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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 04/08/2013IMA Study Group Meeting Mansfield — Foxborough- Norton April 8, 2013 6:OOPM (At Mansfield Town Hall) Members: Mansfield: Lee Azinheira George Dentino Foxborough: Richard Pacella Roger Hill Norton Diane McElligott Luke Grant Also in Attendance: Bill Ross, Mansfield TM David Young, CDM Smith Fran Yanuskiewicz, WSE Bill Euerle, Foxborough W&S Bob Swanson, Foxborough Bob Garber, Foxborough Bob Bell, AECOM Steve Wiseman, Norton W&S Mike Yunits, Norton TM Brad Bramwell, Norton BOS Bob Kimball, Norton BOS Representative from Jay Barrows Office Norton Cable TV Operator Discussions: The following is a brief summary of discussions: 1. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes Minutes from 3-4-13: Approved 6-0 2. Effluent Recharge Site • Norton officials voted on 3-14-13 not to purchase the Reilly Property. Thus, Mansfield is moving forward with the land purchase. Mansfield BOS will sign the P&S this coming Wednesday and closing should occur at end of week. Lee Azinheira is coordinating the SRF Loan process. 3. Community Updates 9 Norton • Diane McElligott indicated that the Norton W&S Commissioners have finalized a deal to purchase flow held by the private developer in Norton. Thus, they will be revising their District expansion flow request. • Foxborough • Bill Euerle indicated that Richard Pacella is now their official representative on the IMA Committee as he is not intending to run for re-election when his term ends in a few weeks. He also introduced Bob Garber who is the only person running for Bill's position. • Mansfield • Bill Ross indicated some people in Mansfield are frustrated at lack of District Agreement progress and are questioning whether it's in Mansfield's best interest to move forward with it. 4. Updated Costs and Schedule David Young distributed an additional cost spreadsheet and reviewed it. The spreadsheet presents total annual costs by town for three treatment plant expansion scenarios. Scenario A presents the 112 mgd expansion and Scenario B presents a 1.0 mgd expansion with Norton flow reduced to 250,000 gpd. Costs for both were on previous spreadsheets and include the Annual Payment to Norton (APN). Scenario C presents a 0.5 mgd Mansfield only expansion with no APN payment but as with the other scenarios, all three communities pay for the nutrient upgrade and the Phase 2 plant improvements. The three scenario analysis clearly indicates that as Norton or Foxborough decrease their expansion flow requests more costs shift back to Mansfield decreasing their economy of scale benefit. The three scenario analysis also shows that Norton and Foxborough costs will still increase in future even if they don't have any increased flow since all three communities pay for the nutrient upgrade and Phase 2 plant improvements. Intent of showing these three scenarios was to provide the full range of cost impacts by community. 5. Discussion on Draft of Regional District Agreement (9-17-12) A. Comments on Working Draft Diane McElligott proposed that the District allow Wheaton to tie into the existing facility now for $11/gal since they are bringing their NPDES discharge permit which they believe has significant value. That would mean a $1.32 Million upfront payment to the District shared by all three communities. Timeline for Wheaton to connect is unknown but would have a sunset clause. • Roger Hill questioned how that cost would be perceived by Easton as they currently are being requested to pay Mansfield the actual cost for expansion capacity to connect which are much higher than $11/gal? • Diane McElligott reiterated that the difference is Wheaton is bringing their discharge permit (unlike Easton) and thus no added recharge facility costs. Norton has done an analysis of that cost savings and believes their proposal is fair. They believe it is worth over $1.0 Million to bring the permit but were unwilling to share the analysis. She also indicated this method is consistent with past flow capacity sales by Mansfield. • David Young asked who would pay for the 120,000 gpd of flow expansion capacity under that proposal. He has stated previously on several occasions that the treatment facility could handle the increased Wheaton flow on a temporary basis from a hydraulic perspective but that longterm the treatment capacity would need to be expanded to fully address it. • Diane McElligott indicated that she believes the treatment plant does not need to be expanded to handle the Wheaton flow (120,000 gpd) and thus no additional costs needed. She claimed that having to expand the treatment plant to handle Wheaton flow was new information to her. • With no resolution pending of the Wheaton flow connection issue, Luke Grant and Diane McElligott put forth that the revised Norton expansion flow request going forward would be 160,000 gpd regardless of whether that includes Wheaton flow or not. • Lee Azinheira indicated that was a significant drop in flow request from their original 500,000 gpd request and recent 370,000 gpd request. Mansfield will need to see if Easton would like to purchase more flow to help make up the difference. • Luke Grant also indicated that Norton needs to have the wording regarding existing payment for property taxes in the District Agreement clarified as current wording appears to do away with the existing tax payment. Lee Azinheira indicated that could most likely be worked out once existing tax payments on the Reilly property were known. 6. Schedule to Finalize Agreement for Signatures • No action 7. Other • Meeting was filmed by Norton Cable Access 8. Next Meeting • Next meeting Monday, April 22nd at 6:00 pm. Adjourn 7:15 pm Minutes Approved 5-20-13