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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBOS MINUTES 2-19-1979BOARD OF SELECTMEN /LIGHT COMMISSIONERS A G E N D A February 19, 1979 7:30 p.m. - Call to Order Light Commissioners Ron Dubuc - Report of the Water Rate Study Town Manager Report Board Reports t BOARD OF SELECTMEN /LIGHT COMMISSIONERS Minutes of the Meeting February 191 1979 iPresent: Selectmen Lyman C. Avery, Robert M. DeLong, David R. Clemmey and Antonino Caponigro, Jr. Town Manager William P. Metropulos (Selectman Colella arrived at 8:20 p.m.) The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. Light Commissioners Meeting Jim Hall, Director of the Light Department, met with the Board and reported that due to the problems with billing, considerable more material is needed for the annual report and it will not be available in time for the printers so a supplement will have to be handed out at the town meeting. Mr. Hall noted that he will contact the DPU and ask for an extension, it will probably be a month late. Due to sickness in the department, two girls out, the finan- cial statements are not ready. The department did get approximately 1700 residential bills out this week and if everything goes well the rest of the bills (December bills) will be done tomorrow and the January bills are ex- pected to be completed in two weeks. The cash is starting to come in and Treasurer, Joan Cutillo noted that she will not have to borrow any money. Selectman Delong questioned Jim on parallel bulling and Jim noted that due to the various problems ledger cards were being maintained with all billing in- formation, cash payments were being posted daily on ledger cards . The compu- ter during the months of September, October and November was basically a re- placement for the billing machine. Some of the billing was being done by hand and dome on the computer. So as a result the billing work was being doubled i however, in a memo from the light department it is suggested that before parallel is dropped that a proper manual control must be in place to detect software bugs. Herb Levine, member of the Computer Advisory Committee explained to the Board what the girls were doing and what was done to straighten it out. The December billing is being pushed and they are relying on the computer reports coming in to eliminate the double work. Ledgers cards will eventually not be used, as of January 1979 the department will strictly be on a new computer system. Herb Levine wanted to give credit to the girls in the electric department for the work that they have done to get caught up. Jim Hall noted that by the end of February the January billing will be done and when everything is caught up it will take a minimum of 1 week to do a whole town's billing. Selectman DeLong asked the Town Manager if there is any way we can combine the water and electric meter readings. Jim Hall noted that it would take the men twice as long especially if the meters are inside. Selectman Caponigro noted that if he remembers correctly it took 4 months for men to read the meters and wanted to know if the route has been split up yet. This extra time could be charged to the water department and in the long run we could save some money. Mr. Hall noted that he had a request from the Town Manager that Selectman Colella wanted an explanation on the pourer outage that occurred on Tuesday, February 6, 1979. Mr. Hall noted that he was on vacation for three days, skiing up in Stowe, VT on the 6th, 7th and 8th of February. Mr. Hall noted that there was an over- load on the west end of the High. St. sub - station due to the cold weather and electric heat. This affected Bristol Arms, Twin Oaks and part of the Industrial Park, which comes off the School St. feeder. Everything tried to come on at once. The main breaker tripped when all the meters came on at once. Mr. Hall noted that he foresees some future loads on that service and plans to take some of that off -1- BOARD OF SELECTMENAIGHT COMMISSIONERS Minutes of the Meeting February 19, 1979 Page 2 of the School St. feeder, which means changing all the taps to prevent low voltage. The work would involve checking the transformers , cleaning the lines, shutting down feeders. The work would have to be done on a sunday and would be about a 2 -hr. job. Mr. Hall noted that he was on the phone from Vermont most of the morning telling them what to do. The men did a good job but -had to go back to the industrial park and reset the meters and change the taps. We have a lot of higher voltage today, before the Gilbert St. sub - station came in at 13.2 KV's and nots it comes in at 14.2 KV's. Rnn D11hnc Ron Dubuc met with the Board to discuss a proposed hike in the water rates. Selectman Clemmey asked Ron if he has split his water routes yet, Ron noted that they are reading about 400 -500 a month, and it takes about 2 days to read them with 2 men doing it, he feels that you would