ORDER-2022-106 : Authorizing a Bond under the Water Enterprise System through MWRA Local Water System Assistance Program bonds for FY2022 in the amount of Six Hundred Eighty Five Thousand Dollars ($685,000)

Transcript (~9 min @ 49:46)

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▶ 49:42 Jen Grigoraitis: tonight the first is order 2022-106 authorizing a bond under the water enterprise system through mwra local water system assistance program bonds for fy 2022 in the amount of 685 000 and this is offered by mayor broder and i know we have members of the administration before us tonight so i will motion by unanimous consent to suspend the rules so joining us is dpw director

▶ 50:14 Speaker 8: pro akis ellis to speak on this order the floor is yours thank you um this project is just our annual water main replacement project we try to replace about a mile of pipe every year this year it's actually a little bit less but it's part of our multi-year roadway and utility project so these are four streets where the where national grid has recently replaced the gas at our request knowing that we then wanted to replace the water and then these will be slated as paving streets in another year um the loan request is for 685 000 from the mwra it's a 10 years euro percent interest loan through their local assistance program the remainder you will hear from us again when we're doing our our budget we'll be requesting 250 000 in free cash from the water fund to fund the remainder of the job the mwra has a certain amount available to each community each year and so the 685 000 that they have for us right now is a little lower than what we've borrowed the last few years because we had a bit of a backlog so we had some more available to us but this year we only have the 685 left so that's why we're looking to supplement usually we do about a million dollar project each year so that's it and one other thing worth mentioning is that bond council and i believe state law requires a certain number of days between when the order is filed and when final action is taken for the bond and so i believe that it can be voted to be sent back to the full board tonight if you choose but it can't be voted until after may 16th by the full board so to meet those statutory time frames so it's up to you if you want to hold it in committee or send it back to the full board and hold it there but apparently a full vote can't be taken until after may 16th

▶ 52:17 Jen Grigoraitis: is that written down anywhere I don't see that in the just that would have

▶ 52:22 Speaker 8: been helpful information yes that was information from Catherine Armada that I got yesterday she had to consult with bond council and we were waiting for a response from them with the exact requirements so yeah we just found that out we had filed the order well before we find well before I found out about

▶ 52:42 Jen Grigoraitis: the required time frames are there any questions from councillors councillor

▶ 52:46 Ryan Williams: Williams thank you for being here can you describe a little bit the real-world impacts that residents of these streets might expect to experience at the conclusion of this work are we talking pressure how do you define quality are

▶ 53:02 Speaker 8: the mains undersized sure so the mains that we're replacing I believe all of them are unlined cast-iron I don't have that right in front of me but but I'm pretty sure that's the case and some are six inch we we aim for a minimum size of eight inch anything that's larger than that or required or if our consultant our design consultant says it should be larger we would go larger but typically we're replacing old unlined cast-iron mains with lined ductile iron means cement lined and then we replace all the water services from the main to the property line or to the shutoff valve we replace lead services if they're under the street and old cast-iron services which sometimes have a piece of lead at the main so it's also beneficial for our lead removal program the residents can expect there will be temporary water mains set up on the street they'll all have hoses to their houses from the temporary mains for the duration of the project it other than that it will be pretty much the same thing that they just experienced from the gas main project where they install the main first and then come back and do all the service connections so the street gets pretty torn up there are police details out there every day for traffic mitigation and in some instances where the streets are in very bad shape I think Appleton is one that's rated in very poor condition sometimes the street condition actually gets better after the project because we patch the patch that we put in is better than the potholes that were there before and then we let everything settle over one winter freeze thaw cycle and we come back and do final

▶ 54:48 Ryan Williams: paving the following year do you do you repave all the streets in the water main

▶ 54:55 Speaker 8: replacement program yes all the way out yeah curb to curb so we we dovetail the the reason why we call it the multi-year roadway and utility program is that we

▶ 55:05 Speaker 8: we try to target the streets that need to be paved and then also need water main replacements and then we work through all the utility work to arrive at final paving at the end as part of the paving program so the water project doesn't normally pay for the paving it's a separate project the following year

▶ 55:24 Ryan Williams: with chapter 90 money what's the average time frame it's approved on the 16th when does construction start how long does it go so ideally construction would

▶ 55:32 Speaker 8: start in the summer but lead times on materials like everything else have been insane we're hearing stories of of water main not being available for months after contracts are signed so we're hoping that the worst case is that we do work in the fall um our plan is 100 to finish this work this calendar year but the trouble is once you get into cold temperatures you can't have that temporary bypass pipe up above the ground um so if we reach if there's no pipe available and we're in late october we're not starting the project so but our hope is that that won't be the case and it's it's a it's a loan or a bond so you

▶ 56:14 Speaker 8: you just do it yeah we still the money would just sit until we use it so that wouldn't be a big deal but but we don't want to get behind because we have another project that we want to

▶ 56:22 Ryan Williams: do next year yeah for sure okay that's it for me thank you okay counselor Garipay yeah just

▶ 56:26 Mark Garipay: one quick question when you're doing these projects just with irving street um no one because i lived there most of my life i think the middle of irving street has a double lot and it flows down into harvard street i believe there's probably an easement there maybe i think um right right around 27 Irving Street. If there is one, if there's another pipe that goes from Irving to connecting to Harvard, do we check that while we're doing all this? Do we check if there is one there?

▶ 56:55 Speaker 8: That would be a drainage pipe you're referring to? Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, so when we do the paving project, before we pave, we always try to camera inspect all the pipes underneath any street that we're paving. So we would inspect the sewers, the drain, then any laterals coming from catch basins into the drain and so if there is a pipe that that goes across the road and into an easement we would hopefully it's already on our plans but we would

▶ 57:26 Jen Grigoraitis: see that when we tv'd it thank you any other counselors with questions what is the will of

▶ 57:31 Ryan Williams: this committee i'd like to make the motion to recommend for passage second so we have a motion

▶ 57:36 Jen Grigoraitis: to recommend for passage made by councillor williams seconded by councillor Garipay is

▶ 57:48 Speaker 6: there any discussion seeing none mr clerk please call the roll vice chair migliorelli yes councillor mcmaster yes councillor eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor Jamaleddine yes councillor stewart yes councillor carmjade yes councillor bremski yes councillor williams yes president senella yes and chair Grigoraitis yes it's unanimous 11 yes so this passes um if you could

▶ 58:10 Jen Grigoraitis: get something in writing to us just about the timing because it procedurally it will pull up to the full council on the 16th so we know how we can proceed thank you thank you i think you're