Sewer Commission 03/12/2026

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

A wastewater system is one of those public services everyone depends on and almost nobody sees. We open the March 12, 2026 meeting with quick approvals, then get into the real-world work of running a municipal sewer department: new sewer connections coming online, the sewer user billing timeline for the July through December cycle, and the behind-the-scenes coordination that keeps operations organized and funded.

Next, we talk about resilience under pressure. A recent blizzard tested the crew, the fleet, and the pump stations, including equipment breakdowns and a rare power interruption. We share what went right, what could have gone wrong, and why staffing, preparation, and redundancy matter when roads are unsafe and the system still has to move flow every minute of the day. You’ll also hear a lighter moment around a long-awaited new truck finally arriving and what that does for day-to-day response.

The meeting then turns to capital planning and active construction: the FY27 sewer budget submission, the manhole lining project heading into quotes, and a detailed look at the Route 44 pump control upgrade. We explain why controls may go offline temporarily, how manual pump operation is managed safely, and what tools help staff monitor wet well levels during a high-stakes changeover. We close with updates on the Pine Street subdivision build-out and what new development means for sewer infrastructure planning.

If you care about public works, local government, wastewater operations, pump station reliability, or how infrastructure projects get done without drama, listen now. Subscribe, share this with a neighbor, leave a review, and tell us: what’s the one infrastructure upgrade you wish your town would prioritize next?

Transcript

Approving The Meeting Minutes

Correspondence Check

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Good evening. I call a meeting, the monthly meeting of the Board of Sewer Commissioners to order at 6 01 PM on March the twelfth. The first article is usually approval of the minutes. Mr. Kelleher, have you reviewed the minutes? I have. I thought the minutes looked very good. Yeah. And you're satisfied. Yeah. And I would make a motion we uh accept as recorded. I'll second that. Any further discussions? Any questions you may have on the minutes? No. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. And one abstaining. Okay. Correspondence. Nobody says it's a letter. No. Superintendent's report. Yeah.

