Wilton Water Works Minutes

March 29, 2006

COMMISSIONERS: Chairperson Jim Tuttle; Tom Herlihy & Charles McGettigan.

Jim Tuttle called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m.

Minutes – February 22, 2006

MOTION: Herlihy/McGettigan to approve the 2/22/06 minutes as printed. All were in favor.

Highway/RR/River Crossing: Mr. Tuttle said that the Commissioners will meet with Ben Lundsted from CEI tomorrow to go over the engineering documents for the river crossing and the pipe jacking under the RR. He said that he also spoke with Leonard White and that Mr. White would like the opportunity to bid on the jobs.

“Low Salt” Meeting: Mr. McGettigan will contact Jim Mitchell at DOT and get a couple of dates and times from him when he could meet with Wilton town officials. Then letters will be sent out to the appropriate officials requesting attendance.

DES Grant Authorization: The Commissioners applied for a grant from DES last fall for a structure to store all the equipment and material needed in case of a hazardous spill on Route 31 S. in the Wellhead Protection Area. They recently received a letter informing them that they had received the grant.

MOTION: McGettigan/Herlihy to accept the DES grant in the amount of $10,200 for a Spill Response Material Project. All in favor.

Bill Payment Procedure: Due to the haphazard practice of Commissioners coming into the office at different times to sign bills, they decided to try a new approach.

MOTION: Herlihy/McGettigan to pay all bills on the last Wednesday of the month, for a 3-month trial basis, beginning in April. All in favor.

At 7:30 p.m. Mr. Tuttle asked for a motion to open the public hearing.

MOTION: Herlihy/McGettigan to open a public hearing to discuss and vote on three capital reserve accounts. All in favor.

1. To see if the Water Commissioners will vote to add an additional $150,000 to the Eastview to Lower Main Street River Crossing Capital Reserve Fund. There is now $247,911.82 in the Fund.

MOTION: Herlihy/McGettigan to adopt item #1.

Mark Whitehill asked how much would be left in the surplus funds if all three of these items passed. Mr. Tuttle said that there wouldn’t be much left at all.

VOTE: All were in favor.

2. To see if the Water Commissioners will vote to add an additional $75,000 to the Water Tank Painting Capital Reserve Fund. There is now $2,653.91 in the Fund.

Dick Rockwood asked what the inside of the tank was made of and why did it need to be repainted.

Mr. Tuttle explained that it is a steel tank and the inside has multiple layers of epoxy. He said that when the divers inspected the tank in 2002 or 2003 they found areas of rust forming in the top half of the tank where the air meets the water and chlorine gas most likely is responsible for the rust. He explained that the $75,000 would pay for the paint job plus hire a clerk-of-the-works to hire the painting co., supervise the job and take total responsibility for the quality of the job.

Mr. McGettigan said that he had a slightly different idea about the tank. He said that most water depts. in the state are not maintaining their steel tanks. They are using them as long as they can, and then when they are no longer usable, they are installing concrete tanks, which require no maintenance.

The Commissioners then got into a discussion about a second water tank in the future, which would be a concrete tank. Mr. Tuttle explained that some modeling has been and will be done to determine where future tanks might be located.

MOTION: Herlihy/McGettigan to transfer $75,000 from the surplus to the Water Tank Painting Capital Reserve Fund. All in favor.

3. To see if the Water Commissioners will vote to establish a Capital Reserve Fund of $200,000 for the purpose of replacing a portion of the Main Street water line from Forest Street to the Fire Station.

Mr. Herlihy explained that the Commissioners had what is called C-Value testing done by one of its consultants. They measured the flow of water between hydrants and then plugged the data into a computer model which tells you the condition of your water main without you having to open up your water main. It tells you what the efficiency of the main actually is. If it’s a 12” main, is 12” of water flowing through it or is part of it blocked? He said the Commissioners were less than pleased

with the results.

Mr. Tuttle said that the flow at the Town Hall was 53%, at the Fire Station it was 60% and at Draper’s Garage it was down to 30%. The main is 100 years old. Dawn Tuomala asked if the replacement project would be coordinated with the Main Street sidewalk replacement project. Mr. Tuttle said that they would. They are trying to figure out how to keep everyone temporarily connected downtown while replacing the main. The new main of lower Main Street should be able to accommodate the needs. He said they want to replace the main from just inside the dummy to the Fire Station or perhaps Prince Street on Main Street, and connect to Maple Street before the Town Hall. Instead of ripping up Forest Street, because it’s a State road, they want to employ a method of cleaning the main underground from the dummy to the Wilton House of Pizza, across the river and up Burns Hill Road. Mark Whitehill asked if they could clean the main on Main Street rather than replacing it. Mr. Herlihy said that it is recommended that iron pipes be replaced after 20 or 30 years, so since these pipes have been here for 100 years, replacing is the thing to do. Also, the main is 12” downtown, 10” at the Fire Station then 8” at Draper’s. Eventually we want the main to be 12” everywhere, so it doesn’t make sense to clean something that’s too small, he said.

MOTION: Herlihy/McGettigan to establish a Capital Reserve Fund of $200,000 for the purpose of replacing a portion of the Main Street 12” water line from Forest Street to the Fire Station. All in favor.

MOTION: Herlihy/McGettigan to close the public hearing. All in favor. The public hearing ended at 8:28 p.m.

