Town of Provincetown
Meeting of the
Water & Sewer Board
Members
present: Jonathan Sinaiko, Chair; Anne Lord; Sacha Richter
Other attendees:
DPW staff David Guertin, Dana Faris, and Ron
Gamella
Call to Order
Mr. Sinaiko called the meeting to order at
3:20 p.m.
Approval of Minutes
Mr. Sinaiko moved, seconded by Mr. Richter, to approve the minutes of the meeting of June 23, 2004. The motion carried by a vote of 3-0. Ms. Lord moved, seconded by Mr. Richter, to approve the minutes of the meeting of December 8, 2004. The motion carried by a vote of 3-0. Mr. Sinaiko moved, seconded by Ms. Lord, to approve the minutes of the December 20, 2004 meeting. The motion carried by a vote of 3-0.
The Board had a number of questions regarding application for abatement of water charges and felt that it would be better to defer action on these abatements until the next meeting, when Mr. Tyszka, a member of DPW staff, could be present to respond to board members’ concerns.
Sewer Use Abatements
Mr. Gamella presented the following sewer use abatement application.
|
Acct# |
Property
Address |
Applicant |
Bill
Amount |
Reason
for Abatement |
Amt
Abated |
|
102 |
5 Webster Pl |
Phyllis Schlossberg |
$ 1,646.50 |
Property unoccupied during most of the year. Leak from frozen pipe. Leak has been fixed. |
$111.00 |
Mr. Sinaiko moved, seconded by Mr. Richter, to grant the abatement. The motion carried by a vote 3-0.
It was suggested that at some point the Board’s rules and regulations be amended to require that the water to be shut off in buildings that are going to be unoccupied for extended periods of time. There was consensus that this could be considered the next time amendments are proposed to the rules and regulations.
Sewer Use Deferrals
Mr. Gamella presented the following application for deferral of sewer use charges in accordance with MGL c. 83, §16G:
|
Acct# |
Property
Address |
Applicant |
Bill
Amount |
Amount
Deferred |
|
1903 |
91 Bradford St. |
Isabel D’Entremont |
$ 166.50 |
$ 166.50 |
Mr. Sinaiko moved, seconded by Ms. Lord, to grant the deferral. The motion passed 3-0.
Additional Fall 2004 Sewer Use
Commitment
Mr. Faris advised that staff had determined that, owing to an as-yet-unresolved malfunction in the i-nHANCE billing software program, a number of anomalies occurred in the Fall 2004 sewer use commitment. These anomalies fall into three categories: (1) accounts that received no bill, (2) accounts that received a bill but were billed for less usage than they should have been, and (3) accounts that were overbilled, for which the overcharge is to be abated. It has been determined that 35 accounts received no bill, 10 accounts were underbilled, and 15 accounts were overbilled. Mr. Gamella presented a second commitment for $54,464. Mr. Sinaiko moved, seconded by Ms. Lord, to approve the commitment. The motion carried by a vote of 3-0. Mr. Gamella then presented abatements totaling $6,271.50 for the 15 accounts that were overbilled. Mr. Sinaiko moved, seconded by Mr. Richter, to grant the abatements. The motion carried by a vote of 3-0. Mr. Faris advised that the net result of the additional commitment was a net increase of $48,192.50 in revenue to the Wastewater Enterprise Fund.
Laundromat Update
Mr. Guertin advised the Board he had been apprised by the building commissioner of a number of significant structural and infrastructural issues that have been raised with respect to the proposed laundromat at 291 Commercial St. Because of these issues, construction has not yet begun on the facility. Inasmuch as the sewer connection permit granted to Ptown Suds calls for the facility to be open by no later than April 1, 2005, the Board expressed concern that the laundromat would not meet the April 1 deadline and felt that it would be appropriate to know sooner, rather than later, how committed the permit holder is to continuing with the project in the face of such significant obstacles. Ms. Lord moved, seconded by Mr. Sinaiko, to instruct staff to meet with the principals of Ptown Suds and to report back at the next meeting with an update on the matter.
Imposition of Fines Upon Delinquent
Phase I Sewer Properties
Mr.
Faris advised that the letter mailed out in mid-December to those Phase I
properties who were delinquent in making arrangements to connect to the sewer
had largely produced favorable results.
Nevertheless, there are approximately 20 properties that did not respond
to the letter. Ms. Lord moved, seconded
by Mr. Richter, to send out a second letter imposing fines of $50/day on the
delinquent property owners. The motion
carried by a vote of 3-0. Mr. Faris
explained that the fines would cease as soon as the property owner contacted
the DPW to advise that arrangements had been made to connect to the sewer.
Other Business
Mr. Sinaiko reported that he had contacted Brian Dudley of DEP and had had a positive discussion with respect to increasing the leaching fields and the capacity of the treatment plant. Mr. Sinaiko moved, seconded by Ms. Lord, to request that staff meet with Metcalf & Eddy to explore the feasibility of expanding the treatment plant from two reactors to four reactors and the feasibility of building an equalization tank that could be converted to reactors. The motion carried by a vote of 3-0.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be Wednesday,
February 16, at 3:00 p.m.
Adjournment
There being no other business to come
before the board, Mr. Sinaiko moved, seconded by Mr. Richter to adjourn the
meeting. The motion carried 3-0, and
the meeting was adjourned at 4:28 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
_________________________
Sacha
Richter, Clerk