Sewer Connections And Billing Dates

Blizzard Response And Equipment Breakdowns

The New Truck Enters Service

FY27 Budget And Board Schedule

Manhole Lining Quotes Timeline

Route 44 Pump Controls Upgrade

Pine Street Subdivision Sewer Work

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I'll try not to make this a record break that letter. We're getting close to that. Hey, it is our new truck. Yeah. March 12, 2026, uh superintendent's report. Department operations. We have had three connections to the sewer this past month. I assume that we'll be seeing that tick up quite a bit with the warmer weather coming. Brenda has now completed the sewer user billing. I mean, that billing cycle is from July 1st through December of 25. The billing date will be March 13th. That's tomorrow, Friday, with a due date of Monday, April 13th. I would also like to commend the crew here at the sewer department on the work related to the blizzard a couple weeks back. It's hard to believe you looked outside now, and there's barely a trace of snow now. Two, three weeks ago, where we had three feet of snow sitting there. But, anyways, the effort they put in was phenomenal with the storm cleanup. It was a challenging job with the amount of snow that we had. We did have a couple trucks that uh broke down uh through the event. Uh luckily nothing really too severe. Uh one was a broken drive shaft and one was a bad water uh power steering pump. Uh amazingly, though, with the 35 carpet stations that we have, uh we only had one uh intermittent power failure out of all of them. So we got lucky that way with that type of storm. Uh I think that power failure may have lasted maybe two hours tops. It was over at the old Bryant Aff station. Um one of our guys, Ron Santos, actually slept here for two days. Came up here Sunday night and uh didn't go on until Wednesday afternoon. Probably easier for him. It was the condition the highways were. Yeah, it was uh you know, couldn't get around this getting right. The truck ordered back in uh May has arrived, as you see as little pictures. Uh the lettering is put on, and the truck is now in service. Um as I mentioned in Mr. Betton Court, he came a couple weeks ago just after it arrived. I told him if I get that truck, I might consider staying. But it's a it's a beautiful truck. Beautiful truck. Yeah, probably one of the nicest ones in the fleet now. Slightly different, a little different blue. That that uh they didn't offer the old blue that that the other trucks have. This was the one that took the place of it. So it's a it's a nicer color, I think. Uh the FY27 budget, um, our budget has uh been submitted to the town finance director. Um I am expecting a request to attend a financial capital planning committee meeting as typical every year. Uh no date has been set on that yet, but we'll expect within the next couple of weeks. Uh the select board has decided to go to a two-week schedule, similar to what they do in the summer. Um, they're going to be doing that as a trial basis, but they they believe they're going to be moving to that uh ongoing uh from now on. But uh as of right now it'll be trial. Um so every uh every two weeks they'll be going to every eight. Uh manhole lining project uh request for quotes for this project is due on March 26th. Uh there are currently 21 plan holders for the project. Um, of those 21 I recognize for companies that do that type of work. So uh I'm hoping maybe three or four uh quotes for that job and hopefully come in where we can have them do the work. Uh quotes will be due here at 416 Tinicate Road on March 26th, no later than 3 p.m. The Route 44 Pump Control Project. Uh we have uh have a project meeting at the pump station tomorrow over at Route 44. Uh the contractor is scheduled to get started next Monday, that being March 16th. The contractor plans on removing the pump control equipment out of the panel, out of the existing panel. Uh, then we run rewiring it all outside of that existing cabinet, uh, which will make room for the new equipment to be installed. Uh with that said, the controls will be uh inoperable for the time during this process, and the pump will need to be run manually. So we expect that there'll be an all-day event with them. You'll see them pictures down below. That's the cabinet they're removing all that equipment out of and taking it out of it and putting it outside of it. Um, so there's a lot of wires in there. Um, anyways, the point of the meeting tomorrow uh will be to discuss the timing and the process in which this uh is to be accomplished, uh, with the possibility of this work being performed early in the morning when our flows are low. The guys have been working on developing a system so they can monitor the wet well level with using a sphere liquid level display and pump controller that we have here at the office. So, what's going to happen when they shut that down? We're gonna have no way to know what the liquid level is unless you're running up and down the stairs checking the wet wall. Um that picture to the very right is a display that they put together, ran a bubble or tube down. It's an air tube that runs down and checks water level, works off the pressure. Um that'll they can monitor that, and that's in the what we call the garden room. There's a room over there that the backup diesel pump is in. So they're gonna set a camera up to face that and they can be in the in the uh pump station actually manually operating the pump. So it's gonna be a long day. And actually they have a schedule for you if you want to look at it over and show us how they're gonna be scheduling the work. Uh so they'll be doing uh doing that work on um Monday and Tuesday of next week, and then they won't return until uh the Monday of the following week to continue on. So there'll be two days, uh Monday and Tuesday, uh the 23rd and 24th on that second week of operation, uh, working on Wednesday and not coming back till uh the 30th and doing some more work. But uh so what they want to do is they want to put things together and make sure they're working properly before they dissemble everything. So they're gonna want you know that's why it's staggered like that. So hopefully that all works out. So it's gonna be a nail nail biting event anytime you mess with that, so it's really scary. And it's supposed to be finished on the 6th, 7th of April. Yeah, yeah. I I hope it goes that smooth. We'll see. Uh we do have the Gardman pump uh to utilize, it's a diesel backup pump. Um, although you know we don't want to rely on that solely. So uh originally the uh the contractor was gonna use have us utilize that solely, but uh in the in the uh spec book it tells them we they needed to keep us alive at least with one pump and preferably two. So they changed their strategy to attempt to do that. Uh Pine Street subdivision, um, as mentioned last meeting relating to the developments at the end of Pine Street houses on the west side, subdivision uh going up and selling quickly. Um, with a break in this weather, the infrastructure work for the development on the east side has now started. And you can see those uh pictures there. Um that's when they they started at basically where the stunt came off the street. And uh they're about 19 feet deep in that particular hole there. Uh so then they actually moved along. Once they get out of that first couple of pipes, the grade starts to drop off. So once they got uh out of the first couple of days, they moved right along. They were actually almost complete with that one streak that they were straight sand. That's one that comes in on, yeah. Yeah, you know, mixed mortar with that, it's so fine. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yeah, that's the type of trench that instead of being four feet wide has to be twenty-four feet wide in order to go down twelve feet.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

And they did that, they they had created a big hole over there and still had to use you know double uh double trench boxes and stuff like that to maintain it. That'll come in in a hobby. Yeah, yeah. But uh and they're getting they're getting along with it. But that is all I have for you.

New Business And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Well, thank you. All right, any new business? So you want to retire now, huh?

SPEAKER_01 9:22

It's been a relatively quiet month. It's gonna certainly pick up with the 24 project and uh possibly with the manual project. So things will be busy.

Motion To Adjourn

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Well, we're gonna be here for a while, so that's okay. Just make sure it doesn't pull over to the side of the road and decide to take uh a respite. Okay. Okay, any old business? No. No emergency business, commission reports. Okay, no public forum, no press time. Well, do you need any questions? Uh uh you know, updated, up to speed up, up to speed, up to speed, you know. And then you you you took a half a step back for a little bit now, you know. I was told that you uh you're back at about uh 75 miles an hour. That's it. Once we go. That's it. The boss said he didn't know how to. How do you do it? Okay, well, I will entertain a motion to adjourn for the purpose of doing uh administrative work and no activity taken. So moved second moved by Mr. Bickle, second by Mr. Kelleher. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We are adjourned at six twelve. See you next month.