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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLIGHTCOMM MIN01142009 Mansfield Municipal Electric Department Minutes of Light Commissioners Meeting January 14,2009 'r~!\/ED ,,~ ,- .... , (' E ,~) i~r:'J ZG~q ,"'L ! S A II: 21 Present: Chairman Ann Baldwin; Vice Chairman Jess Aptowitz; Clerk Kevin Moran; Commissioner George Dentino; Commissioner Sandra Levine; Director Gary Babin; Engineer Chris Cox; Financial Assistant Jacqueline Lee and Town Manager John D' Agostino Light Commissioners Meeting The meeting was called to order at 6:00 PM followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Chairman Baldwin stated that the Light Commissioners would meet from 6:00 pm to 6:55 pm when the Board would adjourn as Light Commissioners and then open the Selectmen's meeting. She said the purpose of the Light Commissioners meeting was to get an update on the Francis Avenue issue. Clerk Moran stated that he has a relative who works at Clinical Science Laboratory and that he has gotten a legal opinion and has filed the necessary disclosure. Director Babin apologized for the cancellation of the Monday, January lih Light Commissioners meeting. He said that MMED was ready to meet but discovered on Friday that the meeting had not been properly posted. The date of the next Light Commissioners meeting was set for Monday, January 26. Director Babin stated that the purpose of this evening's meeting was to address the complaint made by Mr. William Clemmey at the December 15, 2008 Light Commissioners meeting. He said that this evening he was going to give MMED's initial response to the complaint but that a more comprehensive report would be given to the Board by the end of the week. He said he would read aloud, for the public's benefit, the Executive Summary which he had given to the Board. After he finished reading the Executive Summary, he added that once the Board gets the full report the staff believes the Board will see that no impropriety has occurred. Director Babin then asked if the Board members would hold their questions until the final report is issued. He also requested that the Board not discuss the issue without him being present, specifically at the January 21 Selectmen's meeting, as he is the one who prepared the report and would not be available that evening. Vice Chairman Aptowitz asked if the final report would include an opinion from the wiring inspector. Director Babin answered no, that there were no electrical permits taken out because there was no work done inside the Clinical Science Laboratory facility. Vice Chairman Aptowitz then asked if the final report would deal with when the land was completely owned by Clinical Science Laboratory before Turner Brothers bought it. Director Babin answered that the facilities involved that necessitated the work are actually owned by - MMED and that the owners of Cedar Heights made it clear they wanted them removed. He said that MMED had researched the issue once the Turner Brothers made this demand and found that MMED had no easement for those facilities and Cedar Heights had refused to grant MMED an easement. Vice Chairman Aptowitz said he would hold his other two questions until after he had seen the full report. Clerk Moran had questions about the switch as it relates to serving National Lumber. Director Babin said that it was determined that the switch that was on the site serving both Clinical Science Laboratory and National Lumber also encroached on Turner Brothers property. Commissioner Dentino questioned Director Babin as to what other dates he may be available to meet to discuss the final report as he wanted to take care of this issue sooner than later. Commissioner Dentino suggested that the Light Commissioners meet on Tuesday, January 20. Director Babin then told the Board that he wanted to make certain they got a comprehensive report. He said he wanted to do a thorough job as it was a very important issue. Commissioner Dentino didn't believe they were rushing anyone as it had been four weeks since the complaint was made. Commissioner Levine said she would be unable to make a meeting on January 20. It was then agreed to meet as Light Commissioners on Monday, January 26 to discuss the report when there would be a full Board. Commissioner Dentino commented that the owner of Clinical Science Laboratory is the one who sold the land to Turner Brothers, indicating that he was the one who should have been responsible for the easement. Director Babin answered that the facilities involved that encroached on the Turner Brothers land were owned by MMED and there was no easement for the location of those facilities. Commissioner Dentino pointed out that there are many commercial properties without easements in Mansfield. Director Babin answered that while that is true, since he had started working in Mansfield in 2004 that MMED had made an effort to get easements for their facilities located on private property and have them recorded at the Bristol County Registry of Deeds. He stated that he can only take responsibility from 2004 going forward. Chairman Baldwin asked if MMED has an easement on Clinical Science Laboratory property as of now. Director Babin said MMED did not and that MMED dropped the ball On that but the paperwork is currently being processed. Director Babin then stated that MMED has documentation as early as 2002 that MMED was planning to change out the transformer serving Clinical Science Laboratory because of a rodent problem that was causing outages due to the transformer design. 