ORDER-2018-52 : Acceptance of a grant in the amount of Fifty Thousand, Six Hundred and Sixty Nine Dollars ($50,669) from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM). Said funds should be deposited into Fund Number 4028, CMZ Grant.

Transcript (~13 min @ 7:16)

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▶ 7:05 Scott M. Forbes: made by alderman mortimer second and by alderman Tramontozzi is there anybody else in discussion all those in favor any opposed motion passes be recommended our next full board meeting thank you

▶ 7:22 Scott M. Forbes: very much for your attendance here tonight finally we have order number two zero one eight dash five two it's an acceptance of a grant in the amount of fifty thousand six hundred and sixty nine dollars from the commonwealth of massachusetts office of coastal zone management said funds should be deposited into fund number four zero two eight cmz grant rules are still under suspension mr

▶ 7:48 Scott M. Forbes: shena good evening good evening everybody just summarize the uh order that's before the committee

▶ 7:52 Speaker 1: that'd be much appreciated sure thanks this is um this is actually a third grant that we've received from this program it's kind of ascending and the type of work that we've done we did some storm water quality delineation of the el pond watershed that's all the water that drains into el pond we did that with a 50 000 grant from the same agency in 2015 and 2016. we took some of those findings and applied for a design grant to do some green infrastructure green infrastructure is when you when you try to improve storm water quality with plantings and soft scape features. So we were able to get that in 2016, we got a $6,700 grant to do some of that design work. There was no match to that, or our match was in-kind services for that piece of it. We have a design ready to go. We have a contract ready to go to do some green infrastructure on Orient Ave. had in may we had a neighborhood meeting there and we proposed this to the neighborhood and they seem to be they seem to be accepting of of the proposals and i just want to pass out a

▶ 9:24 Speaker 1: what it could look like being circulated and we'll add it to the package tomorrow but that's That's an example of what green infrastructure is. In this 50,000, I'm trying to get the number right, $50,669,000 grant, which does include a match of in-kind services, which is salary, and a piece of the direct expenses, which is about $6,820, which we'll cover through our DPW budget, will allow us to implement this this spring on Orient Dab. The overall objective is to take storm water and try to redirect it into these type of gardens. Which could clean the water up before it goes downstream and eventually into El Ponte. This will actually help us when MS4, the next round of the National Pollutant Discharge Program comes out. We'll be ahead of the curve, we'll be looked upon favorably, and we can do most of this, as you can see, with the grant.

▶ 10:31 Speaker 1: Any questions?

▶ 10:33 Speaker 2: Olin Zwirko, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 10:37 Michael P. Zwirko: So the benefit here then, derivatively, will apply to El Pond for the stormwater. I mean, one of the things that we face with El Pond is it has deteriorated in its water quality over time, and is the hope that these gardens will actually you know the catch basins that were created from them will improve the water that's sent to el pond is that is that the hope true this isn't

▶ 10:59 Speaker 1: a flood control right program this is quality storm water quality try to try to get the the sediment try to get the um the solids out of the storm water before it make they make their way downstream and eventually into el pond because that's where that orient dab neighborhood makes

▶ 11:20 Michael P. Zwirko: its way to and is it even even possible i mean with with salt in the winters as well is that is that also the hope to take out some of that salinity well definitely the sand yeah the salt

▶ 11:30 Speaker 1: from the rock salt likely dissolves but sometimes you know sand with the contaminates in the air that attach to it become an issue so yes this would help with that as well right well thank

▶ 11:39 Michael P. Zwirko: you i just wanted to point out that not only is it help beautify the neighborhood but it's the downstream effect no pun intended for l pond is is helpful so yeah and a lot of communities are

▶ 11:48 Speaker 1: trying to implement this and you know we would pilot it and we can pilot it off tax dollar off the tax dollar and that's a positive great those are all the questions i had mr chairman

▶ 11:58 Speaker 2: thank you mr shenna thank you are there any voting members that have questions for mr shenna

▶ 12:09 Robert A. Boisselle: non-voting members uh almond boizel please you mentioned these rain gardens it's going to filter of water go to l pond so are you saying there's infrastructure under the grain gardens to pipe

▶ 12:19 Speaker 1: it down to the l pond yeah what it does is in some instances it'll remove the curb the actual curb and allow water to infiltrate down under the grass strip and then under the grass strip there's rocks and eventually a pipe that it reintroduces that water into the drain system in a quick summary that's how it would work another design that's being proposed takes the catch basin water from the catch basin puts it under the sidewalk into these stone areas cleans the water up and then lets it go back into the drain system downstream so those are the two options but yes under these rain gardens would be water and then the um i guess the tech the sorry the um

▶ 13:09 Speaker 1: technically that that green infrastructure would bring the water up and use it and allow and a lot

▶ 13:17 Robert A. Boisselle: of sediment to settle now you mentioned grass as the cover but looking at the drawings that you have here this doesn't look like regular grass that you would see on your lawn these look like more grass plants of grass plantings okay now of course we don't put a lot of salt on our roadway during the winter and at first impact in the spring rains and so forth going into these gardens will these plants survive or these special plants that's that is

▶ 13:45 Speaker 1: something that we're gonna have to vet out a little more which is why it's a pilot program if they've used it before and even if we even if we have to make possibly reduce the salt in that area we have to figure out how to deal with it

