Provincetown Water and Sewer Board Meeting of April 26, 2001

The April 26, 2001 meeting of The Provincetown Water and Sewer Board was called to order by Chairman Jim Buckingham at 5:15 P.M. Present were: Board members Lucille Plante, Dave Perry, Jeffery Mansfield, Chairman of The Truro Board of Health, Gary Palmer, and Provincetown Water Superintendent Craig Wiegand.

The first topic on the agenda was that of approving the minutes of the meeting of March 15^th. A motion was made by Lucille Plante and seconded by Dave Perry. The motion was unanimously passed four to zero.

The second item on the agenda was the update from Water Superintendent Craig Wiegand. Mr. Wiegand told The Board that The Water Department received a phone call from The Department of Environmental Protection. He told The Board that The Provincetown Water Department was being recognized for two awards. One award was in recognition of being the “MOST IMPROVED DEPARTMENT” in the State, and the other was for being in “THE TOP 10% TEN PERCENT” of all of the water systems in the State. Mr. Wiegand then explained that The Department was still in the process of doing work on The Spaghetti Strip. He explained that The Department was putting a proposal or plan together in order to recognize the areas that The Department wished to look at for The Board to look over before anything would be done. He also explained that The Department was working with The USGS to finish the plans for putting in a ground water monitoring tool, using radar and gamma rays, to study the salt water interface and it’s affect on the Town’s well fields. Mr. Wiegand also told The Board that he met with a number of officials from The USGS on both the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth of April at Knolls Crossing in order to get the monitoring system up and running. He told The Board of his hope that perhaps in the next year that The Provincetown Water Department would be in competition for one of the three best systems in The State as far as protecting it’s resources. He then explained that as soon as The Department received the official paperwork from The Department of Environmental Protection, then The Department would move forward in it’s attempt to become one of the Top Three Resource Protection Systems in The State. Mr. Wiegand then explained that while meeting with The USGS they discussed the test pumping which would determine the amount of water that could safely taken from the Spaghetti Strip. It was determined that 350,000 gallons could be pumped daily with minimal affect on the environment. He went on to explain that more Environmental Impact Studies would be necessary and that they would be completed by 2003. Craig Wiegand told The Board that once all of the studies were completed that then The USGS would then be able to say that water could be pumped from Knolls Crossing because the site would have been determined to be a viable source for water. Lucille Plante then asked Mr. Wiegand if The Water Symposium was still on for Saturday May 5^th to which he answered in the affirmative. He told The Board that The Symposium would begin at 10:00 A.M. and end at 5:00 P.M. He told The Board that speakers were coming from The Park Service, The, USGS, The Cape Cod Commission, Clean Water, and that the Symposium would give the people the chance to come and be educated about water use and find out about how the various agencies, organizations, and The Town’s Water Department were working with each other to get the most efficient use of the limited water supply to solve what could turn into a potential Public Health Crisis. Mr. Wiegand then told The Members of The Board that they’d receive invitations for a May 1^st luncheon at which the Essay and poster Contest Winners would be chosen. The Board then moved on to the third subject on the agenda.

The third subject on the agenda was for a water service application for 187 Shore Road. After a brief discussion, a motion was made by Dave Perry to accept the applicant’s request for water service, which was seconded by Jeffery Mansfield. The motion passed with a four to zero unanimous vote.

Item four on the agenda was Mr. Tuwell of 110 Commercial Street and his request for The Water Department and The Board to split his bill in half because the house was a two-family dwelling and since there was only one meter that he should only have to pay for only half of the water usage while the tenant would pay for the remainder of the bill. After a lengthy discussion, The Board suggested that Mr. Tuwell consider replumbing the house so that a second meter could be put in for his tenant, or that he adjust the rent of his tenants to compensate for the other half of the bill. The Board told Mr. Tuwell that it agreed with Superintendent Wiegand in that The Water Department could not alter the way the billing was done because then other property owners would want to do the same thing. After a lengthy discussion, a motion was made by Dave Perry to deny splitting the bill, which was seconded by Jeffery Mansfield. The motion carried unanimously four to zero.

