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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 01/14/2013IMA Study Group Meeting Mansfield — Foxborough- Norton January 14, 2013 6:OOPM (At Mansfield Town Hall) Members: Mansfield: Lee Azinheira George Dentino Foxborough: Bill Euerle Roger Hill Norton Diane McElligott Luke Grant Also in Attendance: Jay Barrows, State Representative Bob Bell, AECOM David Young, CDM Smith Fran Yanuskiewicz, WSE Richard Pacella, Foxborough W&S Bob Swanson, Foxborough Discussions: The following is a brief summary of discussions: 1. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes Minutes from 12-20-12 2. Legislative Update Approved unanimously. Representative Barrows indicated that the Connection Fee legislation was approved and signed by the Governor. He thanked Senator Timilty for his assistance on this issue. 3. Effluent Recharge Site Diane McElligott indicated she spoke with the Norton Selectmen and they would like to see the Mansfield town meeting vote to ratify the district agreement before the timeline runs out for Norton's right of first refusal is over on the Reilly property. Appears that right has a 120 day period to declare if town wants to purchase and then another 90 days to actually purchase and fund if they declare their interest in purchasing the land. All is subject to raising the funds at a town meeting. Norton BOS indicated to Diane their intention to declare right to purchase if agreement isn't signed. 4. Community Flow Requirements and Updates • Norton • Nothing has occurred with Wheaton discussions since last District meeting. Wheaton consultants and Norton consultants (WSE) have been discussing risk and technical issues. Expect follow-up meeting shortly. • Foxborough • Bill Euerle indicated Foxborough is planning to hold a Special Town Meeting on March 4th to only discuss the wastewater issue. They are requesting town meeting approval for W&S Commissioners to be able to sign the agreement once it is ready. • Roger Hill indicated their financing model is being unveiled later in the week to the Foxborough BOS. He is comfortable with the model projections and thinks other will endorse as well. • Mansfield • Lee Azinheira indicated that Mansfield representatives are getting very concerned about the ability to sell the district agreement to town meeting members because costs recently keep shifting over to Mansfield. Recent proposed changes in cost allocations and reductions in flow requests have resulting significantly less cost savings to Mansfield which was their main advantage in developing a district versus maintaining ownership. 5. Updated Cost Schedule • Norton representatives indicated they needed more time to study the cost spreadsheets distributed at the last IMA meeting. Fran Yanuskiewicz has evaluated the costs but hasn't had time to discuss with the W&S Commissioners. • No decision was made on how to move forward with the cost scenarios but both Foxborough and Mansfield representatives indicated their preference for Wheaton to be part of the expansion cost percentage formula. 6. Discussion on Draft of Regional District Agreement (9-17-12) A. Comments on Working Draft Diane McElligott indicated she would like to see some text added that specifically stated what items would be paid for by which percentages. David Young indicated a review of that section which lists some of that info will be done once the percentages are final, Her concern is that some items currently being paid for under "existing" percentages (such as Kok property) could be transferred later to the district and change to "expansion" percentages. Lee Azinheira indicated he thought the cost difference on the items impacted to date would not result in trying to recover the percentage differences. All agreed some wording should be added regarding the mechanism to actually transfer the land from Town of Mansfield and/or the Town of Norton to the District and when it would be done. This will be part of the description of district property. Norton representatives requested wording be added specifically stating that Title 5 flows were not being utilized to determine the flow quantities. All agreed to add. Lee Azinheira noted his concern about the transition language as currently worded. He would like to see the evaluation of operations be pushed back to 3 to 5 years from date of substantial completion of the expansion construction. His concern is that the operators will be focused on construction during that period and so the operations evaluation could be misleading. All agreed that made sense and wording should be revised. Motion was made and approved to push it to 3 years from date of substantial completion. All agreed a schedule for start of design and construction of the expansion needed to be added to the agreement. 7. Schedule to Finalize Agreement for Signatures • No action 8. Other • No items 9. Next Meeting • Next meeting Thursday, January 24th at 6:00 pm. Adjourn 7:00 pm Minutes Approved 1-24-13