get a better reading with just two men doing it all the time. Selectman DeLong explained to Ron his idea of combining the readings, Ron noted that by the end of the year we should have about 1800 outside meters. Regarding the water rates, Ron noted that 865,000,000. gallons of water was pumped in 1978, 10e over 1977. The average daily consumption is 2,400,000, 35% of the water pumped is not billed which is for fire protection, flow tests, leaks, under- `' registration of meters and other system losses. (Selectman Colella arrived - 1 8:20 p.m.) In discussing making the water department self- sustaining, Selelectman Clemmey feels that money generated from the water department should be considered free cash and transferee to the water department. Ron noted that when the assessor's go in to set the tax rate they take into consideration revenue from the different departments. Selectman Clemmey's whole point is that if you generate $300,000. to the Town it should be free cash and able to transfer it to the water depart- ment on the town meeting floor. We can move that free cash be transferred to the water department budget. Selectman DeLong notes that the money still comes from taxes. Selectman Clemmey feels that it would show a lot better that the department is self - sustaining if the money was transferred into their department. In comparing the rates with other towns, Mansfield was found to be the lowest, Easton, Foxboro, Norton and Sharon were used as comparison. Mansfield's average bill now is $41.38 compared to Sharon's which is $71.00. Revising the rates would level out and bring into line water users who use more water but are paying less than someone who is paying more and using less water. Ron did prepare and present to the Board an 8 page report. Selectman Delong said that Ron did an excellent job on the report and this was also noted by Select- man Avery. Selectman Caponigro noted that he would like to take this under advisement for about 5 weeks , wants to hash it over, he is not in favor or putting in the 75% hike tonight. Ron noted that it would have to be advertised and a Public Hearing held. Selectman Caponigro noted that he is ready to act on the service charges and feels that Ron presented a realistic thing and cannot argue the prices. Selectman Caponigro moved that a Public Hearing be held on March 14, 1979 at 8:00 p.m, in the Town Hall regarding the water Superintendent's proposed water rate * changes, seconded by Selectman Clemmey. Voted 5 -0. -2- BOARD OF SELECTMEN /LIGHT COMMISSIONERS Minutes of the Meeting February 19, 1979 Page 3 The Board then went over rules and regulations on the water department, Ron noted that the only water regulations that could be found date back to 1926. Certain items will be deleted and changes made and the Board asked that Ron meet with them again to go over the revisions before the Public Hearing. Ron is on the agenda for March 7. The next thing that was discussed was the need for another well. Ron noted that this town should have another major well for standby. We average 2.3 millions gallons a day, Cate Springs pumps out V-, million a day. Ron feels the best place to sink a well is behind the highway garage, but this has to be approved gy the State. The plans have to be drawn up in order to go before them and it will also have to go before a town meeting for land acquisition. There are 3 parcels of land involved that are tricky, no one has paid the taxes on the land for three years. The Conservation Commission has control also on this land. Ron feels that once we have a plan approved by the State we can then proceed with the land takings. Water storage was also discussed and Ron noted that we should have A, times the pumping capacity at any one given moment, as far as a place for this storage tank, Foolish Hill was mentioned. Selectman Capnnigro asked Ron how things were down at the sewer plant and Ron noted things are okay, there are breakdowns but we are meeting the discharge permit, no major -i3roblems other than the high flows during the floods. Town Manager's Report The Town Manager noted that he is attending two meetings Thursday, in Lakeville,DEQE one on the landfill and the other to pick up information on a health agent/ sanatarian. Also attending this meeting with Bill is Jim Dunn, an engineer now working for the town and highway director Thom Bonome. Karl Clemmey is also ex- pected to attend. The Town Manager noted that the DEQE is happy we are looking for a Town Engineer they don't want to see it slide back to what it use to be. Jim Dunn is to do the monitoring and will give this information to the DEQE. The Town Manager noted that he is attending a meeting in Boston tomorrow on the Decentralization of Civil Service and how it hampers local budgets. The Town Manager answered Selectman Clemmey's question on a question of the Town Clerk receiving a fee as a member of the Board of Registrar. The meeting adjourned at 10:30 p.m.