▶ 13:58 Robert A. Boisselle: well there are some plant there are some plants are salt tolerant they'll take high concentrations of salt solvents mixed in with the snow and so forth and you may want to look at that in the point that they'll probably survive and really help us clean that water up thank you

▶ 14:16 Peter D. Mortimer: very much thank you chairman motion to recommend mr chairman i got a motion to recommend made by

▶ 14:18 Scott M. Forbes: alderman mortimer seconded by alderman Zwirko still on discussion i have alderman inferno

▶ 14:28 Gail Infurna: followed by alderman medeiros please thank you very much mr chairman i wasn't sure whether you saw my hand go up because uh actually alderman Boisselle asked the exact questions i was going for

▶ 14:38 Monica C. Medeiros: so i'm all for that sounds good thank you all the maderas thank you i i think you've touched on some of them so this is uh would help us to comply with the upcoming ms4 permitting requirements this also help us deal with clean water act requirements as well well this this

▶ 14:53 Speaker 1: is um storm water and it would it would help with ms4 because one of the things that that will look at is stormwater quality and what are we doing as a community to improve on it so these type of the fact that we're doing these type of things before this law requires us to do it is always a good thing and we can pilot it to see what works what doesn't work how does it react to salt what type of plant things do we use and where else could we put them the original study in 2015 and 16 identified several sites upstream of el pond this was just one of them and we were able to design it off the taxpayer dollar and if we can build one we'll see how it works but yes they're all positives and it will help us with ms 401 when we have to put our permit forward and then will

▶ 15:39 Monica C. Medeiros: you have additional testing say after this is just for the construction does this include additional

▶ 15:51 Monica C. Medeiros: testing that might happen yeah this is just a construction grant and um now we said rain gardens and you passed around that picture which is very helpful um none of this is is open sitting water or creating ponds or anything like that it would all be the pictures are pretty

▶ 16:07 Speaker 1: reflective of what they would look like the water is introduced under on the ground and are you

▶ 16:18 Monica C. Medeiros: looking at expanding the are you looking at taking street roadway or taking sidewalks or

▶ 16:25 Speaker 1: All we may do, worst case, is take a section of curb out so that the water can make its way underneath with the granite curb in place. One of the purposes of granite curb is that the water comes off the road, hits the granite, makes its way into a catch basin. But if we pull that granite, we can introduce the water into these systems and allow it to clean up before it gets reintroduced into the drain system.

▶ 16:50 Monica C. Medeiros: Thank you. Thank you very much.

▶ 16:52 Scott M. Forbes: Thank you. Next, I have Alderman McAteer-Margolis.

▶ 16:55 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Most of my questions were answered, but just to back up a minute. This is water that would normally just go directly into the catch basins? Or is it that we might be having leaks and it's mixing up with our-

▶ 17:10 Speaker 1: No, this is rain. It's raining and water would go into a catch basin from that catch basin. Most of our catch basins have an area that would allow sand to settle. it's called a sump but you know this is a step even before that that would allow them to eat

▶ 17:28 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: so it's just going to help filter the water before it gets into the water and actually may

▶ 17:32 Speaker 1: you may even lose some of it to the absorption from the plantings right so well good luck it

▶ 17:38 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: sounds like um a great opportunity to um pilot this and we can update the board and

▶ 17:43 Speaker 1: as part of the budget upcoming budget process because by then we hopefully will be in

▶ 17:49 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: construction and you have all the neighbors on board on it as well they met in may um our city

▶ 17:57 Speaker 1: engineer went out and met with them and i my understanding is that all it's all a go okay

▶ 18:02 Scott M. Forbes: thank you mr chairman thank you and finally alderman lemmerman please thank you mr chairman

▶ 18:04 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: most of my questions were also asked and answered just one um one additional question so on the match in in-kind services totaling 9 850 in staff time that's required by the grant that's for

▶ 18:18 Speaker 1: setup of the gardens no well that that'll be review of the plans the actual bidding of the documents construction oversight and that's just engineers time so the ongoing maintenance of the

▶ 18:26 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: gardens would that be done by in-house but through tpw not through like a landscaping company in-house

▶ 18:32 Speaker 1: but these from my understanding is that once they're set up you know maybe a few plants may die need replacement but the intent is to that they maintain their self self-maintenance minimal

▶ 18:45 Speaker 1: so the current staff can do it anything that we do here especially where it's a

▶ 18:50 Jennifer L. Lemmerman: pilot we would maintain ourselves moving forward great great great well I think any of these sort of outside-the-box proactive plans are a great thing to pursue so thank you for for pursuing this thank you thank you we do have a

▶ 19:00 Scott M. Forbes: motion to recommend that was made by Alderman Mortimer and seconded by Alderman Tramontozzi all those in favor aye any opposed motion will be recommended our next full board meeting. Thank you very much for your attendance,

▶ 19:12 Speaker 1: Mr. Shenna. Motion to adjourn, Mr. Chairman.

▶ 19:14 Scott M. Forbes: We have a motion to adjourn made by Alderman Mortimer, seconded by Alderman Tramontozzi. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Adjournment. Finance Committee is now concluded. Stay tuned for legal and legislative.