UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING
JANUARY 4, 2022
Mayor Foster called the virtual meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. In attendance were Council members Tim O’Brien, Tom Herz, Jose Medrano and Meghan Efland, Bob Sipes (Utilities Manager), W. S. Ingersoll (Town Manager), Jennifer Mulligan (Town Clerk) and guests.
Mayor Foster welcomed the new Councilmembers Tim O’Brien and Jose Medrano, who were sworn in earlier in the day.
Mayor Foster asked if there were any additions or corrections to the Utilities Commission meeting minutes of December 6, 2021. Ms. Efland moved to approve the minutes of the Utilities Commission minutes of December 6, 2021, as submitted, was seconded by Ms. Herz and carried unanimously.
Mayor Foster stated that funds on hand was $2,482,686.33 with $1,201,923.68 set aside for capital projects.
Mayor Foster asked for a motion to pay the bills. Ms. Efland moved to pay bills as submitted, was seconded by Mr. Herz and carried unanimously.
Mr. Sipes stated that an RFP was put out for the changes at the Water Plant, including the design for a new building and total electrical upgrade. He said that the Keystone Engineering was the low bidder and was also the only bidding firm to visit the site. He recommended the bid be awarded to the low bidder and said that preliminary work would outline where the underground electrical and generator would be placed and soil testing for the building pad sites. Ms. Efland moved to award the bid to Keystone Engineering for the preliminary and final engineering (turnkey bid proposal $105,500) as submitted, was seconded by Mr. Medrano and carried unanimously.
Mr. Sipes stated that had a discussion with Mr. Forlini regarding the hospital oil spill and he agreed with him that a 3-year analysis (the timeframe requested for use for testing at the hospital site) may be going back too far in time. He thought that they would be better served going back just 18-months of past testing and using that timeframe for a snapshot. He said that going back 3-years will provide higher TPHDRO numbers because that was before the Ivey Sol cleansing injections took place. He said this would cause the baseline to be skewed as the historically higher trend would make it appear that what is occurring now is more effective than it really is. He said that he would like Apex to also perform an analysis to compare with the Hospital consultant’s numbers. He said that the goal was to analyze the shutdown process not where the numbers were before the shutdown occurred.
Mr. O’Brien asked if he and Mr. Medrano could meet with Mr. Sipes and Mr. Ingersoll to get up to speed on what was occurring with the Hospital situation. Mr. Sipes stated that he was available at any time. Mr. Ingersoll agreed.
There being no further business, Mr. Medrano moved to adjourn the meeting at 6:53 p.m., was seconded by Mr. O’Brien and carried unanimously.
Submitted by: Approved by: Jennifer Mulligan David Foster
Town Clerk Mayor