The board started with a discussion on what design details were needed for the pump station building on the MWRA easement by the Hultman Aqueduct. Tom Holder, DPW director, provided a photo of the location on the southwest corner of the intersection of Castle Road and Old Connecticut Path. He also offered a selection of images of potential exterior designs.
The members considered the various design options, emphasizing height and floor plans for equipment space, exterior lighting, easy maintenance, vandalism-resistance, sound attenuation for weekly 10 min generator tests and aesthetics. The board will craft a survey to gather input from residents about what they want so the pump station finishes would blend best into the neighborhood.
Holder, member George Uveges and Select Board liaison Carol Martin debated ways to separate out differences in measures of fixed, replacement, direct and indirect costs between MWRA and Town water operations to come up with a comparison number for residents. Holder and Uveges will attempt to arrive at a rough estimate.
Of more than 5,000 residential accounts, roughly 1,200 or 25% have been installed with new AMI Neptune meters with the wireless end point device to communicate their status and the usage in the course of the last three months.
Mass Installations has increased their field installers from two to seven groups and are completing 5-6 installations a day. There will be six reading routes. Chair Michael Wegerbauer asked for a simple completion chart by bars to track progress. Holder reported billing will be done quarterly instead of biannually which should minimize unaccounted for water losses.
Member Judy Ling asked about residents who wanted to look up their bills online, compare their usage to their neighbors, and might question whether they were being overbilled with the electronic readings. Holder reported that every old meter was being tagged and stored for a year, and if residents want to challenge their bill, they can have their old meters bench tested at their expense. He also pointed out that meters slow down as they age so low flows may be picked up now.
Corrections to the long term water supply FAQs for the public forum by Colleen Rizzi, MWRA Environmental and Regulatory Affairs Director and Kirsten Ryan from Kleinfelder Inc. Engineering was noted. The board reviewed scheduling of tasks and upcoming deadlines for the MWRA connection project. They also discussed which current town permits and regulations would stay, change or no longer be necessary with the MWRA connections before the start of the forum.
