WMAC MEETING MINUTES – JANUARY 10, 2008

 

Attendees: David Crosby – Chair; David Hearne; Paul Lauenstein; Rory McGregor – Secretary; Len Sekuler; Jack Sulik; Bob Weeks

 

Others: Eric Hooper, Superintendent – DPW

 

  1. The minutes for the Nov 29th 2007 meeting were approved by a vote of 5-0-1.  Len Sekuler had not arrived in time for the vote.

 

  1. The water pumping report for 2007 shows that consumption was similar to 2006, despite the drought from July on in 2007.  This is good news and shows that the town’s efforts to conserve water are working.

 

  1. Revenue for the Water Department in 2007 was on the order of $1.7M.  Incremental revenue due to the increase in rates was approximately $150K.

 

  1. David Hearne requested a separate meeting with Eric Hooper after the conclusion of the WMAC meeting to review the salary coverage for the two personnel recently assigned to the DPW. This addition of two people to the DPW will free up two personnel already in the Water Department who can help accelerate the program to install the new radio water meters in residences. (This staff transfer will occur in FY08, but is not scheduled to continue into FY09.)

 

  1. Eric Hooper reported that the water reserve account currently has approximately $850K.  The expected revenue for the Water Dept in 2008 is $1.85M.  Eric Hooper proposed to spend  $870K on capital projects. He emphasized that the proposed FY ‘09 budget is not final yet. Paul Lauenstein pointed out that the proposed budget does not fund completion of long-standing priorities such as a new well, an emergency backup connection to MWRA, or an iron/manganese filtration system for Well #6. Another subject of debate was the water conservation budget.  Eric Hooper’s proposed Water Department budget included $25,000 for Conservation.  This amount funded a continued ultra low flow toilet rebate program at $150/toilet, a reduced rebate program for low water use washing machines (from $200 to $100/rebate) and continued water audits, but did not include partial funding of a “Conservation Coordinator” and eliminated conservation bill stuffers, believing them to be unnecessary since conservation mailers are included in the DEP conservation grant.  Discussion of each of the line items in the water conservation plan put forth by Paul Lauenstein resulted in consensus of the WMAC (over objections from Eric Hooper) to recommend increasing the water conservation budget from $25K to $52.5K.  A major element in the plan is the continuation of the rebate program for water-efficient clothes washers and toilets, rather than cutting the rebate for the washing machines from $200 to $100 as proposed by Eric Hooper. Continued funding for the water bill insert program in the amount of $2,500 was also restored. In addition, $5,000 for retaining the services of a water conservation coordinator beyond the grant period, and $5,000 for an irrigation system controller demonstration project were added to the draft budget. Paul Lauenstein also proposed recommending an additional $52,400 in the FY ’09 budget to implement water efficiency measures detailed in the Energy New England water audits of the five public schools in Sharon, which would reportedly conserve approximately 1.2 million gallons of water per year. Eric Hooper opposed this proposal and it was not included in the FY ’09 Water Department budget recommended by the WMAC. Eric Hooper argued that improving the efficiency of the schools’ plumbing fixtures should come out of the school budget, not the Water Department budget, especially considering that the schools do not pay for their water use.

 

  1. David Crosby reiterated our committee’s focus on emergency backup as the #1 priority.  If Stoughton continues to have impediments for various reasons, we should redirect our efforts toward other towns, in particular Norwood. Second is the need for alternative water sources.

 

  1. The radio water meter installation program is continuing.  There was discussion to push for acceleration of the program using an outside contractor in order to sooner achieve benefits such as eliminating under-reading meters, realizing the system’s leak detection capabilities, and greatly reducing labor needed to read the meters, using future funding that may come from provisions for water conservation initiatives in the Sharon Commons development agreement. The consensus was to let the installation program continue as currently outlined by Eric Hooper and not try to accelerate it further.  Acoustic leak detectors will be installed concurrently. Eric Hooper estimated that two-thirds to three-quarters of the radio meters would be installed by the end of FY ’09.

 

  1. The lawn irrigation subcommittee (Paul Lauenstein, Len Sekuler, and David Ferestien) met on Jan 7th.  They recommended that we budget $5K in funding to continue the demonstration of the latest irrigation system controller technology to reduce non-essential water consumption in summer when it matters the most.  David Hearne suggested that we work with the Sharon Youth Baseball and Softball Association (SYBSA) and install appropriate devices on Field E at the Deborah Sampson complex.  The funding for this demonstration initiative is part of the FY ’09 water conservation budget discussed above. In addition, the subcommittee proposed a regulation requiring that every automatic lawn irrigation systems in Sharon have some kind of rain or soil moisture detector to prevent unnecessary irrigation. Failure to comply would entail a fine of $50. This proposal was tabled for future discussion.

 

  1. Jack Sulik requested that we include Enterprise Business Management as a topic for the next WMAC meeting since the Commonwealth is requiring towns to move in this direction for financial management of town Water Departments.

 

  1. Eric Hooper wants to finalize the scope for the proposal to create an updated Water Master Plan at our next meeting.  David Crosby emailed the draft proposal to all WMAC members.

 

  1. Eric Hooper advised that the Water Evaluation And Planning (W.E.A.P.) computer model for evaluating overall water management in Sharon is still being tweaked.  David Hearne expressed concern that the explanatory meeting conducted by Tufts University last summer did not have strong participation from the stakeholders.  David Crosby will call for a public meeting once Eric is able to develop “what if” scenarios using the model.  Bob Weeks will continue to monitor activity from Tufts.  The opportunity for Sharon is to serve as a beta test site for using the W.E.A.P. modeling system to practice next generation “best methods” to manage water use. If successful, other communities may follow Sharon’s lead.

 

  1. Next meeting is Thursday, February 7th, at Town Hall.  Time is 7:30pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Rory McGregor