The next topic on the agenda was a request for an abatement for The Fine Arts Work Center. Dan Towler explained that The Fine Arts Work Center consisted of three Buildings and eleven living units, which were all on one meter. He went on to explain that he read the meters himself and thought that The Water Department was in error with The Work Center’s bill. Mr. Towler wanted to have the bill adjusted from the $10.00 ten dollar rate to the $6.00 six dollar rate because he felt that the increase of $4.00 four dollars would be detrimental to The Work Center. After explaining his calculations to The Board, Craig Wiegand was asked to explain how The Water Department went about reading all of the meters and how the water bills were calculated, Mr. Wiegand agreed that The Fine Arts Work Center should be rebated $100.00 one hundred dollars. It was determined that because of a clerical error, the request for the abatement would be granted. Dave Perry made a motion to rebate The Fine Arts Work Center for $100.00 one hundred dollars for a clerical error which was seconded by Jeffery Mansfield. The motion was approved four to zero.

The next subject on the agenda was that of a written motion put to The Board by Lucille Plante, which was to use case numbers instead of client’s names when voting on approvals or any other items that would come before it. After a brief discussion, Lucille Plante made a motion to have The Water Department use only Case Numbers and to add a line on the abatement request form for hardship. The motion was seconded by Jeffery Mansfield. The motion passed four to zero.

The next item on the agenda was a request by Ted Malone to split his water bill. After a short discussion, a motion was made by Dave Perry to deny the request, which was then seconded by Jeffery Mansfield. The motion was approved unanimously four to zero. Before moving on to the Public Hearing, the next meeting of The Water and Sewer Board was scheduled for May 17^th at 5:00 P.M. A motion to adjourn was made by Dave Perry and seconded by Lucille Plante. The meeting adjourned at 6:00 P.M.

Public Hearing of The Provincetown Water and Sewer Board for April 26, 2001

The April 26^th 2001 Public Hearing of The Provincetown Water and Sewer Board was called to order at 6:00 P.M. by Chairman Jim Buckingham. Present were Board Members Lucille Plante, Jeffery Mansfield, and Dave Perry. Provincetown Water Superintendent Craig Wiegand was also in attendance. The subject of the hearing was peak period pricing. Chairman Jim Buckingham asked Craig Wiegand to update The Board on the success of The Peak Period Pricing and the gallonage that was saved.

Mr. Wiegand told The Board that when the Peak Period Pricing Program was started last year, The Water Department found that eighty 80% percent of the water usage occurred in the summer season. He went on to say that because of that amount of usage The Water Department “did achieve it’s budget.” Mr. Wiegand also told The Board of his surprise because of the fact that there were very few complaints about the billing and that everybody that he talked to said that this needed to be done. He then told The Board that The Department would not be looking for any increases in the rates for this year. Lucille Plante then asked about the gap in the charging up to seventeen thousand gallons and then charging for eighteen thousand to forty thousand gallons. Mr. Wiegand explained that if someone used up to seventeen thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine gallons they would be charged at the lower rate. He also explained that the meter readings from both the previous and current year were compared to each other to determine what the charges should be. Mr. Wiegand then explained that because it would be so difficult to charge by the gallon, it would be easier to charge by the thousand gallons, and that this was and is still done nation wide. Lucille Plante then asked Mr. Wiegand about the thirty-two fifty minimum charge and who it was being charged to. Craig Wiegande explained that the minimum fee was charged to those who used the least water. Mr. Wiegand was then asked about how well the two meter reading for the water billing was doing for the Department. Craig Wiegand told The Board that the two-meter reading process was working well for The Water Department. He went on to explain that he hoped that maybe there would not be a need for a person to come and read all of the meters. He stated that he thought that maybe a Computerized meter reader would be placed either on a garbage truck or a Water Department truck in order to take the readings so that The Town and The Water Department would save money as well as take less time for the billing process. The Hearing was adjourned at 6:20 P.M.