2 - Commissioner Dentino questioned the part of the Executive Statement that said that Turner Brothers wouldn't grant MMED an easement. He wondered for which facilities. Director Babin answered that it was for Switch #1 and for the cable supplying Clinical Science Laboratory. He explained that Switch #2 didn't exist at the time and was later installed as part of the design for electric service to Cedar Heights. Commissioner Dentino then inquired as to whether Switch #2 had an easement. Director Babin answered yes. Director Babin then told the Board about the Quad 3 report, which was a report done in approximately 2000 alerting MMED as to which facilities should be relocated because of safety issues related to the proximity of transformers to buildings. He explained that the work done for the Clinical Science Laboratory is exactly the same type of work done at several Quad 3 facilities listed in the report. He added that while it did not perform the work for this reason, MMED staff believes the Clinical Science Laboratory transformer should have been identified as a location in the report. Commissioner Dentino said he was surprised to hear that and wondered why it was not on the Quad 3 report. Director Babin said he was not here at that time but that the transformer was located behind the building and perhaps it had not been seen by those who compiled the report. It has been moved so it is now more accessible as accessibility had been a problem. He noted that he wasn't employed by MMED when the report was done. Commissioner Dentino questioned why MMED believed a second manhole was necessary. Director Babin said it was due to the design involved with supplying Cedar Heights. Director Babin then commented that he did not believe it was realistic to sit at the meeting and attempt to redesign what MMED's engineers and representatives from Cedar Heights had spent many hours designing. Chairman Baldwin noted that Engineer Cox was seated in the audience and wondered if he had been involved. She asked that he join Director Babin at the table. Commissioner Dentino asked why MMED didn't just abandon the primary conduit from Switch #1, go out to the street and do exactly what they had done and then come back and marry it to the primary service that was there and then change the transformer. He noted that this would have saved all of the work of ripping out the primary duct bank. Director Babin said that MMED knew the transformer had to be replaced. There were accessibility issues behind the building with the transformer. He added that MMED derived several benefits from the design. One was that MMED could use the transformer to feed back into the street for a possible future streetlight upgrade. Other benefits were connected to the overall design of the supply to Cedar Heights and provisions that had been made to serve future load. He noted that the work that was done at Clinical Science Laboratory was not unlike what MMED has done at other locations. Commissioner Dentino went back to Vice Chairman Aptowitz's questions about pulling permits for secondary conduit. Director Babin said that MMED went through the permitting 3 .. process of getting site plan approval, Conservation Commission approval and a street opening permit for the work. Commissioner Dentino asked if MMED had a subcontractor do the work. Director Babin answered that it used an excavation contractor to install the conduit and transformer foundations. He then said that taking out an electric permit wasn't necessary because it was Light Department work and the Light Department is not required to do that. Commissioner Dentino then asked for a list of commercial buildings for which MMED claims ownership of the secondary conduit. Commissioner Levine questioned the relevancy of Commissioner Dentino's questions. Chairman Baldwin said that anyone wishing to could send their questions to Director Babin ahead of time and that this would be discussed again at the Monday, January 26 meeting. Commissioner Dentino then questioned the part of the Executive Summary which stated that the existing transformer was downsized from a 225 kVa transformer to a 150 kVa transformer in order to more efficiently serve the actual load. He wondered how it was being more efficiently served. Director Babin explained the bigger the transformer the more losses it experiences. Downsizing the transformer is more economical because of lower core energy losses. Commissioner Dentino inquired as to whether there had been any requests for service upgrades from Clinical Science Laboratories. Director Babin said there had been no requests for service upgrades. He said that the service to Clinical Science Laboratory is exactly the same now as it was before the work took place. He again noted that there was documentation from 2002 that said the transformer was scheduled to be replaced because of rodent problems. Director Babin again suggested that everyone wait until there was a full report issued. Commissioner Dentino said that he wanted to also see the Quad 3 report on this piece of property. Director Babin said that there is no documentation as it was not identified as a location in the original report. Chairman Baldwin then announced that this issue would be the first agenda item for the January 26 meeting. She stated that she wanted Clinical Science Laboratory to be informed in the event that they wanted to come to the meeting. Motion: To adjourn the Light Commissioners meeting at 6:55 (Levine! Aptowitz) Passes 5!0 submitted: Jacqueline Lee 6/08/09 , Signature of Clerk Date of Approval 4