Mark Whitehill asked if he could ask a question about the Commissioners’ position on gravel removal. Mr. Tuttle gave him the floor. He said that three years ago the Commissioners stood before the Town and presented the pit that’s going on right now on Route 31 South. It was reviewed extensively by Emory & Garrett, the WWW engineers, presented to the Planning Board and reviewed by Normandeau, the PB engineers. He said there was a whole list of criteria that had to be followed and he assumed that it is being overseen by the Water Commissioners and the Planning Board. Mr. Tuttle said that Emory & Garrett do that for the Commissioners. Mr. Whitehill continued, then a few weeks ago he read a letter to the editor in the Nashua Telegraph from Jim Tuttle and Tom Herhihy urging people to vote against the zoning ordinance restricting gravel operations to Route 31 South, and he wanted to know what their reasoning was and wondered if the Planning Board should make further restrictions on the Quinn Brothers operation that is there now.

Mr. Herlihy said that because the operation with the Quinn Brothers is partially on Town land, they have a great deal of control over exactly how it is run and how deep they are allowed to dig. The Water Dept. won’t have the same control over other operations in the recharge area.

Mr. Tuttle said that the recharge area for the wells is near Russell Hill Road, so the more west and north you go from Route 31 with a gravel operation, the more you endanger the recharge area. Both Mr. Tuttle and Mr. Herlihy said that the Planning Board has been less than forthcoming in the past when it came to gravel operations on Route 31 South, and with regards to the zoning ordinance, the Planning Board didn’t even ask the Commissioners how such an ordinance might affect the wells. Mr. Whitehill said he was concerned about the safety of the town water and that’s why he asked the question. Mr. Tuttle said he would be attending the next Planning Board meeting.

Pennichuck: Mr. Herlihy explained that the Commissioners have had conversations with Pennichuck Water Service Corp. about having them manage the water system. He said nothing has been finalized; they are attractive because they are close by, they manage a lot of water systems of varying sizes and they have a very good reputation. He said the reason the Commissioners decided to look at professional water handlers is that so many things within the town system have started to break down, as far as managing the day-to-day water system. He said that Mr. McGettigan, even though he is retired and spends a good deal of time away from Wilton, has been good enough to keep track of the wells and the system itself, whenever possible. The town employees that work for the highway dept. have been responsive for the most part, but there have been some situations where they weren’t as responsive as the Water Dept. wanted them to be. He said the Water Dept. doesn’t have the structure set up to handle many of the issues that are coming up now. The structure was OK ten years ago, but now it’s not functioning correctly. He said the Water Dept. is under more and more pressure from the State and Federal governments to become more professional in the way we handle our water system. Rather than hire an employee and a backup that we would have to oversee as Water Commissioners, we would rather hire a professional organization. He said the contract we would sign, if we go with Pennichuck, would be a 2-year commitment. Mr. Tuttle said the price is $7,600/month.

Mark Whitehill asked if the contracted services would go down if the Water Dept. signed with Pennichuck. Since no one had a budget breakdown, it was difficult to answer the question. It seemed clear that some of them would go down, but it was unclear how many of the contracted services in 2005 were consulting fees.

Don McGettigan said he thought this was something that should have happened five years ago. Right now you’re behind the times. He said everyone is getting old.

Mr. McGettigan said he is still concerned about the cost. He really likes the two guys he has met from Pennichuck, and he knows he is not going to continue to take care of the system, but he is not sold on this idea yet.

At this point Mr. McGettigan left the meeting because he didn’t feel well.

MOTION: Herlihy/Tuttle to continue the meeting to next Wednesday – 4/5/06. Both in favor.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.. Submitted by Diane Nilsson, Clerk

ACTION ITEMS

Charlie McGettigan

· Get year-end financial report from Carla & check to be sure that all bills to CEI have been paid.

· Arrange with DOT dates on which to meet with police, fire, schools, highway, etc. for low salt program along Route 31 South.

· Look at list of water users to see if any are in need of testable backflow devices.

· Arrange to get the debris cleaned up at the dry hydrant area at Stockwell Brook Dam.

· Arrange for electrician to encase telemetry wires, at water tank, in conduit.

· Measure diameter of monitoring wells on Route 31 S. – for ordering locking lids.

· Purchase the following items from Granger: secondary containment pallets for 55 gallon barrels and a 20-gallon chemical spill kit.

· Get current copy of plumber’s insurance on file for Porter Plumbing.

Tom Herlihy

· Contact Robert Merithew and ask for itemized proposal for Clerk of the Works position relative to interior tank painting job.

· Put together list of deadlines for annual, semi-annual, monthly etc. reports and tests.

· Create Emergency Water Supply Connection plan.

Jim Tuttle

· Contact PSNH to relocate transformers at pump station.

FUTURE PROJECTS

· Test Emergency Contingency Plan in 2006 per DES.

· Install testable backflow devices at the following locations: Fire Station, domestic & sprinklers; two sewer pump stations; water pump station; hydrant for bulk water users; two cemeteries; Recycling Center; LA Limo; Bursey’s; Bakery; Dr. Roy’s, Ranamaki (if needed) & Intervale Rd photographer (if needed).

· Find domestic and sprinkler shutoffs at Draper Energy.

· Come up with revised rules & regulations after reviewing those of similarly sized towns. These to include standardized costs for bringing new service to residences and businesses as well as costs for meter installations, among other things.

· Legal document – 40 Madison Street.

· Replace 3 left-handed valves on Abbot Hill Acres Road.

· Paint inside of water tank before 2006.

· Retrofit pump at Everett well.

· Install 8” main on Intervale Road

· Locate site for second water tank.