Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Members Present: Carla Perugini-Erickson, Christopher Wester, Dave Wartko
Members Absent: Derek Brown
Others Present: Diane Lauber (Tax Collector)
Chairman Erickson called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m.
Approval of Meeting Minutes: Motion by C. Wester to approve the meeting minutes and the public hearing minutes from January 28, 2008 with minor corrections, seconded by D. Wartko, unanimous. Motion by C. Wester to approve the meeting minutes from December 17, 2007, seconded by D. Wartko, unanimous, D. Wartko abstained.
Old Business:
Review Conditional Approval for Boulder Brook Sewer: No updates. Chairman Perugini-Erickson states she did follow up with Hank Berberat by sending an email regarding the outstanding issues. This item will remain on the WPCA agenda until all issues are resolved.
Toll Brothers Approval to Begin Sewage Flow: Scott Poryanda was not present to update us on the current status at the Toll Brothers Construction Site. Chairman Perugini-Erickson discusses some significant issues that will need to be addressed before we give toll the approval to flow. We are currently waiting to hear back that everything has been certified. If something does come up a special meeting will need to be held in order to resolve the issue.
Sewer Billing Procedures: Diane Lauber was present to update the board on where we stand as far as sewer billing in concerned. Chairman Perugini-Erickson states that she attended a meeting along with Diane, Lynn McHale, Frank Salerno, Maurice Fortier, and John Knott on February 13, 2008. D. Lauber continues addressing some of the issues that were brought up at the meeting regarding billing procedures. She lets the commission know that we have to decide whether or not setting up a computer at Town Hall in order to keep track and take readings of the flow meter is something we want to do. Although Town Hall doesn't have an extra phone line to hook up a modem there is a fax line in Diane's office that could be used. Currently readings can be done by going to the pump station and hooking up; getting a modem would allow this to be done directly from Town Hall.
D. Lauber then presents copies of the Utility Billing System cost proposal from Quality Data Services that was originally presented to the board on October 23, 2007. The proposal is reviewed and discussed. The initial cost will be $6,050.00, depending on project management, which will only cost a fee if there is something Quality Data needs to fine tune in order to make the software work with our current programs. There will then be an additional $800.00 for licensing. The total cost for printing services is $300.00 which is based on up to 300 bills. It is determined that the only annual fees are the licensing fee and the cost to have bills printed. Diane suggests inviting her technical support man Mark Wither to a meeting down the road to answer some of our questions since he works with numerous towns throughout the state and is very involved with sewer use billing. At this point we need to determine our administrative fees so that we can begin billing once units are sold and flow begins. It is thought that billing will begin as soon as September or October 2008. Discussion then followed regarding billing everyone the same amount based on a 4 bedroom unit versus billing based onusage. Chairman Perugini-Erickson srares that there are pros and cons to billing either way. Her main concern is getting the software in place to be able to start billing. D. Wartko questions if it would be feasible to set ourselves up to switch over from billing by bedrooms to water usage if we ever decide to change the way we are billing. D. Lauber states that as far as the software goes either way we decide to bill the capability will be there. Chairman Perugini-Erickson points out that if we do bill based on usage a contract will need to be made with the Connecticut Water Company, which will then inpact our administrative fees since there is a fee associated with that contract. Discussion followed on whether or not to rethink assessing bills on solely 4 bedrooms, perhaps it should be broken down to 2 or 3 bedroom figues as well. If this is done a change will have to be made to the current ordinance. C. Wester questions if the different between 2 versus 3 bedrooms is a small dollar amount would it be worth it to change the ordinacne. It is determined that for this year we will follow the current ordinance and see what feedback is given at the next public hearing. Chairman Perugini-Erickson continues to review details from the meeting. An inportant note is how the City of Waterbury bases their billing on three pillars: Operation/Maintenance, Capital Recovery, and Surcharge for Commercial Properties. Discussion revisists the issue of getting a computer set up in order to take readings, which will need to be considered in our administrative fees. D. Wartko point out another cost will be to have someone on call to clean it out if the line jams. The WPCA needs to have one person in charge of this and we currently have no full time person on our board to deal with this. We need a contact person, and a mechanism needs to be put into place to appoint someone to be in charge of taking care of these issues. Need to set up a formal structure in Town Hall to address issues as they come up. For next months meeting two items need to be added to the agenda: Discussion on Sewer Use Charge Analysis and a Discussion to set up a public hearing. Members should come to the meeting prepared to have these discussions.
New Business: None
Correspondence:
Approve WPCA Clerk for reimbursement: motion by C. Wester to approve reimbursement for WPCA clerk, seconded by D. Wartko, unanimous.
Open:
Adjournment: Motion by C. Wester to adjourn at 9:22 p.m., seconded by D. Wartko. Unanimous.
Respectfully Submitted,
Carla M. Perugini-Erickson, Chairman