may have heard that term before . We've done that with some of our lines . It's basically a fiberglass sock . They pull through , blow it up and line it with resin and basically seals the pipe . So haven't heard if they actually go on that route yet . I know it was one avenue they were looking at . It is quite expensive so I'm not sure if they'll actually do that .

Speaker 2 3:59

I attended a project meeting for a development of a parcel on Paramount Drive . This is for a local dealership who was interested in building a parcel service garage . So that was a preliminary project meeting . They still have to go to the planning board with an official meeting Probably won't see any action on that until maybe late spring . Biennial billing Brenda has now started with inputting of new customers for the by annual billing as well as water usage for our commercial customers . This is for the billing cycle of July through December of 2024 . Customers should probably expect to see that bill late February , early March .

Speaker 2 4:46

The generator project the contract that has now started installing the generators for this project completed to date on the pumping stations on O'Brien Ave , judson Street and on Inhand Drive . We did have one slight setback with gas meters requiring upsizing . O'brien Ave , along with King Phillips Street , market Basket and Randwood Drive stations all required larger gas meters to be installed which the gas company has been helping us out with . Originally we were told it was going to be a six month lead time for them to get out there and change these meters so that certainly would put us in a volume on that project . I did reach out to the gas company from assistance which they have been able to help us out with with all four meters I'm happy to report have now been changed , with the last one occurring today . The contractor is scheduled to return next week and continue with the remaining generator replacements not sure if we completed with all four , I believe .

Speaker 2 5:40

So market basket and uh milling Stations . They are the indoor generators . Again , they'll require a little more work than these outdoor ones . You can see that picture on the bottom . That's at the O'Brien App Station . That was the first station they started with . On the left is the old Generac generator being pulled out and on the right is the new cola being placed .

Speaker 1 6:03

Is that the station we're going to name after Mr Curry Right .

Speaker 2 6:07

Could be . Yeah , so that was realized when they went to do startup on that first generator that the gas meters were incised properly . So the contractor put it all in , plumbed it all . Craft power came down to do the startup . While the generator would not run under a full load , he did not have enough supply of gas and the gas company was gracious enough to come down that day , that very same day , and change that meter out for us . And again they have been working with us on the others and have completed them all .

Speaker 1 6:41

So happy to keep that moving .

Speaker 2 6:44

So hopefully at our next meeting I may be able to report to you that that's completed . Taunton first quarter treatment billing . The first quarter treatment bill from the city of tartan was recently processed , that bill being in the amount of 114 723.64 and that being for those months of july , august and september . I would expect the second quarter bill , uh , coming soon , probably . Hopefully I can have that processed by our next meeting as well . They seem that to us lag along with the processing their bills and giving them to us accessory dwelling units , and then we take communities act .

Speaker 2 7:26

The planning board held a public hearing on January 2nd to discuss and present by law regulations were related to accessory dwelling units . The town will be holding a special meeting on Tuesday , january 14th , the index Tuesday , and at the Rainier middle school at 7 pm for the townspeople to vote on adopting these bylaws . There are two other articles on the warrant as well and I have printed the warrants out for you for interest in them . Thank you , thank you . So Article 1 on that warrant pertains to Flood Hazard Protective Overlay District , article 2 being for the ADUs , the accessory dwelling units , and Article 3 relating to special permit applications being through the Planning Board , as a reminder , the MBTA Communities Act will be put to the town's vote as part of the annual town meeting which will be held in spring , typically in May .

Speaker 2 8:34

So there's nothing really we can do with the accessory dwelling units . That's by right . The planning board again has put together some bylaws to help maybe restrict some of the impact to some of the neighborhoods . Not sure how much it's gonna help . One of the downfalls being I mentioned to you last month is that originally we were being told in order to have an ADU you had to be living in one of them units and that is not the case . It can be . Anybody can purchase a property and put an ADU there and basically have two rental units . The town really can't do anything about that . The MBTA communities act which we've spoken about before , being the town meeting to zone 50 acres of land for 750 additional units in town . The town can vote to deny that . So hopefully that will be the case at the annual town meeting . They'll get enough people out there to deny that project or that allowance , I should say .

Speaker 2 9:32

There are other cities and towns that have not allowed it to go in . I should say there are other cities and towns that have not allowed it to go in . West pine estates , which we knew was layler estates originally , was presented to us . That's at the end of pine street . The infrastructure to include sewer in drain work is progressing well on this new subdivision . All of the gravity sewer main is now installed . A small section of low pressure force main is being worked on this week . That's nearly completed as well . The work required on Pine Street will take place in the spring . The water main also still needs to be installed throughout the whole project . Sw Coal Engineering continues to monitor and provide reports for that project for us . So to do it again , jd , when again they they're involved in one of the other projects and found a good contractor , they do really what really good work . So what happened with it ?

Speaker 1 10:26

with the progress on that .

Speaker 2 10:27

I think it from Dartmouth new battery way again as a West what I think I'm not positive , but somewhere down that way . Okay , yeah , route 138 construction . This is related to the gas main . The gas company's project has been slowed with holiday and weather related interruptions and not much progress really being made . Last month they are back out there continuing with their work now . Originally they had two crews out there for the past few months but I believe they're back down to one Old King Street Pump Station .

Speaker 2 11:03

I mentioned a problem to you last month that we encountered there with the operator interface on the pump control panel which is , as I mentioned to you , is with a PLC . There's a little control panel that we can go in , work with the PLC in that and if there's an alarm in there we have to reset it through this operator interface . But we did that was not responding when we we had a problem with it . It was past Sunday evening when one of the pumps shut down on a discharge failure and one fear being , if a problem like that arose , we would not be able to reset that alarm and put that pump back online . And that does turn out to be the case . We did have a discharge failure . We cannot reset the alarm , can't put that pump back online .

Speaker 2 11:54

So parts have been ordered . They were ordered early December . They're expected to ship out on January 17th , so we're hoping to have them then . The parts it controls is scheduled to install the new PLC and controller on the 20th , as long as we have the parts in possession . One thing I did mention to you also was having Chris , our electrician , put together a little control panel with basically relays in them and it would work off the float controls that are in the wet wall . If the PLC does definitely go down and we can't operate even one pump , we'd be able to outwire the floats into the little control panel that Chris put together for us and run the station . So he did a nice job when he actually completed it this week .

Speaker 2 12:42

So we don't want to have to try it , but we feel as though it'll work and we may actually try it before they when the guy comes to do the replacement of the PLC might throw that in there just to make sure it works , you know , and the event of emergency .

Speaker 2 12:55

Yeah , right , yeah , it can be used at multiple stations , so that would be good . Fy 26 budget prep . I have been working on the FY 26 budget with the expectation of having this for our next meeting , waiting for Brenda to get some numbers together for me . Again , she's doing the billing and we'll have that for you , hopefully , that's . We should have that together for you next february , next month , and that's all I got for you . Good job , rob , thanks , thank you all right .

Speaker 1 13:31

Any new business ? Quiet month , okay , okay . No old business . No emergency business . Any commission reports . Everybody's here Healthy . I hope everybody stays that way . Stay warm . No public forum , no press time . Do you have a date that you have to get to there a specific time ? We should smile . She's smiling , she must have . Well , that being the case , I will ask for motion to adjourn for the performance of administrative duties , only so moved by mr Bickle , second , seconded by mr Bickel , second Seconded by Mr Kelleher . All those in favor , aye , aye . We are adjourned at 6.14 . Thank you so very much for your service .