Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Members Present: Carla Perugini-Erickson, Christopher Wester, Dave Wartko
Members Absent: Derek Brown
Chairman Erickson called the meeting to order at 7:06 p.m.
Approval of Meeting Minutes: Motion by C. Wester to approve the meeting minutes from March 25, 2008 and March 31, 2008 with minor corrections, seconded by D. Wartko. Unanimous.
Boulder Brook Sewer Discharge Permit Agreement Status: Chairman Perugini-Erickson informs the board that there are no new updates regarding this matter. As far as she knows Hank Berberat was supposed to get the items needed to certify to the town that he has received the permit. She states that she did send Hank an email after our last meeting detailing what happened and bringing to his attention the concerns from the residents; however she hasn't heard anything back.
Sewer Construction Specifications: Chairman Perugini-Erickson says that she emailed the specs she received from Scott Poryanda to all the memebers. Scott Poryanda prepared a quote for preparing sanitary sewer specifications for the Town of Prospect. The total proposed fee is $4,865.00, which includes sanitary sewer specifications in a Microsoft Word format and construction details in an Auto CAD format. Chairman Perugini-Erickson suggetss sending this quote to the Town Council per their request from the March 25, 2008 budget hearing. Discussion followed regarding the quote. It is determined that the quote received will not be proposed to the Town Council but rather filed with the WPCA records. It is thought that this is something the WPCA will address as a phase of the Waste Waters Facilities Update. The WPCA will talk with Scott Poryanda to see if some of the costs can be mitigated.
Toll Brothers Sewer Construction: Chairman Perugini-Erickson says there is no news regarding Toll other than she sent a letter to Lynn McHale per Att. Knott's request letting her know that Scott Poryanda of Connecticut Consulting Engineers is our engineer and therefore the official contact person for the Regency at Prospect and Pond Place. D. Wartko informs the board that construction on Tulip Tree Circle has been finished. Chairman Perugini-Erickson questions if the pump station has been installed. D. Wartko says no pump station has been installed because that is to be done in Phase 2. Discussion followed regarding the pitch in Phase 1. C. Wester feels the pitch is acceptable knowing there will be a pump hooked up to it. Chairman Perugini-Erickson questions if Chris feels all units hooked into the main line in Phase 1 will be sufficient. C. Wester says they will be fine.
Sewer Billing Procedures/sewer user fees: Chairman Perugini-Erickson will get in touch with Diane Lauber and ask her to attend the boards meeting in May to pull all the quotes and proposals together so that a public hearing can be held and a user fee can be set beofre the sewer bills come out in October 2008. Chairman Perugini-Erickson hopes to hold a workshop in either August or September with a Public Hearing to follow sometime in September. Discussion followed regarding Toll Brothers and if they are currently taking monies at closing and putting them into escrow for the anticipated sewer bills. D. Wartko says he should be able to find out more information on April 23, 2008 because he is closing on one of the units.
Waste Waters Facilities Plan Schedule: C. Wester informs the board that the subcommittee for the WWFP met on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. Two documents were developed. The first document is a Town of Prospect Request for Qualifications, which is a publication for the newspaper alerting the engineering community that the WPCA is seeking services. C. Wester says that the Mayor has submitted a few additional changes to the document, once these are made it will be ready for publication. The second document is a scope of services, which is to be given to the engineers who respond in order to give them an idea of what we are looking for. C. Wester feels that as a group the WPCA needs to decide when to publish the Request for Qualifications. Chairman Perugini-Erickson suggests publishing it now to see what response we get. Discussion followed on the current timeline for getting an engineer in place so that the board can spend the $15,000 before it is lost and turned over to the Towns general fund. C. Wester explains that once we select a consultant we negotiate a scope of services and a fee, which gets submitted to the DEP for review and approval. Once we get DEP approval we can hire the consultant. Chairman Perugini-Erickson stresses that she would hate for the board to lose the $15,000 allocated in the current budget for the Waste Water Facilities Plan. If this money is not spent by June 30, 2008 it will be turned over to the towns general fund. D. Wartko informs Chairman Perugini-Erickson that Mayor Chatfield mentioned taking the $15,000 away from the WPCA to put in the general fund. D. Wartko states he told the Mayor to contact Carla regarding that matter. Chairman Perugini-Erickson says she hasn't heard from Mayor Chatfield. It is determined that if the money is lost the WPCA will then go before the Town Council to approve an allocation from the general fund to the WPCA. Chairman Perugini-Erickson would like a motion made to publish the RFQ and asks the WPCA clerk to make sure it gets published. Motion by C. Wester to publish the Request for Qualifications with minor edits requested by Mayor Chatfield, seconded by D. Wartko. Unanimous.
Chairman Perugini-Erickson states than an item should be included on Mays meeting agenda titled "Review of Submittals". C. Wester says he will be contacting the DEP to discuss our limited timeframe to get everything in order so that we can spend the $15,000. He feels the DEP will support our cause and perhaps we can push this to be done before June 30; however time will be very tight. He says Carla may get a quicker response if she contacts Bill Hogan directly since she is the Chairman.
Correspondence: None
Approve WPCA Clerk for reimbursement: Motion by C. Wester to approve reimbursement for WPCA clerk, seconded by D. Wartko. Unanimous.
Open: D. Wartko states that when we are ready to move forward with the Pond Place sewer meter upgrades it was suggested we get a letter from Maurice Fortier of the Waterbury WPC saying this is what they want done and then proceed as we see fit. C. Wester says he will request a letter from Maurice Fortier.
D. Wartko states he spoke to Mayor Chatfield on Friday April 18, 2008 and that Mayor Chatfield is looking to take the $15,000 currently in the WPCA budget budget for the Waste Waters Facilities Plan back to be added into the general fund. D. Wartko says he told Mayor Chatfield to contact Carla regarding that matter.
D. Wartko states he has been doing some research regarding the laptop quote from Lightning PC presented to the board last month from Diane Lauber. It has been suggested to him that we need to get a make and model number for the computer, which is not detailed on the quote, in order to have it compared to the software.
D. Wartko then informs the board that he did attend the last Planning and Zoning meeting where he requested they take the WPCA out of the whole group of regulations they want to change and move us forward. Planning and Zoning has granted him this request and will hold a seperate public hearing at their next meeting on May 7, 2008 from 7:10 to 7:15. He feels as though Planning and Zoning saw the WPCA in a new light when they realized we were a public utility board rather then a land use board. D. Wartko says he will continue to attend meetings even after this matter is completed.
Adjournment:Motion by C. Wester to adjourn the meeting at 8:33 p.m., seconded by D. Wartko. Unanimous.
Respectfully Submitted,
Carla M. Perugini-Erickson, Chairman